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Understanding Harry Potter - Parallels To The Deaf World
Understanding Harry Potter - Parallels To The Deaf World
The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. doi:10.1093/deafed/eni041
For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org Advance Access publication on July 6, 2005
Endnotes 443
observations that contribute to our appreciation of lit- tives, are not exposed to the Deaf World as they are
erature and the human condition. In order to do this we growing up. We have often seen deaf children comment
have developed a ‘‘Deaf Studies Template’’ (Czubek & that they will become hearing when they turn 18 years
Greenwald, 2000). The template uses the following old. Deaf children who do not have exposure to Deaf
categories for literature analysis: Only in the Deaf World, adults and the Deaf Community assume that at a certain
Minority Issues (including Identity and Oppression), age they will become hearing because they have never
Institutions, and, finally, Edenic Narrative. seen a deaf person older than the students in their
Using this template we have identified remarkable schools. Harry Potter also grows up without any idea
parallels between Harry Potter’s world and the Deaf about the Wizard World and who he really is. Harry’s
World, effectively changing how we look at the Harry guardians, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, purposely
Potter series and all literature. The template is a tool deny him information about the Wizard World and his
to deny their deafness. However, as in the Deaf and (ASL) and the development of the Deaf Community
Wizard Worlds, this is not possible. No matter how hard and for ‘‘stealing’’ deaf children.
people try to ignore the culture, language, and power of There is a famous Deaf narrative repeatedly
a strong community, it does not disappear. shared in the Deaf World of deaf children being drop-
The Dursleys’ attempts to hide Harry from the Wiz- ped at residential schools without really knowing what
ard World by bringing him to various obscure locations is happening. This parallels Harry being dropped at
are closely analogous to those of parents obstructing the King’s Cross train station in search of Platform
their children’s exposure to the Deaf World. Hagrid, 9 3/4. When Harry was left at the train station by
the representative of the Wizard World and Hogwarts the Dursleys, he had no idea how or where to go. He
School, finds Harry no matter where the Dursleys try to was alone as he searched unsuccessfully for Platform
hide him. This again parallels the cohesiveness of the 9 3/4. In both the above circumstances, deaf children
experiences. This parallels wizard families’ excitement we never consider. For example, the Dursleys did not
at having a child who is ‘‘wizard enough’’ to attend know they were muggles until Hagrid found them
Hogwarts. Parents often bang pots and pans to ‘‘test’’ on Harry’s birthday and introduced them to the idea.
their child’s hearing. Wizards also use informal mea- It had never occurred to them to classify individuals
sures (such as dropping babies from second-story win- in this manner. In much the same way, a friend and
dows) to test their child’s wizardness. If children are colleague remembers the day he ‘‘became hearing.’’ In
Deaf or wizard enough, they can be enrolled in Deaf a humorous account, he describes arriving at the
or Wizarding schools. Many families celebrate the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind only to dis-
deafness/wizardness of their children. cover that he was what is called hearing, and that un-
Some wizards want to limit school acceptance to beknownst to him he had been that way all his life!
wizards from wizard families and not allow wizards (H.-D. Bauman, personal communication). His cul-
disdain in the muggle world. On the one hand, dren at residential schools returning home for the
muggles fear and dislike wizards; on the other hand, summer to families with whom they cannot commu-
they surely would want to use magic to solve their nicate. However, after living with deaf peers and staff
problems! Initially, these disparate reactions generate for the academic year, deaf children are better able to
incredible confusion for Harry. handle life in the hearing world. A similar kind of
The paradoxes that appear in the daily lives of confidence is described by Maya Angelou as she states,
Deaf people are mind boggling as well. For example, ‘‘I suppose, too, my family directly and my people
think of ‘‘A Day in the Life of a Deaf professional.’’ indirectly have given me the kind of strength that
Typically, a Deaf person starts her day waking up to enables me to go anywhere . . .’’ (Beilenson, 1992).
a flashing light and eating breakfast with her Deaf The theme of survival and overcoming imposing
family. She goes to the train station where inevitably odds is prevalent throughout the Harry Potter series.
them academics and about life. At Hogwarts, Professor own reflections, emphasizing the importance of a
Dumbledore supported Harry in much the same way, strong identity.
for example, Harry says, ‘‘. . . instead of stopping us, he Another parallel is the tendency that wizards (and
just taught us enough to help’’ (Rowling, 1997). This perhaps all humans) have to establish binary relation-
philosophy allows children to make mistakes while be- ships as in ‘‘us and them.’’ The urge to create taxono-
ing instructed and guided as opposed to overprotected mies that define the world as either wizard or muggle
and, as a result, with limited opportunities to learn. reflects a common outlook that many minorities use to
There is a special value in being taught by other qual- define their own world. This compartmentalization of
ified wizards and Deaf teachers, and children realize everything as either Deaf or hearing, Black or White,
this early on. The same issue is, of course, important gay or straight, and so forth. demonstrates the power of
to Black, Latino, and other minority children. identity especially as it applies to the worldview of
Social institutions are a critical part of all of our lives; first element of the Edenic pattern is reference to a real
however, the institutions created by and for minority or imagined time of bliss, the second involves a major
groups have an especially important role in preserving incident that causes ‘‘the fall,’’ and the third is the
their unique culture and traditions. For this reason, this struggle to regain that lost golden age.
section has been created to highlight their significance. Again, many groups have adopted this structure as
The following is a list of the institutions of the they tell the stories reflecting their outlook on life and
Wizard World and their parallels in the Deaf World: their culture. The Deaf World has also created its own
story along similar lines. For example, we can review
• Hogwarts is the wizard equivalent of residential
the classic account of ‘‘the beginning’’ as shared by
schools for the deaf.
American Deaf people.
• Ministry of Magic is the wizard equivalent of
For many, the story describes the early years (soon
the National Association of the Deaf.
We therefore need to be careful of the kind of represent a uniquely human way of understanding
taxonomy we use to organize our perceptions. Gould our world. At the same time, we can also be better
(1995) responded to this by offering a cautionary note: prepared to understand what we might miss as a result
of being conditioned to package stories according to
This propensity to tell stories grants us resolution,
traditional elements.
but also spells danger in avenues thereby opened
for distortion and misreading. For our favorite sto-
ries unroll along definite and limited pathways (we Implications
call them epics, myths and sagas and they show
The parallels between Harry Potter and the Deaf
eerie similarities across disparate cultures) and
World are striking. Our attempts at organizing the
we often try to channel a much more varied nature
parallels have established an initial framework for
along these familiar and edifying routes.
be added to academic programming. Developing an us personally. Watching and listening to these stories,
awareness of themes and of the features of narrative while adding insights from a vantage point that few
can also encourage the creation of new stories and per- have been able to find, is incredible. And all this from
haps new vantage points for literature study. understanding Harry Potter!
Equally important are the implications this kind of
study has in promoting awareness and access for deaf
and hard-of-hearing children and adults to literature References
and popular culture. ‘‘Successful learning from read-
ing (or anything else) depends on the effectiveness of Beilenson, J. (1992). Voices of struggle, voices of pride. White
Plains, NY: Peter Pauper Press.
the communicative transaction’’ (Hirsch et al., 2002). Czubek, T., & Greenwald, J. (2000). Presentation at the Deaf
Surely, Harry Potter and his Wizard World have made Studies Conference, Orlando, FL.