英美文学课程论文

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题 目：The Hero Growing Up in The Magic world

学 院 外国语学院

专业班级 英语（双）专业2011级1班

学生姓名

学 号

授课教授___ ___________ _

二O一三年七月 二日

The Hero Growing Up in The Magic world

Author: Gu Jiao

Abstract: This thesis analyzed the good qualities of Harry Potter who is the protagonist in the series novel Harry Potter, written by J.K.Rolling . Numerous of people are growing up with Harry Potter and his friends. Harry developed his good quality of goodness, the talent of leadership and the indomitable Will during the course of fighting with Dark Lord Voldemort . Therefore Harry Potter grew up from an orphan to a magical hero with the characteristics. what shape his characteristics

the author think is the theme of the novels :love; struggle of death and the relationships with Dumbledore.The thesis will show you a unique Harry Potter on my view for you .

Key Word: growing up; love ; leadership; indomitable will ; relationships with Dumbledore

在魔法世界里英雄的成长

摘要：本篇论文主要分析当代著名小说家J.K.Rolling 的长篇系列魔幻儿童小说《哈利波特》中的主人公哈利身上的优秀品质：有爱心，有领导才能以及他不屈不挠的意志。这些品质也使哈利波特从一个懵懂的孤儿成长为魔法世界的英雄，他身上所表现出来的勇敢善良等特点正是小说主题的体现。

关键词：成长；性格；主题；爱。

1. Introduction

The Harry Potter series is the story of the eponymous hero, orphaned at birth and left in the care of the cruel Dursley family of “Muggles” (non-magical people). On his eleventh birthday, Harry receives a letter from Hogwarts, a school for young wizards and witches, and promptly enters a world of wonder and mystery. At Hogwarts, he meets his two closest friends – Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger – and begins studying magic. It soon becomes clear that the death of Harry’s parents was no accident: the evil Dark Lord Voldemort murdered

them. Voldemort also attempted to kill Harry, but his attack rebounded on himself, severely crippling Voldemort’s power. The first few books of the series develop the characters and set the stage for Book 4, in which Voldemort returns to power and regains a corporeal body. Aided by his fellow evil wizards (“Death Eaters”), Voldemort begins a campaign to kill Harry Potter, the only one who may stand a chance of defeating him. The last three volumes deal with Harry’s increasingly desperate battle against Voldemort, and his fight to remain steadfast even as the world spins into chaos around him.

It’s a fairly simple story arc, but the intricate web of plots and subplots grips the reader’s attention. There’s a reason people lined up for hours to snag copies of each subsequent book – the stories are well-written and increasingly dramatic.

2.The good qualities of Harry

J. K. Rowling once commends Harry like as follows:

\"I see Harry as someone who is struggling to do the right thing, who is not without faults, who acts impetuously as you would expect someone of his age to act, but who is ultimately a very loyal person, and a very very courageous person. So, in as much as he has qualities that I admire most I would say he is a good role model. That doesn't mean that he is saintly, but then frankly, who is? But I think you do see enough of Harry’s inner life, the workings of his mind in the books to know that he is ultimately human, struggling to do the right thing, which I think is admirable.\"

Surely Harry Potter is an extremely brave, loyal, and selfless person who possesses tremendous strength of character. He willingly went to what he truly believed to be his death because he believed that this was the only way to defeat the Dark Lord. Harry was seen and had proven himself to be an extraordinarily talented and powerful wizard, with many of his strengths being praised by witches and wizards much older and wiser than he was.

2.1 Goodness: Harry's greatest power of all was his ability to love. In spite of being raised by a family that treated him with anything but affection, Harry remarkably turned out capable of very strong love. His love for his friends caused him to feel no concern for his own well being or happiness when they were at risk, and put himself in danger many times to protect them. Harry's ability to love also protected and helped him on several occasions, such as when he defeated Quirrell by causing his skin to burn, produced a Patronus that could drive numerous Dementors away, repelled Voldemort himself when he possessed him, and allowed him to close the connection between him and Voldemort when he was unable to perform Occlumency. His love was strongest when directed at Ginny Weasley, who was the driving force that kept him going until Voldemort was defeated

2.2 The talent Leadership: While Harry never deliberately set out to be a leader to others, he has often taken charge when the situation required it, beginning with his impulsive decision to find and warn Hermione about the presence of a troll in the school during the 1991 Halloween feast and progressing to the point where over thirty students — some of them in their sixth and seventh years — respected him as a teacher in Dumbledore's Army despite his being

younger than they were. Dumbledore later noted that Harry was a superior leader to him as Dumbledore had deliberately sought power in his youth — and subsequently avoided anything more demanding than his role as Hogwarts headmaster — while Harry had leadership thrust upon him and accepted the burden, acknowledging his responsibilities towards those who 'followed' him regardless of how uncomfortable he might feel about the prospect and coordinating his efforts against his enemies well when left with no other option but to take control.

We're his army. Dumbledore's Army. We were all in it together, we’ve been keeping it going while you three have been off on your own... Everyone in this room’s been fighting and they’ve been driven in here because the Carrows were hunting them down. Everyone in here’s proven they’re loyal to Dumbledore — loyal to you.\" — Harry and Neville Longbottom upon the trio's return to Hogwarts 2.3 Indomitable Will: Harry appears to possess an unbreakable spirit and, though not above depression, he has never truly given up on any mission. He's been shown to rise from defeat and loss, such as the deaths of many loved ones, even stronger than before. His indomitable will is exemplified by his ability to resist the Imperius Curse, and also by the fact that he's never begged for mercy when in life and death situations, but fights back in defiance, as well as perform non-verbal spell flawlessly. His inability to perform Occlumency, despite possessing the required willpower, is due to his inability to keep his emotions under control at

times, and only once, during his lessons with Snape, did he managed to slightly escape the Legilimency, but faltered again in the subsequent attempt.

3. The footsteps in the growing up of Harry

Throughout the course of the series, there are three fundamental concepts that drive the story: the power of love, man’s struggle against death, and the relationship between Harry and his mentor Dumbledore. It is the themes that contribute to Harry's growing up from an orphan to a hero.

3.1. The Power of Love

One of the most recurring themes in the “Harry Potter” series is the sacrificial love of Harry’s mother Lily, who died to protect her infant son. Voldemort’s deadliest weapon, the “Killing Curse,” rebounded when he used it against Harry, shattering the Dark Lord’s power. In the final pages of Book 1, Voldemort cannot physically touch Harry due to the power of his mother’s love in him.

Dumbledore: \"Harry, do you know why Professor Quirrell couldn't bear to have you touch him? It was because of your mother. She sacrificed herself for you. And that kind of act leaves a mark... This kind of mark cannot be seen. It lives in your very skin.\" Harry: \"What is it?\"

Dumbledore: \"Love, Harry. Love.\" — Albus Dumbledore to Harry In Later in the series (after the Dark Lord’s return to power), Voldemort attempts to “possess” Harry (yes, in the biblical sense) but cannot due to the contrast between Harry’s soul and his own. Harry’s life is founded on his love for others, while Voldemort’s life is centered around hatred. Headmaster Dumbledore observes at one point: “That which Voldemort does not value, he takes no trouble to understand. Of house-elves and children’s tales, of love, loyalty, and innocence, Voldemort knows and understands nothing. Nothing. That they all have a power beyond his own, a power beyond the reach of any magic, is a truth he has never grasped.”

On a less complex level, love also repeatedly motivates acts of self-sacrifice on the parts of the main characters. The characters are willing to (and do) suffer unbelievable loss for one another, even giving up their lives in order to protect the ones they love. The love between family members is praised as beautiful and noble, never something to be mocked and sneered at.

3.2. Man’s Struggle Against Death

The “Harry Potter” series is, in many ways, a parable about the danger of

desiring immortality. Voldemort is obsessed with the concept of living forever at any cost. This dark desire leads him down the path of villainy, transforming him from a disturbed orphan boy into the living incarnation of evil. He attains a sort of pseudo-immortality by constructing the aforementioned Horcruxes – but in order to do so, he must take a human life for every Horcrux he creates. Dumbledore sharply critiques this empty attitude towards life: “As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all – the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them.” In contrast, Harry and his friends are unafraid of their own mortality. When Harry confronts Voldemort and suffers death at the Dark Lord’s hands, he awakens to find himself in a limbo-like state between life and death. There, he sees the mutilated soul of Lord Voldemort – an affirmation that souls are ultimately held accountable for their actions, and that the material world is but the precursor to something more. Death is seen not as an end, but rather as a beginning. As Dumbledore puts it: “It is the unknown, we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.” But for Harry, death isn’t the end. To complete the Christ metaphor, Harry is resurrected from the dead, defeats Voldemort once and for all, and saves the magical world. His death leads to the salvation of countless others.

3.3. Harry’s Relationship with Dumbledore

I confess that the death of Professor Albus Dumbledore is the saddest thing for me,and to Harry. Because Dumbledore fulfills the role of a father to Harry.and he helps Harry wage his battle against Voldemort, providing counseling and insight throughout the series.

Dumbledore's death was greatly devastating to Harry, though he persevered in the impossibly difficult task Dumbledore had left him of finding and destroying each of Voldemort's Horcruxes. Harry had difficulty coping with the fact that there was much Dumbledore had not told him about his history with the Deathly Hallows and Gellert Grindelwald; however, when he learned during the Battle of Hogwarts that Dumbledore had supposedly planned all along for Harry to sacrifice himself, Harry innately showed incredible faith in his mentor by serenely accepting the task. When Harry allowed himself to be struck by Voldemort's Killing Curse, his soul entered a state of Limbo, resembling King's Cross Station, where Dumbledore was waiting to speak with him.

\"Do not pity the dead, Harry, pity the living. Above all, pity those who live without love.\"

—Dumbledore's parting words to Harry during their encounter in Limbo.[src]

The fact that Dumbledore himself was there to meet Harry in a place between life and death attested to the bond of fellowship between them. They discussed all that had happened to Harry since Dumbledore's death, as well as things that had remained unsaid prior to it. At one point, Dumbledore seemed to beg for Harry's

reassurance, uncharacteristically doubting some of the decisions he had made in the course of his life, which Harry easily gave him. Though Harry had felt some resentment for how little he felt Dumbledore had actually revealed of himself in their time together, Harry probably learned secrets and saw a side of Dumbledore that no one else knew during the events at \"King's Cross

4. Conclusion

These are the three themes that struck me most upon a rereading of the series. Careful readers may note that I’ve frequently referred to the seventh volume of the series in exploring these issues; however, these ideas are developed throughout the series as a whole. Book 7 successfully unites all these elements into a dramatic, triumphant finale. This isn’t to say that there aren’t other themes in the books. There are countless other elements worthy of analysis – race and class discrimination, civil disobedience, and the corrupting effect of power, just to name a few – but these three are perhaps the standouts from my personally standpoint.

Bibliography

1. Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone [M]. New York：Scholastic Press，1997．

2. Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of secrets [M]. New York：Scholastic Press,1999．

3. Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban [M]. New York：Scholastic Press, 1999．

4. Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire [M]. New York：Scholastic Press, 2000．

5. Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix [M]. New York: Scholastic, 2004.

6. Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince [M]. New York: Scholastic, 2005.

7. Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows [M]. New York: Scholastic, 2007。

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