Pure Blood in Harry Potter: An antithesis to idea of Pure Blood

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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.

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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