Harry Potter thinks he is an ordinary boy - until he is rescued by an owl, taken to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, learns to play Quidditch and does battle in a deadly duel. The Reason ... HARRY POTTER IS A WIZARD!
Harry Potter is a very popular middle-grade series. It has eight movie adaptations of the book, a play written as a sequel, a massive fanbase, and so much more that I don’t care to talk about. Clearly, a book this popular must be amazing, right? Well, sort of. I’ve read all seven Harry Potter books (AND the Cursed Child), and at first, I did enjoy them. However, it was when I began to branch out and read other series that I realized all the flaws of Harry Potter. The relationship examples are terrible, character development is nonexistent, and self-righteousness and limited worldviews are glorified.
Relationships in Harry Potter are examples of what NOT to do. I’m not just talking about romantic relationships, I’m also talking about the messed up friendships. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are seen as an iconic trio. However, I have questions about how their friendship has managed to last this long. Arguments in their friendship are frequent—I don’t think Harry and Ron go an entire book without giving each other the silent treatment at least once—and they aren’t resolved in a mature fashion.
Whenever these arguments occur, someone storms off and then comes back and apologizes. This is hardly ever Harry, because there’s no way this perfect golden child could ever be wrong about something, right? The arguments, even though being told from a third person perspective, are still seen as “Ron’s wrong, Harry’s right.” They never talk about their problems until one of them explodes. This is a pretty good example of a terrible, unhealthy friendship, yet it is seen as a perfect ideal.
Furthermore, the romantic relationships in Harry Potter cannot possibly be functional either. Think about Ron and Hermione. They fight all the time, Ron frequently disrespects Hermione, and the whole foundation of their relationship is based solely on the jealousy Hermione had when Ron dated someone else.
Moving on to characters. Being someone who reads books being more interested in the characters than any aspect of the character, Harry Potter is deeply disappointing. The characters are bland and boring. Even the ones who are quite literally meant to be “quirky” (e.g. Luna Lovegood) only have one or two personality traits.
Because I learned about characterization in class, I’ll add to my reasoning by talking about that. Specifically, by talking about mannerisms. Here’s the only specific mannerism I remember from the book: Ron’s ears turn red when he’s embarrassed. Oh, and Ginny used to drop something every time Harry walked into the room. In a seven-book series with a reasonable cast of characters, you would expect there to be more “quirks” than that. For example, in a 300-or-so-page book that I read, I learned that when a barely-mentioned side character lies, her ears turn red. And that another character sleeps with a pillow over his face, and another one has a habit of never brushing her hair. These small details give characters more life, and it's a very important aspect of characterization that Harry Potter misses out on.
But the most annoying character problem in Harry Potter is the lack of character development. In a series as long as Harry Potter, you would expect each character to have a somewhat interesting character arc, at the very least. Judging on the amount of time J. K. Rowling spent with her characters, I feel like she would get bored of them having the same, boring things to write about them all the time. Harry is “honorable,” spends too much time with his friends, and never learns when it is time to stop arguing. Oh, and he has anger issues. Ron is annoying. Ginny is fierce and in love with Harry. Voldemort is evil because he spent his free time bullying other kids when he was a child. The only person that has anything near to a character arc is Hermione because she learns to break rules sometimes.
Speaking of Harry’s terrible arguing and anger issues, he’s also very self-righteous. I think this comes from his childhood trauma, because he saw everyone in his early life as bad. And he wasn’t wrong about that. Where this causes problems is when he begins to believe that everyone who is even slightly skeptical of him is the devil. Criticism and skepticism are both parts of human nature. Expecting everyone to share your worldview is ridiculous.
Oh, worldview, what an interesting word. Did this possibly appear in the thesis? Oh, it did? Oh YEAH, Harry’s terribly limited worldview—I remember. I need to go on a bit of a tangent to explain this one.
One day, I was explaining my reasoning for disliking Harry Potter to my friend. I mentioned how Harry has quite a few awful personality traits and doesn’t change. She argued that, what with Harry’s abusive childhood, it's therefore perfectly understandable that he equates anyone who disagrees with him with the Dursleys. I disagree. Some of my other friends and I have a saying: “That’s the reason, not the excuse.” This is perfectly applicable to Harry’s limited worldview when it comes to other’s opinions. The reason for this prejudice may stem from his childhood of neglect, but that does not make him exempt from realizing his own flaws and striving to grow. Which he never does.