The Harry Potter Prequel
An Analysis of J.K. Rowling's 800-Word Story for Charity
Harry Potter's author has always been highly involved with charity. In her recent speech at Harvard, J.K. Rowling called on those with privileged status to be involved in charitable works, and she recently brought in almost $50,000 for the "What's Your Story?" charity fundraiser by auctioning off an 800-word prequel to the Harry Potter stories - a brief tale about young James Potter and Sirius Black being chased down my Muggle police. The story, while mundane on the surface, contains flashes of Rowling's brilliance.
J.K. Rowling's Humor
The Harry Potter books are filled with sarcastic humor in the face of arrogant authority figures, and this story, which can be read online, contains the same. James and Sirius banter about while the two officers, who chased them down for speeding on a motorcycle and not wearing helmets, become positively enraged. When the officers ask for names, Sirius replies, "Er - well, let's see. There's Wilberforce ... Bathsheba ... Elvendork ...." James quickly comments on the last name: "And what's nice about that one is, you can use it for a boy or a girl."
The officers are not amused, but the readers are.
When Wizards and Muggles Collide
The meeting of the two worlds, Magic and Muggle, is a spark not only for much of the series' humor, but for much of its brilliance and effectiveness as a story. In traveling with Harry into the Wizarding World, the reader gets a glimpse of a magical version of her own world; she is able to approach matters in the magical setting which have parallels to crucial issues facing the world in which she lives. This brief story about two officers in a Muggle car chasing Sirius and James on the magical motorcycle (which would appear in the opening chapter of the first Harry Potter book) is a classic anecdote of the collision of the Wizarding and Muggle worlds.
William Wilberforce and J.K. Rowling's Social Vision
Can there possibly be anything close to a social commentary in just 800 words about two rebellious teens? Well, yes, there can, at least in passing. The first seemingly random name Sirius mentions is "Wilberforce," which is a very recognizable surname. William Wilberforce was a member of British Parliament in the late 18th and early 19th centuries whose Christian faith inspired him to fight for the abolition of the slave trade in England. His efforts were ultimately successful (his story has been recently told in the film Amazing Grace).
What's particularly interesting about the Wilberforce reference is that he was a Christian involved in social action. At Carnegie Hall in October of 2007, Ms. Rowling called the series "a prolonged argument for tolerance." Then, in an interview in The Student with Adeel Amini (March 4, 2008), Ms. Rowling said, "There was a Christian commentator who said that Harry Potter had been the church's biggest missed opportunity. And I thought, there's someone who actually has their eyes open" (pg. 12).
The mention of Wilberforce is a nexus of both of these ideas, because he is a shining example of a Christian whose faith informed and sustained his courageous political action on behalf of those who were subjugated and oppressed. This is what Rowling calls her readers to in her stories, and it's one of the many reasons readers return to the books over and over again.
Related Reading:
The Brilliant Weasley Drop-outs
