The Harry Potter series, written by J.K. Rowling, is about an unknown single mother who never imagined she would bring a phenomenon in fantasy literature over a whole generation. It is fascinating how Harry Potter shaped a generation without any complications or struggles and left no crumbs behind. Harry Potter, being the founder of the new era of the fantasy genre, enchanted readers of all ages and the entire generation. Harry Potter’s first book was published in 1997, and that time generation was the beginning of Generation Z and the ending of Millennials, which proves that most of the passionate readers of Harry Potter were from Generation Millennials. They had been attached to the characters of the book from childhood. For this reason, they had a psychic devotion to this series. Also, whenever this series was mentioned, or the movies got released, they got a feeling of nostalgia towards it. The series was full of interesting themes such as friendship, courage, battles between good and bad, and also a perfect amount of comedy. This series has got all the attention of the people and is still getting admired as how it seized the imagination of millions globally even after more than 20 years of its beginning left the world shocked. It has created a permanent place in popular culture that is indelible.
The Harry Potter saga begins with the first book depicting the story of an orphan 11-year-old wizard boy who was able to fight against evil power and save the world with the help of the strongest magic, “magic of love,” protection given by his mother and his friends. The protagonist, Harry Potter, became friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger after encountering them at Hogwarts. From here on, the journey of magic begins, and the readers follow behind. The depth of the story, along with complexity and relatability, makes it a reliable series for the readers. The readers were influenced by its story and learned about the importance of many things like friendship, leadership, teacher and student relationships, and companionship with friends in hard times.
Themes That Shaped Values:
Harry Potter was a child fantasy genre literature, but its rich storytelling, dark themes, and complex character build-up made it popular among adults as well. The main themes of Harry Potter are friendship, bravery, and sacrifice. The story begins with showing the friendship between the three main characters and building the strong trio of literature history. They were incomplete without each other. Harry has leadership qualities; Ron is a loyal friend who never leaves his friend’s side and is also a chess master. Lastly, Hermione is an intelligent and witty girl who is one of the best wizards. They unitedly fought against the dark power of Lord Voldemort heroically. They are like curious cubs who need to find out the person who is about to harm their school. During this journey, they fought bravely and explored their friendship to the core. During this magical journey, there were many sacrifices. Every person who sacrificed themselves was to save someone dear to them. At first, Harry’s parents and later Sirius, Professor Dumbledore, Dobby, Professor Snape, and one of the twins, Fred Weasley, sacrifice themselves to protect their lives and their loved ones. They did a brave job fighting against the dark force and overpowering it.
These themes show the graveness of friendship and love. Harry wouldn’t be able to win alone but the help of others and love made the impossible possible. He successfully initiated the good on the grounds of Hogwarts. The readers find these adventures and themes quite valuable as they give them the teaching of life. How every single person has good and evil inside them and they need to confront evil to make the world a better place.
Moral Lessons Learned from Harry Potter:
Many moral themes in Harry Potter have influenced the generation to apply them in their everyday life. Such as standing against oppression, fighting to gain justice, and the power of love. Harry Potter was a series that gave the new generation moral advice to follow, and its plotline even made the readers follow them appropriately. The most powerful magic, love, shows the value of love in real life, how love can protect someone and heal someone.
The things Harry Potter taught us:
- We must not be controlled by fear. In the whole series, we can see how the fear of Lord Voldemort surrounds them as no one takes his name and calls him “the one who must not be named.” In the line, the characters disclose that they are afraid to face their fear. As a result, they could not voice out the name of the evil power, the dark lord Voldemort. This series shows how our fear can dominate our lives and manipulate us, and we can easily get out of it just by letting it out or facing it.
- Harry Potter taught us to always keep trying until you succeed. Throughout the whole series, he faced many obstacles and problems but in the end, he never gave up. He fought against his fear and anxiety and brought justice to Hogwarts many times.
- Asking parents for help is normal. No matter how old you get, your parents will always be your guardians and protectors who will save you from all the dangers. Sometimes you would feel like your parents can’t recognize you, they can’t help you with your problems. But once you tell them what’s bothering you, they will bring hell down from high, just like Draco Malfoy‘s father did to protect him.
- Community is needed to survive in the world. Even in the Wizarding World, all the wizards and magical creatures together fought against evil power and won the battle, establishing goodness. Harry alone couldn’t fight against Lord Voldemort’s army which shows the importance of community. No man in the world can survive alone for a long time.
Growing Up with the Characters:
Harry Potter has brought a massive change in the thoughts of adolescence. They are influenced by the series and act like the characters and try to make their life parallel, like the magical world of Harry Potter. The readers grew up with the characters and had an emotional attachment to them. They use the popular words of Harry Potter in daily life. They try to follow the qualities of the characters among them and become the best version of themselves. Leadership qualities and love for humanity make a person better who can achieve their goal with hard work. Readers take inspiration from Harry Potter which helps them to create a great personality. They try to avoid the ill natures and the mistakes of characters like Malfoye, who was stuck with ill-natured parents and made mistakes. People learn from this series how we can become good people by choosing to do good deeds. After all, it is on us what we choose to do; at the end of the day, our decisions make us good or bad.
Readers take these lessons and apply them in their lives, which helps them in providing an interesting amount of good deeds, or we can say they earn 5 more points for Gryffindor every day with each good work. Through the influence of the Harry Potter character, they develop strong and quality personalities which assist them in leading a successful life. Harry Potter has shaped the young readers’ personal growth and brought a huge change in the personality of a whole generation of youngsters. The readers of these days are also sometimes astonished at how Harry Potter shaped an entire generation so perfectly that they are still mesmerized by the magic it has once created.
In conclusion, Harry Potter gives the readers many life lessons through which they can become a better version of themselves. This impact of Harry Potter on readers has a great value in social and personal life. When a reader follows the themes of Harry Potter, they develop self-confidence, leadership qualities, a love for study, and a fight against oppression. These things help to reshape the corrupted and shabby society into a clean, fresh, welcoming society. Where each person helps each other, weak people do not feel unimportant, they don’t get bullied, and even if they do, they fight against it. Harry Potter shows the dark sides of the magical world but portrays the real-life human nature of the real world among them.
The Harry Potter series has shaped a generation with its mind-blowing writing style and quality. Its magic came out of the pages and spread it in the real world efficiently. Its popularity among generation after generation is growing, and the past readers are playing a vital role in this growth of fans. They show the world what a life-changing series Harry Potter is and how it can help to make a better world for us to stay in. If each person can use the magic of love in their life, then we will make a better place for the future generation where also Harry Potter may have a crucial role in shaping that generation.
