Harry Potter Archetypal Hero

Harry Potter: An Archetypal Hero But Not Only

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is the first book of a series of seven novels written by J.K. Rowling between 1997 and 2007. The seven novels have been read by millions of adults and children across the world. The series tells the story of a young orphan boy whose name is Harry Potter, and who finds out he is a wizard and is invited to join a school called ‘Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry’. At this school, Harry Potter finds out that his destiny is to defeat Lord Voldemort, a dark wizard who killed his parents when he was just a baby, and who is terrorizing the wizard society. During the whole series, the reader follows Harry Potter through his heroic journey during which he

As it can be observed, during the whole novel, Draco Malfoy always looks down on people who are “mudbloods” and “muggle” and considers that Hogwarts should be kept for “the old wizarding families” (Rowling 91). When an end is put to this discussion between Harry and Draco, Harry is “not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy” (91). Later on, when Harry is on the train towards Hogwarts, Draco talks to him and states that Harry will soon find out that some families are worth more than other to which Harry answers coolly “I think I can tell the wrong sort for myself, thanks” (125). We can see here that the protagonist is not influenced by Draco and chooses the right side consciously. Furthermore, as it can be noticed in chapter 9, he stands up against bullying. When Malfoy steals Neville’s Remembrall, Harry does not hesitate to chase him on his broom in order to get it back, and will finally win against Draco Malfoy: “a foot from the ground he caught it, just in time to pull his broom straight, and he toppled gently onto the grass with the Remembrall clutched safely in his fist” (170). During the whole series of novels, Harry shows virtues and high moral standards, which reinforce his picture of an archetypal hero and also “educate[s] and engage[s] the reader” (Peters

This can clearly be identified in Harry since he practices quidditch at Hogwarts, and is an excellent player at this sport; Harry is the “youngest house player in about a century” (Rowling 173). In his practice of quidditch, Harry is very successful however; the representation of the quidditch match is still realistic. At some point Harry almost fell off his broom due to a spell cast on his broom: this proves that Harry Potter, even though being a hero, is not infallible.

As noticed before, Harry Potter possesses many traits of the archetypal hero, however, he also possesses traits that make him “a real boy” (Grimes 99) since he “attends school, experiences sibling rivalry, suffers from bullies’ attack, struggles with some of his schoolwork…just as most adolescents do”