Department of English
Maharaja Krishnkumarsinhji Bhavnagar
University
Name:- Parmar Milankumar L.
Roll No. :- 14
Enrollment no.:- pg14101026
Course name:- New Literature
Topic of an assignment:- Pure Blood in Harry
Potter: an anti-thesis to idea of
Pure Blood
Submitted to :- Dr. Dilip
Barad,
Head of the department
Department of English (MKBU)
Abstract :-
Idea or the concept of the Pure-Blood
is not new phenomenon. At a first glance, the Harry potter universe seems to
have little racial tension. J.K Rowling has created a multicultural state
or a racial utopia. Blood status suggests that Muggles and wizards
can be treated as racial groups. She
has given anti-thesis of the idea of Pure-blood by presenting Harry as
protagonist belonging to the Half Blood. She has broken the idea of pure blood
but still there remains white race superiority.
The idea of pure blood or master race is age old, but it became
prominent in the days of Hitler and Nazis. An idea that world should only be
ruled by Master race or one who belongs to pure blood, and rest should serve
them. They thought they have right to rule over others. Nazis declared that the
Nordics were the true Aryans because they were much less racially mixed with
people who were non-native to the European continent. Based on this idea that
Nordic people were superior to all other races, the Nazis believed they were
chosen people to expand the territory. They wanted to make the world of the
pureblood only. And that was resulted in today’s problem called racism. The
book series Harry Potter is written by American female writer J.K. Rowling
between 1996 and 2007. It is largely regarded as the children’s literature and it
is very popular throughout the world. As she had been writing in America it’s
inevitable for her that America and its society would not get reflected. Thus
it’s obvious that there will be some issues regarding race. Though at some
level race remains hidden but, not completely.
Let’s start with some positive points regarding race in Harry potter
The racial utopia
At a first glance, the Harry potter
universe seems to have nothing like racism. There are number of non-white
characters including fellow Gryffindors, Lee Jordon, Dean Thomas, Angelina
Johnson, and Parvati and Padma Patil, and Cho Chang. None of the characters’
race is directly or indirectly identified. She has created universe which is
not based on racial identity, rather it seems like melting pot, a multicultural
state. These multiculturalism in her universe exist, she used it to show how
race or pure blood has no real meaning in her magical universe. Perhaps she
wants to show the reader a racial utopia.
The racial utopia of the Harry
Potter series falls squarely within the neo-conservative racial ideology
(Omi & Winant). According to this ideology, race is assumed to be
socially constructed and racial justice is pursued via a color-blind
society in which everyone pursues the American/ British dream by “lifting
themselves up by the bootstraps” (i.e., a“just world” that rewards good
choices and a strong work ethic). “It is our choices, Harry, that show what
we truly are, far more than our [biological or God-given] abilities,’”
says Dumbledore (Harry Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets- 333), who later reminds Fudge,
the Minister of Magic, that what people grow to be is much more important than
what they were when they were born (Goblet of Fire 708). Accordingly, for
neo-conservatives, the belief that race (a biological or God-given
characteristic) does not matter is typically grounded in one or both of two
seemingly contradictory but actually compatible beliefs—that “we” are all the
same (i.e., “humans” or “Americans” or “Muggles”) or that each one of us is a
unique person.( Lyubansky)
Blood status: Race
Harry potter the most popular
American book series by J.K. Rowling has been criticized by many critics on the
variety of grounds. Most of the critics argued it as racial text. Rowling
intended to comment on race by focusing on blood status and elf rights. Her
treatment of these topics provides ample opportunity to examine both
contemporary and historical race relations. Racism in America has been very
serious issue. Racism is dangerous for the progress, development and peace of
the America.
“Racism refers to the belief that race accounts
for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is
superior to others. The emphasis on lineage and blood status suggests that
Muggles and wizards can be treated as racial groups.”( Lyubansky)
Rowling has smartly presented the tendency of some wizards to
place a premium on pure blood (that is, on pure breeding) and treating
half-bloods and Muggles as second-class citizens is an obvious parallel
to our own society’s history of oppression of Blacks and obsession about
interracial sex and marriage. An American scholar MIKHAIL LYUBANSKY fairly
observed that a number of characters, including Draco and Lucius Malfoy,
explicitly espouse the superiority of pure blood, but this racist attitude may
be best personified by the portrait of Sirius’s mother:
“Filth! Scum! By-products of
dirt and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begone from this place! How
dare you befoul the house of my fathers.
. . . Yoooou!” she howled, her eyes
popping at the sight of the man
[Sirius]. “Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my fl esh!”
(Order of the Phoenix 78)
This quote shows that
half-bloods (i.e., those of both Muggle and wizard parentage) are subhuman and
undesirable, and that their very presence threatens the purity and cleanliness
of both their surroundings and their selves and thus they want to keep their
blood pure.
Anti-thesis to Pure Blood Concept
The idea and concept of the
superiority of the Master race or belonging to pure blood do not play
active role in Harry Potter. Infect Rowling has given anti-thesis of the
idea of Pure blood by presenting harry as protagonist belonging to the Half
Blood. In a way she has broken down the concept of superiority of the pure
blood.
Ideas related to Pure-blood are, they are
superior then others, they have power to rule over other, they are most
powerful, they are the savior, to make a universe pure. But these concepts are
broken down by Rowling in her work where the protagonist is Muggle blood or
half-blood child became the savior of the Hogwart universe. Whereas the idea of
pure blood presented by the character of the Voldemort(He himself is Half-blood
) who wanted to create a world where only pure blood will exist. “Although not as obvious as the racialization of magical creatures, the
bloodline status of wizards themselves can be interpreted as offering racial
commentary. Voldemort's obsession with blood purification closely parallels
similar racial logics employed in 20th century Europe and America, logics that
championed the supposed superiority of White peoples (Whited 7). In addition,
his war to cleanse the wizarding world of mixed-bloods holds unnerving
parallels to many historical ethnic-cleansing campaigns, including those
conducted by Nazi Germany. In much the same fashion as the Nazis, Voldemort
wishes to "impose a version of the Nuremberg Laws on England”. (Nejad) The concept of pure
blood in the novel is constructed to criticize those who support it, to
convince that this idea itself growing out from the ignorance and arrogance.
Thus the novel broke down the thesis of the
pure blood as superior and savior of the world. Actually her world seems more
like Darwinian socialism, where the powerful rules the rest other. Here only
those can live who can sustain. In this world Harry is growing more and more
powerful day by day, and Voldemort becoming less powerful as time passes. The
world once ruled by Voldemort, now it will be ruled by Harry Potter. It’s like
a Jungle Raj where the powerful and strong animal eats up the less stronger and
powerful. Like when Harry becomes more powerful than Voldemort, he killed Voldemort.
Antithesis to the
antithesis of pure blood can
be stated as the stories are almost exclusively told through the eyes of
White characters who don’t notice race, we really don’t (can’t!) know anything
about the reality of the non-White characters.
All major characters in the Harry
Potter whether its good or evil, every one of these characters is white and
English, and the wizarding world and its conflicts are entirely narrated
through the eyes of White characters. All other races are mere spectators,
their future are in the hands of this selected group of white wizards, or if
any other race present at all play nearly no role in major happenings of the
novel. As rightly quoted by Nejad “All
other races are merely spectators, their futures in the hands of this select
group of White wizards. Minorities, if present at all, play nearly no role in
the major happenings of the novels. Cho Chang, an East Asian classmate of
Harry's, serves as a love interest to multiple characters in the series but is
not developed any further. Angelina Johnson and Dean Thomas, both members of
Harry's Gryffindor house, are of African descent but play little role in the
central plot of the works. Despite their presence, these "non-White
characters barely seem to exist" and serve only minor, replaceable roles.
Thus it can be said that, she has
created a racial utopia; a multicultural state which has little racism. Second
thing she has fairly broken the idea of pure blood by not only putting muggle
born protagonist but also make him victorious, but still there it remains
there, why Harry is white child and not black one? it is because at some level
in her mind still there is a wish to see white as a savior, and thus our
protagonist is not other than white.
Works Cited
Nejad, K. (n.d.). Literal and Metaphorical: Racial
Themes in Harry Potter.
Lyubansky, Mikhail. "A Black Boy
Even Taller than Ron: Racial dynamics in Harry Potter." The Psychology
of Harry Potter: An Unauthorized Examination of the Boy Who Lived. Ed.Neil
Mulholland. Dallas: BenBella Books, 2006. 233-248. Print
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Order
of the Phoenix. New York, NY: Scholastic Press, 2003. Print.
http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Blood_Status
