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I’ve been listening to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in Italian over the past few weeks. This was my favorite book as a kid, probably because the series ended here for me for a while on my nightly relistens(1), as my Dad took a few years to get the audiobooks of Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows out of the library to illegally burn onto iTunes. While many parts of the book don’t hold up very well: this book is the only one in the series where I skip chapters, on the current reread I was struck by the thematic tightness of Order. The political aspects are obviously more relevant than ever, especially with the current Trump presidency, although was funny to see the millennial left circa 2010-2020 act exactly like Umbridge when it came to cancel culture. There is also a very powerful sense of dread throughout the whole book: Voldemort is out there but no one has any idea what he’s doing, people are turning up in unexpected places with unexpected wounds at the Ministry, and the reformation of the Order of the Phoenix is a constant reminder of how much the last war cost on a human level. But the theme that has stood out most strongly on this read to me is social isolation, and how this can be overcome through deliberate community building.
When Order starts, Harry has been back at his aunt and uncle’s house in Little Whinging for nearly a month with practically no news from the Wizarding World. Unlike in his second year, he is still receiving letters from his friends, but they contain almost no content related to what is actually going on with Voldemort. David Yates captures this in one of the opening shots of the film of Order, depicting Harry alone a swing-set that is far too childish for him (more on this later), surround by a bleak chain link fence and dying vegetation.
Things get no better when Harry does manage to return to the Wizarding World. After an attack by dementors, he is nearly expelled from Hogwarts, a place that he views as his real home. While awaiting trial at the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, a paramilitary group that opposes Voldemort and his own paramilitary group, Harry is also systematically excluded from the operations of the group by its adult members. When it comes time to return to school, things get even worse. Harry’s traditional mentor figures are either absent (Hagrid), or distant (McGonnagal, Dumbledore, Sirius). He is excluded from the traditional forms of social advancement when Ron and Hermione are made prefects and not him, kicked off his sports team, and his favorite subject (Defense Against the Dark Arts) is basically not taught at all. He is even isolated from his own peer group: the Wizard newspaper has been slandering Harry all summer, so upon his return to school, a lot of the individuals he thinks of as friends have turned against him.
In the movie this social isolation is depicted brilliantly in a scene where Harry is arguing with classmate and friend Seamus Finnegan.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=zc5SnGw21HQ
As you can see from even the thumbnail, the scene is constructed such that Harry is alone facing Seamus and a bunch of other students who are positioned as to be taking his side physically, if not literally.
In the book there’s no such scene, but another similar moment that reinforces Harry’s isolation, even from his closest friends. When he’s getting on the train, Hermione and Ron have to go perform their prefect duties, leaving Harry alone.
Of course this is not the first time that Harry has been at odds with his classmates and the rest of the school, but importantly it is the first time that this isolation has been so complete, and that his adult mentor figures are so thoroughly unreliable. Even Harry’s rosy view of his dad is shattered in this book when he sees him tormenting Snape in one of Snape’s memories.
This isolation is an important part of Harry’s maturation process. Harry is undergoing parts of two archetypal transitions during Order. The first is the transition between the child and orphan archetypes. This is a typical transition during early adolescence, in which the child gains intellectual independence from his/her parents (or parent figures) and becomes skeptical of the broader superstructure of society. This is very much a deconstructive stage and is not long-term stable, requiring a fairly rapid transition to the adult stage.
In Order, Harry is reaching the end of his child to orphan transition. This transition begun much earlier, perhaps in books 2 or 3, where things like the wizard government, justice system, and social system are brought into question. In Order, even trusted adults, like Dumbledore and Sirius are questioned, and institutions that Harry trusted in the past, such as Hogwarts have the rug pulled out from under them. The isolation that Harry feels is a natural result of this transition, and we all feel it to some extent in our normal, Voldemort-free, lives.
Of course, the orphan archetype must itself be overcome in order for the individual to become an adult. The main form this takes is an increase in agency, a power to actually enact change in the real world.
As he completes the child-orphan transition in this book, Harry begins his own orphan-adult transition, which he will not complete until the end of book 7. Social isolation is not a problem that he just accepts passively. Harry of Order of the Phoenix is a very angry teenager, and while a lot this anger is wildly misdirected, he does begin to use his agency to redirect it towards external change.
The most important of these acts of adult agency is the deliberate construction of community. Harry has been denied membership in not only “standard” communities, such as the quidditch team, his peer group at Hogwarts, and the wider wizarding world at large, but also in the “alternative” Order of the Phoenix (2). While he does fight to gain acceptance in the wider Wizarding community throughout the book, doing an exclusive interview on Voldemort’s return for the magazine The Quibbler, most of Harry’s actions in this book center around building up his own alternative social groups out of people he actually likes and respects (3), in forming his own paramilitary group, Dumbledore’s Army.
In the film Harry’s overcoming of his own social isolation is shown literally. At the climax of the film, in the Department of Mysteries Harry is shown surrounded by his friends.
At the actual end of the film, Harry is also shown to be surrounded by the community he built.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=P7JB0ez_00E
In the book this transition is well highlighted by how Harry’s opinions of his friends shifts from the beginning of Order to the beginning of Half-Blood Prince.
In an age of social atomization, where traditional and alternative community organizations have been corrupted or destroyed, the importance of deliberate community building to overcome isolation is more important than ever. It is essential for each one of us to build and participate in our own organic, grass-roots communities.
Substack link if you want to see photos from the film: https://substack.com/@joshuaderrick/p-177318643
To be honest, throughout all the books Harry acted impulsively and against good advice of most of his allies. There is a reason why Yud was pissed or let's say motivated enough, to create a non-moronic version of Harry in his own fanfic. The fact that Harry even lives can be assigned more to dumb luck rather than anything else, so it makes sense that people keep secrets from him. Heck, Dumbledore himself held the prophecy for himself and told to Harry about it only in OOTP book you read - because basically he thought that Harry would be dumb enough to disobey and get himself killed if told earlier. And for good reason, Harry is just a child and being dumb is excusable. The same goes for Dumbledore keeping the truth about horcruxes for himself up until the last minute. The idea was to keep Harry free of concerns and give him normal childhood, but the unsaid part in this noble speech is that Dumbledore did not trust that Harry would keep it all secret, and would spill it over to somebody so that Voldemort would learn about the fact, and he would put together that Harry is a horcrux.
By the way, there is a great video comparing Frodo Baggins and Harry Potter as heroes, arguing that they are the opposites. Harry is the "chosen one" special hero, who on the other hand acts like a moron trying to do normal stuff like playing sports games and fooling around, while almost getting himself killed multiple times due to his own stupidity. Of course a lot of it is a plot device to make especially Hermione look awesome, but it is still there as his character trait. While Frodo is a normal or even unassuming guy especially among the heroes of the fellowship, but he almost always acts with integrity, courage and wisdom. This in turn paradoxically makes him extra special to the extent, that he is even trusted with the One Ring as he can resist its temptations.
As much as it was never going to happen, even at the time of the series I remember really liking the 'Harry is a decoy chosen one / Neville was the real boy who lived' theories for what it could have let Harry Potter be.
Mostly for Harry's character flaws, though not because they make him a worse protagonist. Quite the opposite. Harry being reckless, careless, and not inclined to be discrete are great protagonist flaws. They balance how Harry even as a child had real character virtues- brave, friendly, above the bigotries of the setting. But those virtues, and child age, don't negate the sort of self-centeredness which, while natural/appropriate for a young boy, detracted from a sort of humility that might have been initially assumed from the 'abused / eager-to-please boy' of his early years.
Neville being the real child of prophesy, but Dumbledore letting Harry be the one drawing attention to himself, would have had a number of interesting elements. It would have required better working Neville into book plots to have a slowly emerging role, and thus required Harry to have a few more close male friends over the series than just Ron, but that could have worked well as a parallel to Harry's awkward-but-building friendship with Cedric in Goblet of Fire (where Harry went from the awkward younger male in the dynamic to the more confident/established alternative to Neville). It would have reframed Dumbledore's indulgences of Harry, since it could be seen as a darker user relationship (encouraging Harry to act out), but then it might also have reframed parts of it positively (Dumbledore not manipulating Harry into destiny).
But what could have really made it stand out was as a character challenge to Harry himself, to have gone through a character arc of having come to believe the lie that he was the special / chosen hero, coming upon the revelation that he wasn't the special / chosen one after all, but overcoming it to still be a hero, except this time with humility. It doesn't mean that Neville has to displace Harry as the protagonist of the series, or the leading role in various plots, but reframing the later series as Harry realizing that he is the decoy- that he is drawing the attention / threats / danger that Neville isn't ready for while Neville has to overcome his past trauma and grow to face his own destiny- opens up a lot of juicy character drama.
Like, letting Harry be arrogant / have wounded pride. Hasn't he been the hero so far? Isn't he better than the wimpy, loserly Neville? Isn't he richer than his best friend, who is minor wizard nobility / established family? Isn't he the prodigy who speaks snake-tongue, manifests patroneus, and has a super-cool uncle/patron who got him the best broomstick to win at quidditch with? Isn't he the one who gets young girls crushing on him after dashingly saving them? Why can't he be the chosen hero on top of all that? It's Not Fair!
But also- if he's not the actual Boy Who Lived, what will he be if that title is taken away from him? He'll be an orphan with no name and no clue, a middling quidditch player. Worse, who will be left if, when, he's revealed to be a fraud? Will anyone believe him, will the girl he liked / the girls who liked him because of that reputation, and then got to know him, still like 'him' if the popular legend stops being so popular? Harry started the series as a friendless, family-less, isolated child, and what wouldn't he do to not go back to that?
And yet...
And yet, Harry growing to overcome that, and how, could be equally interesting. Take Neville. Neville's start in the series has many (deliberate) parallels to Harry, but he's clearly traumatized in a way Harry was not. (And, vice versa, is not in ways Harry was by his abusive family.) Neville is not yet a man, is not confident, and not ready. He quivers under Snape, and were worse to find him... well, in Goblet of Fire Harry comes off as worse in many ways to Cedric, the older boy who has what Harry wants (the girl, the confidence, the respect of peers). The 'gift' of being thrown into the tournament was no gift, but Harry survived and burnished the legend. Could Neville have survived, let alone thrived, as Harry did?
But Neville could also be framed as a person who looks up to Harry. Like a good Gryffindor, Harry, even as a child, is brave where Neville is not. Harry is popular where Neville is not. Harry acts when Neville when freeze. But most of all, Harry is kind despite all of that, or maybe because of all that, because Harry has been the boy shoved into a closet and worse. Harry is a jock, true, but he acts out of concern, and dislikes cruel bullies, and at least tries to do the right thing despite his jealousies (Cedric) or his dislikes (Malfoy) even if Harry isn't constrained by rules. Harry is happy to help others. Harry is not just the sort of person Neville probably wants to be more like, but also the sort of person who- personal dynamics otherwise- could help Neville grow into someone who can stand up not just for himself, but for others as the hero.
This is a relationship dynamic that could be worked with, especially for how it might play to Harry's arrogance / insecurities. Does Harry just think it's his due at first? That Neville is a fanboy for the Boy Who Lived? After Harry realizes the truth, does Harry feel jealous or insecure, wondering if Neville knows? When Harry realizes the influence that he has over Neville- and that his positive influence is itself what may lead to Neville assuming the mantle of Chosen Hero- what does that mean to him, and to them? If Harry knows he has Neville's trust, and knows he could reveal the truth or hide the secret that gives him his status, what would he do? Especially when both hiding and revealing the truth could be simultaneously selfless and selfish: is Harry hiding it because he wants to protect his status, or because it protects Neville? Would he consider revealing it because Neville Needs to Know, or because he's tired of being the increasing target of the Dark Lord's attention in a war he didn't ask for?
That would be a good character story not only in itself, but also help reframe Harry's place with his friends, which addresses Harry's insecurity. Part of Harry's growth can come from realizing that people like him for him, not just his legend. Ron's signature trait is loyalty, and certainly isn't sticking with Harry to nose up for perks or money. Hermoine as a mudblood never knew the legend, just that he was the boy she met on the train who saved her from a troll in the bathroom. Even the animosities were natural. Draco who might have been fake friends with the Boy Who Lived would be as petty a bully to a commoner-potter, or a Neville-he-didn't-know-better-about. Snape's deal was with Potter, the parents, not The Boy Who Lived.
But just as important for the character arc and series culmination, Harry can learn / actualize that people also like him for his relationships with others. Yes, he saved Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets, which is grounds enough to transition a hero-crush to a personal-hero crush, but he's friendly and capable of being friends with looney Luna, her friend that others avoid. Yes, he finds magically-attractive Fleur attractive, but her regard is won by him risking himself for her sister in the tournament, not his place in it as a legend. When Harry comes to fixate on his legend, his friendships can wane- the sort of distancing where his insecurities When Harry can overcome that by having a true friendship with Neville, then it can inspire others- including Neville- into the Dubledore Army or whatnot that nominally exists to support Harry, but secretly supports Neville, with whom Harry is in alignment.
I imagine such a series finale would go into its endgame with Neville integrated into the core three, all knowing the truth but keeping the lie so that Harry can play the part of decoy protagonist and draw away the Dark Lord's attention so that Neville can do his Chosen One deed. Harry's earlier flaws- his brash, reckless nature- are allowed to be assets complimenting his virtues, even as Harry's greatest virtue from the character arc- his growth of true humility, as opposed to the abused boy syndrome he had at the start- is what lets Neville take the Dark Lord by surprise.
Truly a power the Dark Lord knows not.
At which point the story can wrap up with its happily ever after where the series-long secret is revealed, but ends with Neville publicly crediting / elevating Harry as the indispensable hero in defeating the dark lord, in a parallel to how over the books Harry helped elevate Neville into the chosen hero he needed to be. Harry might lose the mythic hero backstory he no longer cares so much about, but gains a new (genuine) heroic legend to replace it, and more importantly keeps the personal relationships he was once afraid of losing. War scars the survivors, but the optimism is there, as not just Harry, but people he's influenced like Neville are in turn giving hope / building up the next generation more than Harry himself ever could have alone.
Cue the series end, with Harry Potter ending it as the hero of his own story, just not in the way he intended it to be, but having developed other character virtues that bring him to the company of fictional greats like Frodo.
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Speaking of LOTR and rings, does anyone else want to see a tv show/book where Galadriel (not the new tv series version) gets her hands on the ring and uses it to take over.
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To be fair, Frodo inherits the ring at 33 years old and goes on his quest at 50.
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Personally prefer the first 4 books since I feel they were a lot better from a fantasy world building perspective whilst the latter half turns inward
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This is mostly irrelevant, but OotP was also my favorite book in the series and I think the complaints that 15 year old Harry was whiny and annoying fail to consider that this is a realistic depiction of 15 year old boys. (I also think Rowling did a good job depicting boys, in general.)
Sidenote: You "rip" media into a computer and "burn" it to fixed storage. Or, at least, that's what we did in the 90s and 00s.
This is a common rejoinder to complaints about child characters, but in my experience is untrue. Nobody says Harry is unrealistic in Order, they say he is annoying. The two aren't necessarily related, and at least for my own taste I would rather have an unrealistic depiction of a teenager if it meant the book was more enjoyable to read. Also for what it's worth I was 17 when the book came out, so I wasn't too far from 15 myself. Harry still annoyed the shit out of me in that book.
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I really enjoyed reading this post. I also grew up with Harry Potter, not quite as extreme as every night for ten years but I read all the books multiple times, and your post reminded me that I used to spend hours reading HP essays on https://www.hp-lexicon.org/ back in the early 2000s.
I found your analysis of OOTP interesting and insightful. I haven't read a HP book for some years and it would be curious to read them again from an adult perspective but I'm a little worried the magic would be tarnished and i already have too many books to read.
I don't see the culture war angle of your post though, seems more suited to Friday Fun?
Perhaps the muse visited our OP and he had to write today. I suggest OP crosslinks to his post when the Friday Fun Thread drops.
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