论哈利波特中的价值观

Contents .................................................................................................................... 1 Analysis of the Values in Harry Potter Series ................................................... 2 Abstract ..................................................................................................................... 2 Key words:Values; Equality; Rebellious Spirit ;life Values; Love ................... 3 Analysis of the Values in Harry Potter Series ................................................... 3 2.The Pursuit of Equality ....................................................................................... 4

2.1 Harry and Voldemort ‘s Ways of Treating People and the Non-Human Creatures 2.2 Encouraging Equalitarian Treatment of Everyone by Shaping Kind Characters 6

3.1 Rebellion against Authority ........................................................................... 8 3.2 Rebellion against the Secular Concept ..................................................... 9 3.3 Rebellion against Fate ................................................................................... 10 4.1 Life to Be Cherished and Death to Be Accepted ..................................... 12 4.2 Things beyond Death .................................................................................. 13 5.Eulogy of True Love ........................................................................................... 14 5.1 Salvation of Souls ........................................................................................ 14

5.2 Consistence and Tolerance ................................................................ 16

5.3 Mutual Understanding .................................................................................. 17 6. conclusion ........................................................................................................ 18 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... 18

论《哈利波特》中蕴含的价值观

摘 要

4 Equally 《哈利波特》是一本想象力异常丰富的魔幻现实主义小说。作者J.K.罗琳用超凡的想象力加上文学创作为读者呈现了一个与现实世界平行第二世界———魔法世界。主人公哈利.波特在11岁之前一直生活在现实世界，过着平凡压抑的童年生活，突然进入了充满魔法的奇幻世界。这个过渡更加突出了魔法世界的神奇有趣。所有的读者都理所当然地被魔法世界所吸引住了，都热切地盼望能在十一岁的时候收到来自霍格沃茨的录取通知书。当然，吸引读者的不只是迷人的魔法世界，还有书中形形色色的人物与人物惊心动魄的冒险历程。最值得分析的是罗琳向青少年传达的价值观。本文将以《哈利波特》系列小说的价值观为研究对象，通过以下四个角度：对平等的追求，对反叛的赞美，对生死观的思索，对美好爱情的讴歌，对其进行深入探讨与研究，从而对青少年读者进行价值观上的引导。

关键词：价值观；自由；反叛精神；生死观；爱情

Analysis of the Values in Harry Potter Series Abstract

Harry Potter series are imaginative Magical Realism novels.J.K.Rowling , the distinguished English author, created the magical world which was parallel to the real world with extraordinary imagination and literary creativity. The protagonist, Harry.Potter has lived in the real world before eleven , having a depressed and boring childhood. Then one day in his eleven years old, he suddenly entered the fantasy world full of magic . The transition from real world to magical world emphasized the fascination and fun of the magical world . The readers around the world are deservedly captivated by the magical world and eagerly look forward to received the admission letter from Hogwards at the age of eleven. What attracts the readers are of course in addition to the charming

magical world and all kinds of characters , the thrilling adventures of those characters . The part which is the most worthy of analysis is the values Rowling tried to convey to the young readers. This paper tries to reveal the values that reside in Harry Potter series from four angles i.e. the pursuit of equality, the praise of the rebellious spirit, the attitude towards life and death ,the praise of good love, then carry on the values guidance for young readers.

Key words:Values; Equality; Rebellious Spirit ;life Values; Love Analysis of the Values in Harry Potter Series

论《哈利波特》中蕴含的价值观

：方倩 班级：11英语2班 学号：1105111063

指导教师：胡其林 职称：副教授

1. Introduction

Since published in 1999, Harry Potter series has been popular around the world and beloved by readers of all ages. Although it belongs to children’s fiction, Harry Potter is rich of literariness and worthy of research. Academic circles have made extensive and deep studies on this novel with narratology and translatology, but they paid less attention to the values of the novel. So this paper will take the values of Harry Potter as the research object, under the deep and thorough understanding of the original and taking some few

previous research for reference. In the hope of having a impact on the education of adolescent, this paper will give all readers a different vision of reading this novel. Meanwhile, I hope this paper also is a small contribution to the study of Harry Potter.

2.The Pursuit of Equality

The protagonist of this novel ,Harry Potter, has been up to the age of eleven living a normal and ordinary life until a letter from the Hogwarts School send by an owl brought his life upside down. When he entered the magic world, he was totally fascinated by the charm of magic. Our readers were impressed by all sorts of miraculous things with the perspective of the protagonist, but, we also have seen the discrimination which was ingrained in magic world . The reason why the author described this kind of phenomenon is because she felt pelled to express her disgust at racism existed in the real world and her pursuit of freedom and equality. The pursuit of freedom and equality in Harry Potter is basically revealed from the following aspects:

2.1 Harry and Voldemort ‘s Ways of Treating People and the Non-Human Creatures Equally

Harry Potter series have carried on the profound exposition and the powerful attack on racism. In this novel, Lord Voldemort , on behalf of the dark side, is a typically racist. He argued that only pure-blood wizards can master the magic, and the magic which grasped by the mixed-blood wizards and mudblood ( mudblood is a highly derogatory term for a Muggle-born wizard or witch;that is ,individuals with no wizarding parents or grandparents) was stolen from the pure-blood wizards. When Lord Voldemort was in his

most powerful period, his follower ,Death Eater, persecuted like mad the mixed-blood wizards and Muggle-born wizards . Under the violent rule of Lord Voldemort ,people in the magic world lived in constant fear of being killed. The words said by Hagrid in the first book of Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, described the terrible time : all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches... terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him -- an' he killed 'em.[1] He also never conceal his discrimination against those non-human creatures ,such as centaurs, goblins, house-elf, the giant and so on . Voldemort wanted to set up his own regimes where he was the King of all wizards and all species. Voldemort never needed a friend, his followers all are his slaves.

On the contrary ,Harry sincerely get along with everyone, never feel superior, although what he did enough to let him have a superiority plex in front of his peers . He respect all non-human creatures, treated them as friends. In the final battle between Harry and Voldemort, Voldemort got his reword of his attitude towards the non-human creatures. These non-human creatures joint Harry’s camp one after another and helped Harry win the battle. There are specific words described that:

Chaos reigned. The charging centaurs were scattering the Death Eaters, everyone was fleeing the giants’ stamping feet, and nearer and nearer thundered the reinforcements that had e from who knew where; Harry saw great winged creatures soaring around the heads of Voldemort’s giants, the strals and Buckbeak the hippogriff scratching at their eyes while Grawp punched and pummeled them.

The house-elves of Hogwarts swarmed into the entrance hall, screaming and waving

carving knives and cleavers, They were hacking and stabbing at the ankles and shins of Death Eaters, their tiny faces alive with malice, and everywhere Harry looked Death Eaters were folding under sheer weight of numbers, overe by spells, dragging arrows from wounds, stabbed in the leg by elves, or else simply attempting to escape, but swallowed by the oning horde.[2]

Besides Voldemort ,some other characters of the novel also have a certain tendency of racism. Such as the family of Draco Malfoy ,the classmate of Harry, felt superior to other wizards for their pure-blood –born. As well as Harry’s Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher of the fifth grade ,Dolores Umbridge, not only despise Hagrid who has the blood of giant but also called the centaurs ,lived in the forbidden forest ,filthy half-breeds, beasts ,and uncontrolled animals. These plots happened in this novel are the reflect of racism of the real world.

2.2 Encouraging Equalitarian Treatment of Everyone by Shaping Kind Characters

The Weasleys treated people equally in spite of their pure blood. Arthur Weasley ,the patriarch of the family ,was gentle and friendly. When the magic world monly regarded the contact with Muggles as a shame, Arthur still can fully respected Muggles and acknowledged the wisdom of Muggles.

Hermione Granger, the heroine of Harry Potter ,although she was born in a Muggles family. She never let her birth limited her development. She was smart and hardworking, as well as the best student in most people’s minds. when almost all people took the hard

work of the house-elf for granted ,only Hermione stood out for their unfair treatment and fought for the rights and interests of them. She even established the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Wealfare(S.P.E.W) and tried to struggle freedom for the house-elf.

Hagrid, the gamekeeper of Hogwarts, who was the first friend of Harry in the magic world, was very kind and friendly in nature. In fact, Hagrid concealed his true identity, he was a mixed-blood giant . Because the nature of giant was cruel and violent , Hagrid was isolated by other people after his identity was exposed to the public. However Harry, Ron, Hermione, didn’t abandon him or keep far away from him because of fear. These three people still cherished their friendship with Hagrid and kept sincere and genuine rapport with this kind big guy.

Remus Lupin, Harry’s Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher in third year. When he was at the age of three years old ,he was bite by a werewolf. After that, he became a werewolf. Being a werewolf means he would suffer the discrimination and harm and injustice from other normal people . Before he became Harry’s teacher, he was down and out. He bore so many negative things, but he never bee a bad people although he had enough reasons to bee bad. He was warm ,kind and friendly in all readers’ mind. It is him who taught Harry how to use the Patronus Charm which saved Harry many times when facing the Dementors. He didn’t dare to love with Tonks ,an auror( the aurors are an elite group of witches and wizards who battle against the Dark Arts). He feared that he couldn’t create a happy life for Tonks for his werewolf identity. But Tonks never care about that. He finally abandoned the fear and bravely loved with Tonks. Abandon all worldly fetters and bravely love ,which is the truth that Tonks and Lupin proved for us with their pure love .

3.The Praise of the Rebellious Spirit

The typical characteristic of the adolescents is that they are full of rebellious energy. They rebel against the rules of the school and parents, as well as everything that made them feel depressed. The damage caused by the adolescents’ rebellious deed remind us that we should guide the adolescents in the deed of rebellion, in what they should rebel against. Harry Potter series is of instructive significance in rebellion. This novel depicts a lot of characters with great rebellious spirit. Some rebel authority, some rebel secular concept, some rebel fate.

3.1 Rebellion against Authority

It takes a great deal of courage for people to rebel against the authority who can affect and control our life. Fred and George, the twins of the Weasleys, were very brave men. They rebelled against their mom when their mom strongly opposed their dream of opening a joke shop after they graduated from Hogwards, because Molly, their mom, thought that ideal was very unserious. They rebelled against the ruler of their school . At the sixth grade of them, the Ministry of Magic began to intervene the management of Hogwards. Dolores.Umbridge ,as the represent of the Ministry of Magic , developed a variety of stringent rules and regulations ,most of which seriously violated the rights and interests of students. Students only can depress their anger and disgust for Umbridge without the courage to stand out and revolt. It was Fred and George that stand out to revolt against the dominance of Umbridge although the cost was droping out of school.

“Very good, Argus,” she said. “You two,” she went on, gazing down at Fred and

George, “are about to learn what happens to wrongdoers in my school.”

“You know what?” said Fred. “I don’t think we are.”

He turned to his twin.

“George,” said Fred, “I think we’ve outgrown full-time education.”

“Yeah, I’ve been feeling that way myself,” said George lightly.

“Time to test our talents in the real world, d’you reckon?” asked Fred.

“Definitely,” said George.[3]

The rebellion against the authority needs the courage to fight with them and the psychological preparation of paying the price. The adolescent must receive this experience from the rebellion of George and Fred.

3.2 Rebellion against the Secular Concept

Everyone has their own values. When the secular concept don’t conform to your values, do you have the courage to rebel against the secular concept and stick to your own values?In real life the public consider those who deviate from the mainstream concept as alien. Dobby was such a alien. Dobby , an adorable house-elf, was kind and brave. Elves also appear(in general )to prefer a life of service to being free . however Dobby was a notable exception. He loved freedom and persistently fought for his

freedom . Although other house-elf showed obvious disgust for Dobby ,Dobby never submit to the ingrained perception of the elf world that freedom is shameful. Dobby was a hero to rebel against the mainstream concept, so was Hermione. When most wizards including almost all house-elves themselves thought the house-elf was born to service for wizards and they were not qualified to enjoy freedom, Hermione didn’t yield to the secular concept. She established S.P.E.W and tried to improve the living environment of the house-elves. She bravely became an alien. The society need this kind of alien ,which can remind us of the importance of stick to ourselves.

3.3 Rebellion against Fate

what is fate? Fate is like a pair of invisible hands which dominate our lives. When facing the fate, man is infinitesimal and helpless. When the majority of people accept the fate as they are , only a small proportion of people boldly challenge the fate and choose to be the masters of their own destiny. In Hemingway’s ‘ The Old Man and The Sea ’，there is a great saying which says that man is not made for defeat .A man can be destroyed but not defeated! Maybe the fate has already arranged the end for us, but we can choose how to get there. We must make our own choices.

The life of Harry was continuously governed by a prophecy. The prophecy predicts that Harry will have a fight with Lord Voldemort ,which will result in one casualty.( in fact, the person who will have a cruel battle with Voldemort as the prophecy foretold may refer to two people, Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom. It is Voldemort himself that selected Harry as his opponent.) The prophecy was just like fate ,waiting Harry walked down to his end step by step. The helpless feeling Harry felt that was caused by the

manipulated life was deeper than all characters in Harry Potter. However ,he was not ,as some people said ,the marionette pushed by the fate. The paragraph which impressed me most is that:

I’d want him finished,” said Harry quietly. “And I’d want to do it.”

“Of course you would!” cried Dumbledore. “You see, the prophecy does not mean you have to do anything! But the prophecy caused Lord Voldemort to mark you as his equal. . . . In other words, you are free to choose your way, quite free to turn your back on

the prophecy! But Voldemort continues to set store by the prophecy. He will continue to hunt you . . . which makes itcertain, really, that —”

“That one of us is going to end up killing the other,” said Harry.

“Yes.”

But he understood at last what Dumbledore had been trying to tell him. It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into thearena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew — and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents — that there was all

the difference in the world.[4]

A true warrior has the courage to face up to his miserable life and flood dripping even the death, and make his own choice in the face of almost inevitable destiny.

4.Proper Attitudes Towards Life and Death

Death is the destination we all human share. No one has ever escaped it. Although, we can realize this ,face to face with death is still an extremely difficult thing. Harry Potter series expressed the author’s attitude towards life and death, which is very thought-provoking and could help us understand death deeply.

4.1 Life to Be Cherished and Death to Be Accepted

In Harry Potter series, Voldemort had very evident fear of death. He thought nothing was worse than death .His fear of death stemed from the demise of his mother, which made him realized that death was a shameful weakness of all immortal. Then he grew an intense desire to be immortal. He was obsessed with all kinds of black magic, and finally he found Horcrux, which was a very bloody cruel dark art and could help him conquer death. The greed for fame and power intensified Voldemort’s desire of avoiding death. Because death can take away all those worthless things.

Ironically, the direct reason which made Harry can bravely face up death also was his mother’s death. This great mother sacrificed her life in order to save her child. But Harry had been grown up under lots of love and care from his friends, his godfather, his teacher in Hogwars and Dumbledore. Harry was not willing to see the death of people who love him and would rather to sacrifice himself to defeat Voldemort. Harry resisted the temptation of raising up his parents and being immortal. He firmly struggled with Voldemort face to face. Under the parison of their attitude towards death, the greedy nature of Voldemort revealed. By depicting Voldemort’s fear of death and Harry’s

stoical acceptance of death, Rowling stated proper attitude to death and death is inevitable . The true view over life and death is that cherish life and dare to face up to death.

4.2 Things beyond Death

When Harry was young and ignorant, Voldemort wanted to kill Harry after he had heard the prophecy. Lily.Potter , the mother of Harry, bravely struggled with Voldemort and protected her child with the tactful use of ancient spell, which made Voldemort became a broken wandering souls ,because the ancient spell rebounded Voldemort’s Avada Kedavra ( the killing curse ) to himself body. Lily sacrificed her life and saved Harry .She left the marks of love in Harry’s blood ,which acted as an amulet to keep Harry in safety. Harry lost his mother at a young age ,but Lily had never really left Harry .Lily, as a spiritual strength ,guided his growth and maturity. She showed us the great maternal love and made us realize that love beyond death.

Ron and Hermione didn’t have the duty to acpany Harry on the trip to find and destroy Voldemort’s Horcrux .They knew the hardships of this trip and still resolutely acpanied Harry to finish the arduous task left by Dumbledore. “We’re ing with you. That was decided months ago — years, really.” ““Didn’t realize that Ron and I know perfectly well what might happen if we e with you? Well, we do. ” Ron and Hermione were the best friends of Harry. From the first year in Hogwards ,Harry had experienced a lot of adventures with Hermione and Ron’s acpany. Hermione was Harry’s brain . Ron was Harry’s arms. It is impossible for Harry to find and destroy Horcrux alone. They ventured their life ,abandoned their family, stepped the difficult journey with Harry. They

showed us that friendship beyond death.

Dumbledore said: Death actually like after a long day after finally went to bed. Moreover ,for the mind is lucid people ,death is but another great adventure. What makes our human feared death is just unknown ,besides is no other. [5 Perhaps we can’t face death calmly like wise men did .What we ordinary people could do are just live our life and not fear of the ing of death. And we should known there are some other things more important than our lives. Lily sacrificed her life and protected her child because she cherished Harry’s life more than hers . Dumbledore sacrificed his life in order to wipe out Voldemort because he believed that there are some moments you should consider than their safety more things and you have to consider a great interests. So let us accepted death with grace and open-mindedness. Don’t fear the arrival of the special great adventure.

5.Eulogy of True Love

Snape’s love for Lily lasted for fourteen years after Lily’s death. It makes us feel touched and sigh . Tonks wanted desperately to be with Lupin in spite of his werewolf. Fleur still wanted to marry Bill after his handsome appearance was ruined by the attack of a werewolf. Ginny understood that Harry had his own road to insist on . She silently cooperated with his decision and never made use of Harry’s love for her to obstruct him. Those good love inspires envy in this era where there are many the “left” male and female .

5.1 Salvation of Souls

Severus.Snape was undoubtedly the most plicated and the most dramatic tragedy of all characters. His real identity in the whole works was misunderstood by all people except Dumbledore. His image was very consistent with his spy identity and psychology -------always the same black cloak, greasy black hair ,elusive facial expressions, high level of magic and plicated attitude towards Harry. The first appearance of Snape in this novel gave all readers a feeling that this character was unpopular. Harry was sure that he didn’t like the teacher ,the teacher with aquiline nose and greasy hair didn’t like him too, which seemed to be proved afterwards . However, the end was beyond all expectations .Snape proved to be a good people. He hate Harry because Harry’s father married his lover ,Lily.

The early choice of Snape made him walk to the road of dark arts and full of ambition and brutal killing .But all changed in his deep love for Lily after Voldemort killed Lily. He could do anything for Lily even his life. He switched his sides and decided to protect Lily’s son ,Harry ,in spite that this child was also the son of James, the person he hated most. When Harry became the student of Hogwards , he was always against Harry for his hatred to James ;on the other hands ,he protected Harry in the dark. He had been always a double agent between the Death Eaters and the members of the Phoenix in order to protect Harry and defeat Voldemort until he sacrificed his life.

Snape’s love is the most difficult. During his life time ,in addition to Dumbledore, almost no one knew his painful heart and feelings. His love for Lily was so deep that he was willing to bear all the misunderstanding and hostility. The image of Snape was not perfect, but what was certain was that from the beginning to the end of his life, Snape had always loved Lily unselfishly and sincerely , never changed . He often paced back and forth

in just and evil ,but his love to Lily saved his soul and made him not yield to the force of dark and evil. Perhaps this love was also Snape’s guardian protected him from corrupting his soul by the evil.

5.2 Consistence and Tolerance

Lupin was a gentle and warmhearted person. When he was young, he was bite by a wicked werewolf and he became a werewolf. When Harry first met him in Hogwards’ train, he left such impression on Harry: The stranger was wearing an extremely shabby set of wizard’s robes that had been darned in several places. He looked ill and exhausted. Though quite young, his light brown hair was flecked with gray. Which shows that he had been living a very hard life .But he never changed his nature no matter how much discrimination and harm he suffered from. He was still friendly and sincere to everyone. Although he was at his middle age, he still had not got married because of his poverty and his werewolf identity. Then he met Tonks, a kind girl with a decent job of Auror. Tonks falled in love with this kind-hearted man .But Lupin dared not to love with Tonks in the fear that he couldn’t make her live a happy life. So ,he constantly escaped her feelings for he could not answer her. It hurt Tonks very much but she did not give up. When the handsome appearance of Bill was ruined by a werewolf , Fleur still insisted on marrying to Bill in stead of abandon him. “You thought I would not weesh to marry him? Or per’aps, you hoped?” said Fleur, her nostrils flaring. “What do I care how he looks? I am good-looking enough for both of us, I theenk! All these scars show is zat my husband is brave! [6]Inspired by Fleur’s courage, she conveyed her love to him again. Lupin said : I am too old for you, too poor. . . too dangerous. . . .” “Tonks deserves somebody young and whole.”[7] Because deep love always bring about deep fear that we are not good

enough and couldn’t make the people we loved happy . Tonks never cared about his identity. She loved Lupin so she was willing to be inclusive everything about her. Lupin finally bravely accept Tonks’ love and they got married. Tonks gave tolerance to Lupin ,he returned for bravery.

5.3 Mutual Understanding

Ginny who was always following behind her brothers and almost ignored by Harry would only scream and felt tension when she faced Harry. Almost no one thought she was the person that Harry will spend his life with.

Indeed ,she was mon and ordinary. But when she broke through her shyness and began to show her own self .Harry was touched by her warmness, optimism and adamancy. After the demise of Dumbledore ,Harry must finished his task of finding and destroying the Horcrux in order to kill Voldemort. In consideration of Ginny’s safety (Voldemort might caught Ginny and threatened Harry to appear with Ginny’s life ), he put forward to break up with Ginny . She accepted his decision sliently . She met Harry’s gaze with the same hard, blazing look that he had seen when she had hugged him after winning the Quidditch Cup in his absence, and he knew that at that moment they understood each other perfectly, and that when he told her what he was going to do now, she would not say, “Be careful,” or “Don’t do it,” but accept his decision, because she would not have expected anything less of him.[8]She fully understood his pain and respected his decision . She never obstructed Harry with his love for her . Her love was the most warm and fort place for Harry’s soul. They were forced to separate and faced up with the hardships and challenges alone. When all those hardships ended, the true love

between them which remained steady as a rock after the examination of time and difficulty was more valuable .

6. conclusion

Harry Potter is a fantasy literature work for young readers, but the values Rowling expressed in this novel was more than the magical world and reflected the real world . Whether the pursuit of equality ,the praise of the rebellion spirit or the expression of views over love and death, all these reflect the author’s social value orientation and have important effects on the education of the adolescents.This paper tried to reveal the spiritual world in the way of analyzing the values of Harry Potter, which made young readers to understand this novel profoundly and helped with the healthy growing-up of young adults. The spiritual world of Harry Potter is very rich, this paper just mainly analyzed several key points from my prehension. Harry Potter is an excellent novel and worthy of a prehensive interpretation.

Acknowledgements

It takes me several months to plete this paper. At the pletion of this paper, it means I have pleted my university life. And I’d like to express my gratitude for a number of teachers that have taught me literature during my four-years’ study. I have great benefited from all the professors who have ever taught me literature.

I’d like to give my great thanks to my mentor, lecturer XieYan, I have received so many help from my mentor XieYan. Without her warm-hearted encouragement and

professional instructions, valuable assistance and advice, it’s far difficult for me to plete the thesis. I would also like to express all my thanks to all the teachers and professors for their generous help.

Reference:

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

4. Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince

5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows