Children’s Literature in Education, Vol. 34, No.

3, September 2003 (䉷 2003)

Sharon Black is a teach- Sharon Black

ing professor and writ-
ing consultant/editor at
the David O. McKay
School of Education at
Brigham Young Univer-
sity in Provo, Utah,
U.S.A. Her teaching ex- The Magic of Harry Potter:
periences include gifted
children, in addition to Symbols and Heroes of Fantasy
a wide variety of col-
lege students—both age
groups included in this
article. When not
chained to her desk, This article suggests that the worldwide, multiage appeal of Harry
she can often be found Potter may lie in the way these stories of magic meet the needs of
roaming through such
places as Hogwarts or readers to find meaning in today’s unmagical contexts. The imag-
Middle Earth, often ac- inative appeal and symbolic efficacy of the books for children are
companied by her chil- examined in terms of Bruno Bettelheim’s The Uses of Enchantment.
dren—including The development of Harry Potter as a hero in the mythic/fantasy
“Sandra.” tradition, which allows young adults to grasp a sense of hope for
meaning and triumph, are explored in terms of Joseph Campbell’s
Hero With a Thousand Faces. Case studies are included to illustrate.

KEY WORDS: Harry Potter; fantasy; symbolism; imagination; hero.

J. K. Rowling, Harry “Kallie didn’t really want to read The Sorcerer’s Stone, and now she
Potter and the Sor- can’t put it down,” my friend, Kallie’s mother, reported with a
cerer’s Stone (published
in Great Britain as chuckle. First, the Harry Potter books are about a boy, and Kallie
Harry Potter and the doesn’t care much for boys—not at age 10. And the Harry Potter
Philosopher’s Stone books are trendy; Kallie is one who is proud of having her own tastes
and doing things her own way. But once Kallie’s imagination was cap-
tured, she read the first four Harry Potter books four times each dur-
ing the next 18 months. After seeing the first of the Harry Potter
movies, Kallie rushed home, grabbed The Sorcerer’s Stone, and imme-
diately began reading it again. The movie had not come up to the
pictures she had created in her mind. To her mother’s puzzled in-
quiry, she wailed, “I have to rescue my imagination.”

“How like Sandra,” I thought. My daughter Sandra, a college student,

had just returned from 18 months in England. Sandra had heard of the
young wizard, but she had not had time to seek him out. Missing all
things British, she noticed the copy of The Sorcerer’s Stone that her
sister had left visible. A few pages, and Sandra, like Kallie, could not
put the book down. She had seen the pre-Hogwarts Harry on the
trains and tubes of London and on the High Streets of English vil-
lages—shabbily dressed, indifferently groomed, lonely, obviously ne-

237

0045-6713/03/0900-0237/0 䊚 2003 Human Sciences Press, Inc.

238 Children’s Literature in Education

glected—possibly abused. As she read, she saw him transported to a

mysterious castle/school where he began to learn of his true heritage
and potential, to undertake what Sandra, as a literature student, recog-
nized as a classic hero’s journey. Sandra quickly added Harry to the
gallery of heroes who, since her early childhood, had reaffirmed her
faith that despite its dark recesses, the world is good, and people can
overcome their difficulties and find joy.

These two very different but very enthusiastic readers join many
worldwide who have found needs met and questions at least partially
answered in the magical adventures of Harry Potter. The phenomenal
success of the series is well known. They were the first children’s
books to be included on the New York Times bestseller list since
Charlotte’s Web was published during the 1950s. In 1999, the first
three were numbers 1, 2, and 3 on the list, causing the newspaper to
think of creating a separate children’s category. Bestseller lists in
U.S.A. Today and even the Wall Street Journal included them as well.
And children have not been the only readers keeping these books on
top of the charts. Adults worldwide are reading them—some along
with their children, some completely on their own. In Great Britain,
Germany, and Italy, special editions have come out with adult-respect-
able covers, so that grown-ups can read them on public transportation
Elizabeth Schafer, Ex- without being embarrassed to be seen with a children’s novel (Schafer,
ploring Harry Potter 2000). When the publication date for the fifth book in the series,
J. K. Rowling, Harry Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was announced in Janu-
Potter and the Order of ary 2003, 5 months in advance, within days the preorders placed it
the Phoenix
high on bestseller lists as well.

Are the Harry Potter books merely a passing fad? Or is their potential
to meet needs and to answer questions for individuals as diverse as
Kallie and Sandra based on deeper, more universal literary patterns
and human characteristics? When examined in terms of the classic
works of psychoanalysts Bruno Bettelheim and Joseph Campbell, they
are.

This article delves into effects of fantasy in general and Harry Potter in
specific as they may be better understood in terms of Bettelheim’s
and Campbell’s ideas. The child Kallie’s ability to explore real life
through imaginative interaction with unreal characters and situations
Bruno Bettelheim, The can be better understood in terms of Bettelheim’s explanations of The
Uses of Enchantment Uses of Enchantment (1976). Young adult Sandra’s ability to find
meaning through the unfolding of the hero’s journey is consistent
Joseph Campbell, The with the analysis of Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces
Hero with a Thousand (1968). Both of the girls are individuals, but their experiences with
Faces
fantasy and meaning illustrate effects common among those who ben-
efit from Harry’s magic. Kallie’s experiences are described according
The Magic of Harry Potter 239

to her mother’s observation. Sandra is both open and articulate in

sharing her reactions and thoughts directly, and her experiences are
recounted as expressed in personal conversation.

Kallie: Unreality and Truth

Generally, Kallie has little use for repetition. But to reread the Harry
Potter books is not necessarily repetitious. Every time she reads the
books, Kallie can have another series of adventures. When she reads a
popular children’s mystery, she visualizes realistic characters going
through realistic activities—and she solves a one-time mystery. It is
solved, and she does not need to solve it again. But when Harry en-
counters his greatest desire in the mirror of Erised or his greatest fear
in the Boggart, the reader is invited to draw up her own desires and
fears—and these are not neatly “solved” in one session.1 As the mirror
J. K. Rowling, Harry and the Boggart immerse Harry in his longing for family, a child like
Potter and the Prisoner Kallie may reflect on her own family as well. A child’s emotions and
of Azkaban
interpretations of such passages change from day to day—as family
feelings and relationships change—and each time she deals with them
they are invested with new meaning (Bettelheim, 1976, p. 12). Thus
the ever-changing magic of Harry Potter is in the magic of the child’s
own experiences, feelings, and imagination.

One of the common complaints against the Harry Potter series is that
the stories deal with magic: Various churches have denounced the
books, and their author, J. K. Rowling,2 has been accused of being a
witch. Rowling explains that no fan (to her knowledge) has ever ex-
pressed a desire to become a witch, and that she herself attends the
Church of Scotland and has no desire to become a witch either. Rowl-
ing is confident that children can easily discern where reality ends
and fantasy begins (Schafer, 2000). Her affirmation agrees with Bruno
Bettelheim (1976), who notes that any child familiar with fantasy un-
derstands that these stories “speak to him in the language of symbols
and not that of everyday reality” (p. 62).

Bettelheim continues,

The child intuitively comprehends that although these stories are un-
real, they are not untrue; that while what these stories tell about does
not happen in fact, it must happen as inner experience and personal
development; that [fantasy] tales depict in imaginary and symbolic form
the essential steps in growing up and achieving an independent exis-
tence. (p. 73)

Harry looks into the Mirror of Erised and sees his dead parents stand-
ing beside him—decidedly unreal. Kallie does not expect to look into
a mirror and see anyone who is deceased. She is glad to be able to see
240 Children’s Literature in Education

in a common, unmagical mirror the mother and grandparents who

love and protect her—as Harry longs to be loved and protected. Kal-
lie has expressed the nagging awareness that the day will come when
her beloved grandparents will no longer be beside her. The Mirror of
Erised is unreal, but the fact that a child longs to be loved and pro-
tected by her family is true. The fear children have that something
may harm the family is portrayed through the unreal dementors and
boggarts who torment Harry with the images and sounds of his par-
ents’ deaths. The dementors and boggarts are unreal, but the fact that
children fear harm to their parents is true. The child may find it easier
to face these fears when the abstract feelings are given form by
Harry’s experience.

Bettelheim (1976) explains the importance of “the unrealistic nature”

of fantasy: It focuses the child “not [on] useful information about the
external world, but [on] the inner processes taking place in the indi-
vidual” (p. 25). Rowling is not instructing children to obtain a magic
mirror from a local coven of witches; she is helping them reflect on
hopes and fears, families and relationships.

Bettelheim (1976) carries the “reality” of the child’s involvement in

fantasy a step further as he explains that the images suggested to the
child through fantasy can be used to “structure his daydreams and . . .
give better direction to his life” (p. 7). The unreal metaphors and
symbols of the story become the raw materials to experiment with
reality. Kallie is not as eager as some children her age to spend most
of her time with her peers. “They don’t always choose the right,” she
tells her family. “They play with some and not with others.” No one
J. K. Rowling, Harry would use the word “mudblood” to taunt one of Kallie’s friends,
Potter and the Cham- as Draco taunts Hermione. But as she vicariously becomes angry at
ber of Secrets
Draco she can release the anger she feels at injustice in her own
schoolyard.

Susan Cooper, “Fantasy Susan Cooper (1990), author of the successful fantasy series The Dark
in the real world” Is Rising, understands this process and notes that the events of fan-
tasy, unlike those of real life, do not have price tags; but “if one of its
adventures does ever happen to overtake you, somewhere in your
unconscious mind you will be equipped to endure or enjoy it” (p.
309). Thus through the unreality of Harry’s magical world, children
like Kallie learn to deal with the reality of family, friends, and school—
and she can definitely distinguish the real/specific from the unreal/
true.

Kallie’s mother has read the Harry Potter books (during Kallie’s first
time through), but she wisely avoids imposing her personal meanings
on her daughter. As Bettelheim (1976) advises, adult coaching denies
The Magic of Harry Potter 241

the child the opportunity to cope personally with the problems por-
trayed in the story. As the child brings imagination, intellect, and emo-
tions together in identifying with the characters, “inner resources”
develop that enable the child to eventually cope with “the vagaries of
life” (p. 4). The child thus gains “confidence in himself and in his
future” (p. 4). After all, a kid who can figure out how Harry ought to
overcome a basilisk knows she can cope with a playground bully. And
after conquering Voldemort, medical school definitely seems doable.
Sandra: The Rise of a Hero
Since she was old enough to swing a plastic lightsaber, Sandra has
lived with fantasy and loved its heroes. At the age of three she saw
George Lucas, Star Star Wars and announced that she was going to be Luke Skywalker.
Wars: The Annotated When her brother patiently pointed out that she could not be Luke
Screenplays
because Luke was a boy, Sandra declared that at least she was going to
be a Jedi knight; she was going to change the world.

E. B. White, Charlotte’s At four Sandra listened eagerly as our family read Greek, Roman, and
Web Norse myths together. At five she read Charlotte’s Web and other
C. S. Lewis, The Lion, “chapter” fantasies. At six, she went to Narnia with Peter, Susan, Ed-
the Witch, and the
Wardrobe mund, and Lucy; at seven she roamed the Welsh countryside with the
Susan Cooper, The cast of The Dark Is Rising. Other myths, fantasies, and series of fanta-
Dark Is Rising sies followed. By high school she was deep into Lord of the Rings.3 As
J. R. R. Tolkien, The a college student, she has discovered the seemingly unlikely but actu-
Lord of the Rings ally highly congruous combination of Harry Potter and Joseph Camp-
bell: the boy who has carried the tradition of the fantasy hero to the
children of the world, and the man whose writings have helped
Sandra to understand the impact of this tradition on her life.

In analyzing common patterns found in the heroes of myths, folk sto-

ries, and fairy tales throughout the world, Campbell (1968) explains
the cycle of the child-hero—the hero who beckoned to Sandra
throughout her childhood: The “child of destiny” begins in obscurity,
often in a situation of extreme danger or degradation. He may be
drawn inward “to his own depths” or extended outward to unknown
regions. He is in a darkness inhabited by both benign and evil pres-
ences. A guide or helper comes to him—often an angel, sometimes an
animal or an old woman (p. 326). The child-hero is taken to a school
or other special environment where he learns that he has extraordin-
ary talents (p. 327) and recognizes what he has the capacity to be-
come. Eventually the child-hero returns, acclaimed or at least recog-
nized. Sometimes the hero’s accomplishments win him the praise of
his social group—sometimes.

Reading the pattern as a college student, Sandra acknowledges that

she has been responding to it for years. Luke Skywalker grew up in
242 Children’s Literature in Education

relative obscurity on the desert-like planet of Tatooine, discovered his

true heritage as a Jedi, underwent an intensive and highly dangerous
physical and mental apprenticeship to fulfill his gifts, and eventually
took his destined place in the Star Wars hierarchy. His mentors and
guides were both human and nonhuman. Wilber, the pig of Char-
lotte’s Web, was the runt of the litter; his mentor was a spider who
was both literate and wise. Wilber eventually became famous, far
above the ominous threat of becoming bacon. The children who be-
came kings and queens of Narnia were everyday children sent to the
country to escape the dangers of wartime London; their mentor through
a series of challenging adventures was a lion named Aslan, who pre-
pared them for their destiny to rule. As each grew up, he or she
returned to remain in everyday England to encounter, recognize, and
C. S. Lewis, Voyage of deal with the truths that had been taught in the fantasy world. Camp-
the Dawn Treader bell did not include these popular children’s fantasies in his analysis;
however, Sandra found them.

But a nearsighted, lightning-scarred, twenty-first-century kid who lives

in a cupboard under the stairs? That seems quite a stretch of the
pattern. But as Sandra and I found, to our delight, Harry Potter does
follow Campbell’s pattern of the child-hero. When the reader first
encounters him at the home of his Aunt and Uncle Dursley, he is
unkempt, unloved, and definitely unrecognized as having any particu-
lar talents or destiny. Dressed in ill-fitting cast-off clothes and taped-
together glasses, he is the “despised child” that Campbell finds typical
(1968, p. 38); his main function in the Dursley household is as a
target for the family’s hostility and scorn. The Dursleys provide all the
degradation and much of the danger that Campbell might have had in
mind (p. 326). Harry faces darkness and uncertainty as Vernon Durs-
ley’s hostility becomes more intense, and Dursley is irrational and vio-
lent (though often amusing) in his attempts to prevent Harry from
receiving the fateful letter that the Dursleys know will begin to reveal
who and what Harry really is. The revelation begins, appropriately, in
stormy darkness, as Harry’s initial helper appears at the isolated light-
house where Dursley is confident no messenger will be able to come.
As the supernatural “protective figure” (Campbell, 1968, p. 72), the
shaggy, bumbling half-giant Hagrid is no angel, but he is more than
adequate to get Harry started on his hero’s journey into the wizarding
world.

Like Campbell’s mythical child-hero, Harry attends a school: This one

is a school of magic with the wonderful name of Hogwarts. Here
Harry learns of what Campbell refers to as “the seed powers, which
reside just beyond the sphere of the measured and the named” (pp.
326–327). Campbell says that the powers “are revealed to have been
within the heart of the hero all the time. He is ‘the king’s son’ who
The Magic of Harry Potter 243

has come to know who he is . . . ‘God’s son,’ who has learned to

know how much that title means” (p. 39). Harry’s powers have been
given him by his parents, and throughout the currently published
books of the series, Harry comes to know both parents and powers
one increment at a time. Harry has an additional source of super-
natural power, which is not a welcome one: As he attempted to kill
the infant Harry and ended up merely scaring him, the evil lord Vol-
demort unwittingly transferred some of his powers to the child.

The adventures Harry Potter faces during his successive years at Hog-
warts do require that he be what Campbell (1968) identifies in his
hero image as “a personage of exceptional gifts” (p. 37). During the
first book of the series, Harry faces extraordinary physical obstacles: a
monstrous cave troll, a vicious three-headed dog, a scheming pro-
fessor who supports and protects the feeble but still powerful Vol-
demort, who is intent on Harry’s destruction. Harry survives through
physical courage, along with a few judicious spells and the support of
his friends. In the second book, Harry moves through a series of iden-
tity crises, which include assuming a false identity (a disliked class-
mate), denying an identity he refuses to consider (“heir of Slytherin”),
and recognizing aspects of his identity that parallel those of the evil
Voldemort,

By the third book Harry is ready to go beyond the physical. He now

must face his deepest feelings and greatest fears, objectified in the
dementors, the boggarts, and the weak but evil wizard whose betrayal
brought about the deaths of his parents; he is eventually able to deal
with these challenges through mental and emotional strength. In the
fourth book, Harry has his first face-to-face encounter with death, as
J. K. Rowling, Harry his friend/rival Cedric is murdered by his side, ironically as a result of
Potter and the Goblet the noble ethic that prevents either Cedric or Harry from edging the
of Fire
other out for the equally achieved tournament prize. Harry faces phys-
ical and mental torture by the now-restored Voldemort, but at this
time, as a maturing hero, he is ready to resist it. His return from the
encounter with Voldemort is, in words Campbell applies to the hero,
“life-enhancing” (1968, p. 35). At the end of each book, Harry, like
Campbell’s hero, returns to his former world. Whether Harry is actu-
ally recognized could be debated, and he is not acclaimed—yet—but
he manages to generate at least a little trepidation in the Dursleys.

Literary scholars and English teachers have traditionally enjoyed trac-

ing heroes’ journeys, but do such journeys affect children like Kallie
or young adults like Sandra who are seeking to understand their own
existence? Campbell (1968) affirms that they do. His work in compar-
ing the journeys of heroes in world mythology, folklore, and fairy tales
was undertaken “to uncover some of the truths disguised for us under
244 Children’s Literature in Education

the figures of religion and mythology” (p. vii). He explains that “the
parallels . . . will develop a vast and amazingly constant statement of
the basic truths by which man has lived throughout the millenniums
of his residence on the planet” (p. vii). Similar to Bettelheim (1976),
Campbell emphasizes what he refers to as the “grammar of symbols”
in leading the reader toward understanding those truths. He uses the
same key word—unreal—noting that the “fantastic and ‘unreal’ ” (p.
29) incidents represent triumphs of a psychological rather than physi-
cal nature. There is additional challenge in creating such triumphs in
the modern world, for the challenge of hero-creation is “nothing if
not that of rendering the modern world spiritually significant . . .
nothing if not that of making it possible for men and women to come
to full human maturity through the conditions of contemporary life”
(p. 388).

Harry Potter, then, is a set of modern symbols for the processes and
truths that have been represented by hero and journey symbols through
the ages. Young children like Kallie are caught up imaginatively in the
exciting details of Harry’s world; they experience Harry’s journey
through “seeing” things with their imaginations, largely unaware of
the symbolic process that brings them “real world” understanding
through Harry’s “unreal” solutions. Older “children” like Sandra know
what symbols are and understand how various forms of fantasy reveal
symbolically what Campbell calls “the same redemption” (1968, p.
289) that brought their predecessors comfort and closure.

It has been affirmed that the “magic” of the Harry Potter books lies in
Scholastic Books, Harry the parallel worlds (Scholastic, 2001, p. 1). Harry is able to leave the
Potter: Discussion “muggle” world that rejects and abuses him, run through Platform
Guide
9 3/4 (or step into a flying car or take a little magic flue powder) and
enter the wizarding world where he can learn the lessons and de-
velop the strengths that allow him to mature. Similarly, Peter, Susan,
Edmund, and Lucy step through a wardrobe (or into a painting or
other magic gateway) to enter the parallel world of Narnia, where
they are instructed by Aslan, the Savior figure, who tells them that he
will always be with them when they grow up and return to the world
outside: They must simply learn to recognize him (Lewis, 1952). Sig-
nificantly, Tolkien’s other world is “Middle Earth.” Campbell (1968)
helps us understand that the two worlds, which he designates as “the
divine and the human” (p. 217), seem at first to be distinct and very
different. “Nevertheless—and here is a great key to the understanding
of myth and symbol—the two kingdoms are actually one. The realm
of the gods is a forgotten dimension of the world we know” (p. 217).
As the reader makes the connection, it is the function of the myth or
fantasy “to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward”
(p. 11). Life never becomes unrealistically easy for Harry, even in a
The Magic of Harry Potter 245

world where he carries a phoenix-feather wand and wears an invisi-

bility cloak. Like generations of mythical heroes, Harry’s growth and
development come at a price. The reader is left to understand that
she, like Harry, will have to strive and struggle, but she can overcome
challenges—even without classes in potions and spells.

Sandra has experienced the muggle world, and she often affirms her
drive to make Campbell’s connection to the divine. She has knelt be-
side children from broken, negligent, and abusive homes—children in
danger of being molested in their muggle schoolyards. When their
parents would not allow her to tell them Bible stories, she sang to
them and with them: “I am a child of God.” She has held in her arms
teenagers who were victims of varied abuse, including incest—letting
them cry over their flashbacks, affirming that they too are God’s sons
and daughters. She sang her song to a woman in the housing projects
who could not decide to leave her alcoholic boyfriend. She sang to an
elderly woman in the marketplace who had determined to go home
and take her own life.

As we talk about our heroes, Sandra explains that she needs Luke
Skywalker, Frodo Baggins, and Harry Potter because she needs to be-
lieve and to share her belief that the hero can emerge victorious, no
matter how oppressive the uncharted darkness may be. She needs
Joseph Campbell to tell her that the hero is indeed “God’s son” (1968,
p. 19) and that the hero’s victory is “a transcendence of the universal
tragedy of man” (p. 28). Bettelheim (1976) affirms:
[Fantasy intimates] that a rewarding, good life is within one’s reach
despite adversity—but only if one does not shy away from the haz-
ardous struggles without which one can never achieve true identity.
These stories promise that if a child [or adult] dares to engage in this
fearsome and taxing search, benevolent powers will come to his aid,
and he will succeed. (p. 24)

Tamora Pierce, “Fan- Tamora Pierce (1993), author of a successful fantasy series, experi-
tasy: why kids read it, enced this comfort during an agonizing childhood in a dysfunctional
why kids need it”
family, not unlike some of the trials experienced by Sandra’s friends.
Pierce recalls,
I visited Tolkien’s Mordor often for years, not because I liked what
went on there, but because on that dead horizon and then throughout
the sky overhead, I could see the interplay and the lasting power of
light and hope. It got me through. (p. 51)

Conclusion: Kallie and Sandra, “Joy Beyond the

Walls of the World”
Kallie has not yet been to Mordor. But she has spent a good deal of
time at Hogwarts. She has seen the interplay of light and dark, of good
246 Children’s Literature in Education

and evil. She has seen good people, including Harry, Ron, and Her-
mione, make mistakes and suffer for those mistakes. She has seen
intentions, and she has seen forgiveness. Though her friends might
not always “choose the right,” Kallie, according to her family, feels a
strong imperative to choose the right herself. She has seen the effects
of both right and wrong choices on Harry Potter and his schoolmates.
On a visit to the Island of Fiji, Kallie saw firsthand the effects of revo-
lution, and she was able deal with them.

Sandra has been to Mordor, and to Hogwarts, and to Narnia. Her

heroes have carried a ring to the brink of Mount Doom; cracked the
face of evil through the power of love; become kings and queens,
despite their faults, through the teaching and intervention of a loving
mentor who has promised to be with them in any world. Sandra will
continue to sing with children, to hold distressed teens, to reach out
to the frightened elderly—to attempt to change the world one indi-
vidual at a time. To some she gives a copy of Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer’s Stone or The Fellowship of the Ring. To others she gives
only the wisdom she has found in them.

Fantasy empowers its readers (Pierce, 1993) through the unreal truths
and the mythical heroes that it shares. As one of the greatest of fan-
J. R. R. Tolkien, Tree tasy writers, J. R. R. Tolkien (1989), has expressed, fantasy “denies . . .
and Leaf universal final defeat . . . , giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond
the walls of the world, poignant as grief” (p. 62).

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The Magic of Harry Potter 247

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