How Does Harry Potter Represent My Generation?

It has been said within certain circles that J.K. Rowling has defined a generation with her Harry Potter series. As a series based totally around the life of a young boy developing through the ages of eleven to eighteen within a magical world rife with bigotry, war, and a deep underlining of comradery, I cannot honestly think of a better series to represent my generation. A singularity that all eight books within the series touch on, however, is the idea of friendship and its power to manipulate us in different ways. Friendship, then, can be seen as both a gratifying experience and the most potent of controls over who we are and who we become as individuals. In his development of friendships, Harry Potter seems to be the type of being who

Their characters clash horribly as Ron focuses on pleasure, relaxation, and general laziness while Hermione is firm in her beliefs in hard work, intense knowledge, and succeeding in her education. Harry himself wasn’t even that huge a fan of Hermione when they first met, as he was emulating Ron as closely as possible to stay within the other boy’s good graces. However, when Hermione’s life is threatened Harry’s virtue of courage and heroism do not allow him to sit by quietly and he convinces Ron to help him save her, as it was Ron’s own words that put her in the wrong place at the wrong time to begin with. “But from that moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend. There are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them” (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, 143). This friendship also seems to start off as a friendship of usefulness, as many friendships do, which makes it resonate within readers as something familiar and unquestioning. No friendship is instantaneous and perfect, and the Harry Potter series is very good at showing how long and sometimes difficult they can be. It allows readers to relax in their frantic need to develop many friendships quickly as doing otherwise in the Facebook-outlined world is seen as being an unsuccessful

Hermione, sensing a deeper connection with Harry than when they first became friends in that troll-infested bathroom all those months before, declares, “Books! And cleverness! There are more important things – friendship and bravery and – oh Harry – be careful” (231). Being friends with Harry and Ron had helped encourage a new set of virtues within Hermione, ones that treasured friendship and bonding beyond simply book knowledge, and had made her a better, more Good person. In exchange she helped both Ron and Harry blossom educationally, helping them develop an ability to learn beyond that which they entered into the friendship with. Friendships, especially strong ones, are focused around a give-and-take ratio that is as close to even as possible and in which allows the parties involved to become Good, wholesome individuals. The Harry Potter series, then, shows a relatively believable path to a deep friendship of Goodness that many of us strive