Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, By T. Rowling

414 Words2 Pages

The central racial conflict in the Harry Potter series stems from the ever-present juxtaposition of the Muggles, or non-magic people, and the Wizarding community. Considering the attention Rowling devotes to this theme in books two through five, the title Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was of no surprise. In Book Six, Rowling turns to a more personal investigation of racism: the question of what makes an individual persecutor racist. The readers get an insight into the source of Voldemort's quest for power and racial purity: his own perceived inadequacy. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the racial tension is heightened as the ministry of magic itself rallies behind pure-bloods are superior motto, “MAGIC IS MIGHT” (Rowling, Deathly Hallows 198). …show more content…

Riddle's maternal grandfather, Marvolo Gaunt, the epitome of bigotry, greets a Ministry of Magic official with the question, "Are you pure-blood?" (Rowling, Half-Blood Prince 203) and when he learns that his daughter has crush on the Muggle Tom Riddle, he explodes, articulating his supremacist stance: "My daughter — pure-blooded descendant of Salazar Slytherin — hankering after a filthy, dirt-veined Muggle? .

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