As we discussed in class, the first book of the Harry Potter series resembles a children’s book much more than some of the later books. When I read the book for the first time as a sixth grader, I didn’t notice anything strange about the way the adults acted in this novel. However, as an adult now, I find the behavior of Professor McGonagall, Hagrid, and Dumbledore much more alarming.
At first the adults at Hogwarts seem strict but sensible. They are hard on the students, but they reinforce their interests in the student’s safety and learning (with the exception of Snape who inexplicably hates Harry from the moment he walks into Hogwarts). This changes when Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Malfoy are caught sneaking through Hogwarts late at night by Professor McGonagall. She gives them each a detention, which seems reasonable until they are called in to serve it. Their detention is not something simple like “coping lines or something,” but rather they are sent into the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid and his dog to look for an injured unicorn (311). When asked about what might have hurt it, Hagrid says, “It’s not easy ter catch a unicorn, they’re powerful magic creatures. I never knew one ter be hurt before” (313). It’s startling to me now that both McGonagall and Hagrid agreed that a good punishment for students being out of their dorms at night was to send them into a forest that is known to be dangerous and is normally off-limits to students. The unskilled eleven-year-olds are sent into the forest even when the adults know that something more harmful than usual is out there hurting creatures that are powerful and difficult to catch.
Dumbledore also acts unexpectedly throughout Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which Harry discovers at the end of the novel. Harry and his friends are recovering from their attempt to stop Voldemort from stealing the Sorcerer’s Stone and coming back to power when Dumbledore visits Harry. He tells Harry how he was the one to give Harry the invisibility cloak. When Harry shares this with Ron and Hermione, they speculate that Dumbledore gave it to Harry to enable him to take on Voldemort. Harry says, “I reckon he had a pretty good idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he just taught us enough to help…It’s almost like he thought I had the right to face Voldemort if I could” (576). Enabling a group of eleven-year-olds to take on a horrendous dark wizard who has every desire to kill one of them is rather negligent. While I love the book and many of the adult characters, I find that reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone as an adult has given me an entirely new perspective on the actions of the adult wizards.
Although you make good points in your post, I have to disagree. When Harry, Ron, Malfoy, and Neville go to the Forbidden Forest to serve their detention, Hagrid states that "there's nothin' that lives in the forest that'll hurt [them] if [they're] with [him] or Fang" (250). He has made sure that the student's won't get hurt or be faced with danger. The whole point of detention is to make sure students won't break the rules in the future and the best way to make sure of this is by installing fear into the students in a safe way, which the teachers have done. Furthermore, knowing how Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall often plan out their actions to influence the future, it could be safe to assume that they knew the students' quest to find the injured unicorn would have led Harry to Voldemort, installing the fear of Voldemort into Harry. This then leads to the next point that Dumbledore most likely knew that Voldemort would try to steal the Sorcerer's Stone and that Harry would try to thwart his plans. Dumbledore gave Harry the opportunity to face off Voldemort while staying at a close enough distance to step in when necessary. These actions do seem quite extreme, but I believe that they were important events in Harry's character growth that were closely monitored by the teachers. If these event were to have happened by chance without the involvement of the teachers, it would have turned out much worse and seemed more negligent instead.
ReplyDeleteI too was surprised by the adults’ lack of responsibility in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Specifically, Professor McGonagall’s and Hagrid’s behavior shocked me. Both of these officials let their personal ambitions take precedence over the safety of Harry Potter.
ReplyDeleteProfessor McGonagall is a “strict and clever” teacher, and she also is the head of the Gryffindor House at Hogwarts (133). However, her house affiliation causes her to allow Harry to play Quidditch as a first-year student for the Gryffindor team. She tells Harry, “Heaven knows, we need a better team than last year. Flattened in that last match by Slytherin, I couldn’t look Severus Snape in the face for weeks” (152). Quidditch is a dangerous sport, but Professor McGonagall allows Harry to play and does not punish him for flying a broomstick when not allowed.
Hagrid is supportive of Harry at Hogwarts. However, his fondness of dragons leads to Harry getting in an immense amount of trouble. Harry is responsible for sending away Hagrid’s illegal dragon, but when he gets caught the entire Gryffindor House is punished. Points are taken away from Gryffindor, but also his punishment involves serving a detention in the forbidden forest. In the forest, Harry has a dangerous encounter with Voldemort.
While none of the adults at Hogwarts intentionally try to harm Harry, except Professor Quirrell, their actions are reckless at times. It is surprising how some of the adults allow their personal matters to impact the safety of the students at Hogwarts.
I agree with your assessment that the adult characters in the series often seem negligent or irresponsible and want to expand on it. You brought up the example of Hagrid taking them into the Forbidden Forest and I want to delve more into just how irresponsible that was as a punishment. The first years are warned very early on that the Forbidden Forest is dangerous and that it is “forbidden to all pupils” (127). Despite this rule Professor McGonagall punishes Harry and the others, all first year students with little skill in magic, to go into the Forbidden Forest. While they are sent in there with Hagrid and Fang, Hagrid is forbidden from using magic and Fang is, as Hagrid himself describes, “a coward” (251). The incident that they are sent in to investigate involves a very dangerous creature, something that is able to harm or even kill a “power” unicorn (251). Something this dangerous is not what teachers should be punishing first year students with investigating, especially when the only real means they have of defending themselves are a large man with a crossbow and a cowardly dog. If Firenze had not appeared in time to save Harry, he could have very easily died in his encounter with Lord Voldemort. No responsible adult would send children into a situation like this, which perfectly encapsulates how negligent many of the adult figures in the book are.
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