Harry Potter and the metaphor of puberty
I am a huge dork. I'm also at the midway point of my first law school semester and am getting somewhat tired of school. I'm still interested in the course material - I'm just tired of waking up early and going to class every morning. I'm also tired of feeling like all of my time is spent studying.
As a result, I cling to the simple pleasures in life to keep me motivated and excited about school. And one of these simple pleasures is the anticipation of the arrival of the new Harry Potter - only 3 days from now. This is something that I really have been waiting for for ages. I read and reread the first five books over and over again. It's really about time a new one came out. And after this one - only one more and the whole series will be resolved. I'm counting on this one to have a lot of adult behavior - the kids are supposed to be 16 in this one, so I assume that they're in the devilish grasp of puberty.
In fact (hmm...I just thought of this), maybe the whole series is a giant metaphor for puberty - Lord Voldemort is in fact a representation of puberty - he's weak and only slightly present in the first book when they're only 11 years old - they also don't really understand his power - but as the books progress, he becomes stronger and stronger, his grasp increases so that he even reaches into the walls of the mighty Hogwarts (despite the best efforts of the teachers to keep puberty from changing the behavior of the students and interrupting their studies, they fail, over and over again, increasingly frequently and with greater and greater magnitude). Moreover, the people at the Ministry of Magic represent the conservative religious folk who preach abstinence - refusing to believe in the unavoidable nature of puberty (their refusal to believe that Voldemort has returned represents that closemindedness). Meanwhile, everything will get resolved in the last book, when they will finally be past puberty and thus defeat Lord Voldemort.
Or maybe I'm reading way too much into Harry Potter. I'll stop now, and just sit back and wait the few days until the new book materializes in my hands.
As a result, I cling to the simple pleasures in life to keep me motivated and excited about school. And one of these simple pleasures is the anticipation of the arrival of the new Harry Potter - only 3 days from now. This is something that I really have been waiting for for ages. I read and reread the first five books over and over again. It's really about time a new one came out. And after this one - only one more and the whole series will be resolved. I'm counting on this one to have a lot of adult behavior - the kids are supposed to be 16 in this one, so I assume that they're in the devilish grasp of puberty.
In fact (hmm...I just thought of this), maybe the whole series is a giant metaphor for puberty - Lord Voldemort is in fact a representation of puberty - he's weak and only slightly present in the first book when they're only 11 years old - they also don't really understand his power - but as the books progress, he becomes stronger and stronger, his grasp increases so that he even reaches into the walls of the mighty Hogwarts (despite the best efforts of the teachers to keep puberty from changing the behavior of the students and interrupting their studies, they fail, over and over again, increasingly frequently and with greater and greater magnitude). Moreover, the people at the Ministry of Magic represent the conservative religious folk who preach abstinence - refusing to believe in the unavoidable nature of puberty (their refusal to believe that Voldemort has returned represents that closemindedness). Meanwhile, everything will get resolved in the last book, when they will finally be past puberty and thus defeat Lord Voldemort.
Or maybe I'm reading way too much into Harry Potter. I'll stop now, and just sit back and wait the few days until the new book materializes in my hands.
posted by Nixie at 2:49 PM
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