A Deep Dive into Harry Potter
If you’ve been following my IG stories, you’ll already know that just days before our school year started I decided to change our curriculum line-up to include a symbolically rich study of the Harry Potter books. I had so many questions about what I’ll be using so I thought I’d do a blog post sharing why our plans changed, what resources I’m using, and answer some FAQs.
Why The Change
Like so many of us, I’ve always loved these books. I have a very vivid memory of looking down at the first book right outside my 6th grade classroom and thinking, wow, I love this! It was the first book series that made me absolutely fall in love with reading. Year after year, I grew up standing in long lines at midnight to get the next big book release. As I’ve gotten older I’ve lost touch with the books though. I’ve loved seeing my girls fall in love with them. But, I definitely have not been over here reading them in my spare time.
CS Lewis has a famous quote where he says,
“…Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it.”
I would say that’s pretty much exactly what’s unfolded for me over this last year — I’ve re-discovered a love for fairytales and that is largely in part because I’ve been learning how to read and see the the metaphorical and symbolic structure of these type of stories. I’ve learned that when we can read this way we unlock multiple layers of meaning in the stories.
I’ll give you an example of what I mean using the Harry Potter books. Right at the beginning, we see an orphaned boy living in oversized clothes and rags under the cupboard in the stairs. He’s been stripped of his home, his identity, and it isn’t until he passes through Platform 9 3/4 into the wizarding world that he begins to piece back who he truly is. His robes fit him and he is more at home at the Hogwarts Castle than he ever was at the Dursleys. The muggle world, in which he thought was his reality, isn’t. Further, in each story, Harry dies a figurative death, but rises again with the help of a Christ figure — the sorcerer’s/philosopher’s stone, the phoenix, a stag, ect.
We see this same story play out in Cinderella, right? She looses her identity when her step-mother and step-sisters move in. She is also stripped of her room and given rags to wear as she cleans out a large medieval open hearth fireplace — thus earning the name Cinderella and giving us the impression that she is also metaphorically dead. When she goes to the castle festival/ball, she is dressed in her beautiful gown and the glass slipper becomes the token of her true identity — which, note, is ultimately given to her only by the King’s Son…the Prince of Peace…the Bridegroom.
But, to give both of these stories one more crucial layer - we also see this same story unfold in the New Testament. When Lazarus dies he is dressed in rags and placed in a tomb, giving us the same imagery of a hearth fireplace and the cupboard under the stairs. Lazarus reemerges only because of Christ. As we know, this also is a foreshadowing of Christ’s death and resurrection. And, ultimately, our belief in life after death in which we reside with the King of Kings.
So all of these stories essentially are also our story — the story of the soul’s journey to God — and that’s why it resonates so deeply to so many of us. Because of the fall, we’ve been exiled from our heavenly home and we’re all just here trying to find our way back. In this journey we call life we hunger for our divine identities — to know who we really are. And, it is only through our Redeemer that we are able to return home — back to our real reality. This reality is much like the wizarding world that surrounds Harry. Yet, so many of us struggle to draw back the veil…to cross through the platform…to walk into the wardrobe so that we can truly see.
Believe it or not, just with these few examples, there are actually quite a few more layers here, but I won’t go into all of those. I just wanted to give you a little taste so others can see why I feel like this study is so important. It used to be that people could read like this, but our more recent generations have become symbolically illiterate. So, at the end of the day, I don’t want my kids to be my age when they start to figure this stuff out so I am doing everything I can to read and learn the language of symbolism now so I can pass it onto them — and these books truly are such a good way to start opening these doors because they are so loved.
Resources I’m Using
First, you should know I still feel like I have a lot to learn, but, in regards to Harry Potter, there are a few must-have items I am using this year.
Harry Potter Yoto Cards: The release of these seriously couldn’t have come at a more perfect time and I am so excited. These are fantastic for pre-readers, for mid-leveled readers who can follow along with the books, and also for older kids who like to listen to the stories again and again. In the short few weeks we’ve had these cards my older girls have already listened to the first two books again (this is their third time through the books). My 7 year old is currently listening to book 3 for the first time.
If you’re new to Yoto I have a blog post all about it here: One Year Review of the Mini Yoto Player.
Harry Potter Books: I have my well-loved childhood set, but I’ve also invested in the first few Minimala Editions because they’re so fun. A lot of people also like these illustrated versions.
How Harry Cast His Spell by John Granger: This is my spine and the main thing I am using to help myself become more familiar with the layers in these books so I can pass the knowledge onto my kids.
The Literary Life Podcast Episodes 232-235: This is a fantastic free introduction to reading the books symbolically. I will say, there are times in these episodes that their literary knowledge goes way over my head (hope I’m not the only one), but this is their jam and they know what they’re talking about so I just listen through until I get the gems I need.
Harry Potter: Gateway to the Literary Tradition: This is the formal class extension to The Literary Life Podcast episodes for books 2-3. I am only about half way through this course, but so far I am loving it and definitely think it’s worth it if you’re extra serious about seeing the depth in these books. One thing I like about this class is that, Angelina Stafford, the host, also helps us see the other books within the books — like Alice in Wonderland, Greek Mythology, and the Arthurian Legends.
FAQs
What age are the books for?
There isn’t an easy answer here and each parent will just have to use their best judgement. I’ve heard the general rule of thumb is to let your child grow up with Harry. He receives his Hogwart’s letter in the first book at age 11 and in each book one year elapses so he is a year older each time he returns. This is exactly how it worked out for me to read the books. The last 4 books get progressively darker though so that is definitely something parents need to be aware of especially if you’ve never read the books.
However, my girls just turned 11 and have already read all the books. I think had we lived in a world where no one knew these stories or hadn’t seen the movies then I would’ve loved to take the advice of one book a year. But, since everyone around us are so familiar with the books and movies I think if you take 7 years to read the books, then your child is going to get a lot of spoilers. I introduced my girls to the audio books when they were 8. They listened to the first 3 books and I only let them read the 4th once they were able to actually read it. At that point, they were done with the series by 10.
Right now, my 7 year old has listened to the first two books (and is on the 3rd now) and absolutely loves them. In fact, interestingly enough, he’s already picked up on some of the layers of symbolism which has just kind of blown my mind.
Ultimately, I’ve tried to be just be aware of everyone’s reaction to the darker elements in the book, but one thing to remember is that children’s understanding of “dark” only goes as far as their own imagination. Which, unless your child has been exposed to some heavy life experiences, remember it isn’t like an adult’s imagination. Neil Gaiman, paraphrasing G.K. Chesterton said:
“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
In a fallen world, our reality is very much that there are dragons here that have to be slayed and books like Harry Potter give adults and children hope that sin and evil can be defeated. Why do you think one of Harry’s archnemsis is named Draco? Draco is the Greco-Latin world for serpent, or dragon.
How do I teach the symbolism?
Here are a few of my thoughts on this:
First, as adults, once we start seeing symbolic meaning in stories it is so tempting to want to tell it to our children, but I’ll have to say definitely don’t do this the first time your kids are working through these stories. Let them experience the magic and fall in love with them first. The early years are about introducing the books so they’re familiar with the stories and imagery. Around the age of 11-12, middle grade students start to crave depth and I think this is a good time to start opening these doors — as long as they’ve read the books. If they’re older and haven’t read the books yet - just set a foundation and let them enjoy the stories and come back to them and dive deeper once the passion is already there.
Second, having a foundation of other classic stories for these books is really helpful. Like I mentioned, there is a lot of ancient mythology in here, Arthurian Legends, Shakespeare, and other classic fairytales. You’ll even see parallels to Star Wars and, of course, The Chronicles of Narnia. In hindsight, I can see how our experience working through the first two Story of the World books actually really helped prepare all of us for this study because ancient and medieval history were the time periods that were so rich in symbolic literature.
For example, in SOTW Ancient Times we read the about story of the Roman twins Remus and Romulus. Even the front cover of the book has the twins sitting next to wolf. In Harry Potter Remus Lupin’s character exemplifies the struggle of conquering our own inner natural man or animal side as he battles turning back and forth between man and wolf. Lupin is also Latin for wolf.
Third, we started listening to the books as a family, but my 7 year old was anxious to move on so I am just letting him move on and enjoy the series. With my older girls, right now, we are just discussing the books as we work through them and I am pointing out what I’ve learned. I am sure this will unravel more as our year moves on, but right now I am just preparing one book in advance and making notes of all the things I want to go over with them. I may bring in notebooking and some other projects, but right now we’re just enjoying finding the parallels together as we work back through the series together. I am not having them listen to the podcast or HP class with me just because I felt like it was still a little too much for them and I wanted to enjoy being the one to teach them.
Addressing Magic
Even though these books are more than 25 years old now, it’s interesting how many comments I’ve gotten questioning their intention in regards to magic and sorcery. I think, when done respectfully, parents are wise to be concerned what their children consume. There are a lot of books we avoid because I don’t feel like the content is at all appropriate for young children so I totally get it.
Rest assured, there is no witchcraft in these books though. Are there magical elements? Yes, of course, but the “spells” in these books are just Latin words. The whole series is structured to help us, in our mortal natures, open a doorway, albeit probably just a little one, into grasping the heavenly realm.
In his book, John Granger, says,
”I am convinced that the fundamental reason for the astonishing popularity of the Harry Potter novels is their ability to meet a spiritual longing for some experience of the truths of life, love, and death that are denied by our secular culture. Human beings are designed for transcendent truths, whether they know it or not, and they pursue experience of these truths and some exercise of their spiritual facilities anywhere they can.”
If this is still a concern of yours, but you’re open to learning more, I would highly suggest listening to: Episode 104 of the Literary Life: Witches, Wizards, and Magic, Oh My!!
Concluding Thoughts
I hope this post was helpful. As I was preparing for this blog post, I asked my girls their favorite new piece of knowledge they’ve learned in our discussions and they said they have loved learning that the books are written in a chiasmus structure. So, book 1 parallels with book 7, book 2 with book 6, book 3 with book 5 and the 4th book is the peak where everything changes at the Tri-Wizard Tournament. They also like that there are parallels between the Muggle and Wizarding worlds like Aunt Petunia will be making breakfast and so is Molly Weasly. Dudley and his gang mirror Draco and his gang. Last of all they loved learning the Mirror of Erised (which shows one their deepest desires) is a play on words since desire spelled backwards is erised.
If you find yourself doing a similar study this year, I’d love to hear what you end up doing!