Krista
Faries
(from Radix
Vol. 27:3)
Why
Harry Potter Is Not the Chronicles of Narnia
(page 1 of 4)
In the first chapter of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the name “Harry Potter” is heard spoken in excited whispers on the streets all over England. It is an apt image for the real-life buzz today over the best-selling Harry Potter books.
This British children’s series, three of which have been published so far, have topped best-seller lists and have broken records for children’s books sales. As of this writing, the three are #1, 2, and 3 on the New York Times best-seller list. The fourth book, not yet published, is already #6 on amazon.com’s best-seller list, based on pre-order sales. And these books aren’t being bought just for kids. They are also topping the best-seller lists on college campuses across the U.S. In England, a separate edition, with a more subdued cover, was published to cater to the adult audience. Recently, the third book narrowly missed being picked for one of England’s highest literary prizes.
For a while it seemed thateverywhere I turned, someone was talking about these books. But it wasn’t until one person qualified her expressions of delight by calling them “the new Chronicles of Narnia” that I really became curious.
Early in The Sorcerer’s Stone, we gather from the excited whispering that Harry Potter is “The Boy Who Lived” (as the first chapter is intriguingly titled). Harry’s parents, James and Lily Potter, are killed by the evil wizard Voldemort, but when Voldemort turns on their one-year old son Harry, for reasons that remain a mystery, Voldemort’s powers are dramatically weakened and he is unable to kill the boy. This moment of Voldemort’s downfall causes the lifting of the former spirit of oppression he had caused throughout the wizard community. Harry becomes a legend, and the mystery of how Harry survived is one of the questions that lingers throughout the series.
Harry himself is both literally and figuratively scarred by the encounter. Voldemort leaves his mark in the form of a lightning-bolt-shaped scar on Harry’s forehead, a distinction that makes it difficult for Harry to fade into anonymity. He also bears the psychological scars of the encounter, and his struggles to face his pain and loss are an important theme—perhaps the most important theme—of the books.
Years pass, however, before Harry knows anything about what happened. After his parents are killed, Harry goes to live with his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon Dursley, who are “Muggles” (Rowling’s name for non-magic people). His aunt and uncle embody unimaginative dullness and excessive self-indulgence, typifying the worst characteristics of Muggleness. Ever since Harry arrived on their doorstep, they’ve not only made his life miserable, but have done everything possible to hide his magical history from him, telling him his parents were killed in a car accident. But Harry has inherited magical traits, which insist on bursting out at the most inopportune moments, to their dismay and to Harry’s bewilderment.