The Wisdom of Harry Potter: What Our Favorite Hero Teaches Us about Moral Choices

#35
Title: The Wisdom of Harry Potter: What Our Favorite Hero Teaches Us about Moral Choices
Author: Edmund M. Kern
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Year: 2003
Genre: Philosophy/Literary criticism
296 pages

Kern asserts that Harry Potter is a neo-Stoic (or perhaps neo-Stoic-in-training). I'm not in a position to evaluate this assertion, though it seems to me that Kern has some trouble supporting it when it comes to both Harry's obstinacy and his passionate nature--Radcliffe's acting notwithstanding, the Harry of the books is very emotional--and the value Dumbledore places on love. I agree that Harry is beingh trained in constancy, at least.

The more enjoyable sections of the book range more broadly and include examinations of rule-following and rule-breaking, fate versus free will, and Harry Potter as Christian all;egory versus demonic recruitment tool (Kerns's answer: It's neither). I thought Kerns might have done a better job of addressing some of the Marxist critiques of the HP series, as well as more thoughtfully exploring the tension between the world of HP as reinscribing versus satirizing normative cultural values, but hey, a writer can't take on everything. Similarly, I would enjoy reading about the differneces between Stoic and Buddhist interpretations of the series.

Though I have smaller issues I'd enjoy discussing (such as Harry's use of a forbidden curse in OOTP), I'm more interested that my broader moral/ethical concern was not particularly treated, or even identified, by this volume. Though Kern pays some attention to rule-breaking, he does not tackle the systematic breaking of rules that occurs on behalf of promoting Harry as a hero or savior. Again and again, Harry's transgressions are not punished; they are often rewarded; and those in power transgress in his favor, whether evil (Barty Crouch) or good (Professor McGonagall). Harry is rather relentlessly trained to ignore or subvert rules, and one must ask, to what end? The answer, to be able to save everyone, suggests both that the ends justify the means, and ignore the question of what is good for Harry. This question finds one answer in Ender's Game, and it remains to be seen what Harry's status and self-evaluation are post-apocalypse.