Home | Reviews | Blog | Daily | Glossary | Orrin's Stuff | Email

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003)

In times of old when I was new
And Hogwarts barely started
The founders of our noble school
Thought never to be parted:
United by a common goal,
They had the selfsame yearning,
To make the world's best magic school
And pass along their learning.
"Together we will build and teach!"
The four good friends decided
And never did they dream that they
Might someday be divided,
For were there such friends anywhere
As Slytherin and Gryffindor?
Unless it was the second pair
Of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw?
So how could it have gone so wrong?
How could such friendships fail?
Why, I was there and so can tell
The whole sad, sorry tale.
Said Slytherin, "We'll teach just those
Whose ancestry is purest."
Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those whose
Intelligence is surest."
Said Gryffindor, "We'll teach all those
With brave deeds to their name,"
Said Hufflepuff, "I'll teach the lot,
And treat them just the same."
These differences caused little strife
When first they came to light,
For each of the four founders had
A House in which they might
Take only those they wanted, so,
For instance, Slytherin
Took only pure-blood wizards
Of great cunning, just like him,
And only those of sharpest mind
Were taught by Ravenclaw
While the bravest and the boldest
Went to daring Gryffindor.
Good Hufflepuff, she took the rest,
And taught them all she knew,
Thus the Houses and their founders
Retained friendships firm and true.
So Hogwarts worked in harmony
For several happy years,
But then discord crept among us
Feeding on our faults and fears.
The Houses that, like pillars four,
Had once held up our school,
Now turned upon each other and,
Divided, sought to rule.
And for a while it seemed the school
Must meet an early end,
What with dueling and with fighting
And the clash of friend on friend
And at last there came a morning
When old Slytherin departed
And though the fighting then died out
He left us quite downhearted.
And never since the founders four
Were whittled down to three
Have the Houses been united
And they once were meant to be.
And now the Sorting Hat is here
And you all know the score:
I sort you into Houses
Because that is what I'm for,
But this year I'll go further,
Listen closely to my song:
Though condemned I am to split you
Still I worry that it's wrong,
Though I must fulfill my duty
And must quarter every year
Still I wonder whether sorting
May not bring the end I fear.
Oh, know the perils, read the signs,
The warning history shows,
For our Hogwarts is in danger
From external, deadly foes
And we must unite inside her
Or we'll crumble from within.
I have told you, I have warned you...
Let the Sorting now begin.

-Sorting Hat Song, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.

4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
Genesis 11:1-9

So, I know a lot of readers, including my kids, say this is their least favorite Potter tale, mostly because Harry is such an angsty angry teen in it. But one suspects there's more behind the dissatisfaction than just a hormonal teen. This is the point at which the wizarding world's chickens really start to come home to roost. It is also, not coincidentally, where Ms Rowling's Christian themes start to come to the fore. The combined effect serves to move the series onto a more serious and no doubt troubling plane. But, for my money, it's here that she starts to achieve greatness.

As the Sorting Hat's song for this year at Hogwarts suggests, there is something rotten in the whole idea of dividing young people into categories that will last a lifetime. Nor is it simply the fact that the process is divisive by definition. Consider also how horribly it undersells several of the main characters. Luna Lovegood is put in Hufflepuff, but will show herself to have more courage than many a Gryffindor. And Harry will one day name a son Severus: "probably the bravest man I ever knew." Maybe the character of an individual is simply unknowable at age 11, even if you're a magic hat?

As if the Houses weren't a bad enough divide among wizards, obviously much worse is the prejudice built around purity of blood. Draco and others hurl around the insult mud-blood as if there were some shame in it. There is more to it than blood, but the way Harry's father treated Snape is beneath contempt. And Voldemort will be so driven by his desire to escape the taint of Muggle blood that he will seek to deny mortality entirely.

And these are just the castes amongst wizards. In the book's opening scenes we are forced to reckon with the possibility that Uncle Vernon has been right all along to fear and hate magic. While the dementors are after Harry, it is Dudley they harm and do so on the verge of the Dursley home. The various wizards have never shown any compunction about messing around with mere muggles. They just assume their "superiority" entitles them to disregard humans. But given this, why should Vernon, or why would you or I, not despise them? Yet, Aunt Petunia, despite her jealousy of her wizard sister and her unfortunate treatment of her nephew, has always observed her promise to Dumbledore and, thereby, kept Harry safe.

Likewise, while it was initially played for laughs, when we see how Kreacher has been treated who would not support Hermione's Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare? Even when they are not intentionally cruel to these slaves the best they are is completely uninterested in their quality of life, as even Ron shows. Sirius will ultimately pay the ultimate price for this disregard as Dumbledore explains:

“He regarded him as a servant unworthy of much interest or notice. Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike... The fountain we destroyed tonight told a lie. We wizards have mistreated and abused our fellows for too long, and we are now reaping our reward."

A bitter reward it is.

The Ministry of Magic doesn't come off too well either. Give Fudge and Co. some credit for ignoring Voldemort's return mostly because they see Dumbledore as a threat to their power. You're still left with a governing body that tries fixing Harry's trial, uses the media exclusively for state purposes and dispatches Dolores Umbridge to Hogwarts to quite literally torture students. It is a borderline fascistic government. If early in the series the wizarding world seemed literally and figuratively enchanting, Rowling has gradually shown us that Voldemort hardly represents the only darkness therein.

Ms Rowling though is too much the master of her materials for all to be dark. In the courage of Luna and Snape we see the power of free will and choice which are so much a theme of the series. We can see what Dumbledore has never been able to show Tom Riddle:

“There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!” snarled Voldemort.

“You are quite wrong,” said Dumbledore... “Indeed, your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness--”

For any mortal creature fear and hatred of death are ultimately a form of self-loathing and are, thus, debilitating. And, of course, the greatest lesson she has to impart, once again via Dumbledore:

“There is a room in the Department of Mysteries, that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. That power took you to save Sirius tonight. That power also saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a body so full of the force he detests. In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you.”

The greatest weapon is precisely the one that Harry has in spades, that his Mother used to save him and that Voldemort's nature denies him access to: love. At one point, Hermione says to Harry:

‘OK,’ she said, looking frightened yet determined, ‘I’ve just got to say this -‘

‘What?’

‘You… this isn’t a criticism, Harry! But you do… sort of… I mean – don’t you think you’ve got a bit of a – a – saving-people thing!’ she said.

That "saving-people thing," that willingness to sacrifice everything for the people he loves...well, we all know the story where we've heard that before and seen someone do it. Sure, Harry's kind of a petulant pain in the you-know-what in this entry, but given the way the adults he loves are keeping him in the dark about everything that's going on and the way everyone he loves is under threat from Voldemort and just the nature of teen-age boys, maybe we can cut him some slack, eh?

(Reviewed:29-Jan-21)

Grade: (A)

Websites:

J. Rowling Links:

    -WIKIPEDIA: J. K. Rowling
    -AUTHOR SITE: https://www.jkrowling.com/
    -FEATURED AUTHOR: J.K. Rowling (NY Times Book Review)
    -PODCAST: Out Now: The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling (The Free Press, February 21, 2023)
    -ESSAY: J. K. ROWLING’S WITCH TRIALS: THE PULL OF FUNDAMENTALISM: The controversies swirling around JK Rowling illustrate that fundamentalist thinking is not unique to the religious right. (Dan Ellsworth, 3/06/23, Public Square)
    -
    -ESSAY: J. K. Rowling's Moment of Truth (Rachel Liu, 6/08/23, Law & Liberty)
    -ESSAY: J.K. Rowling Addresses Her Critics: As more people burned her books over the weekend, the author confronts the idea that she is ‘dangerous’ and ‘transphobic.’ (The Free Press, March 28, 2023)
    -ESSAY: JK Rowling works her magic again: She has launched a new feminist revolution (JULIE BINDEL, 12/12/22, UnHerd)
    -ESSAY: JK Rowling sees through her enemies: Her new book is more than a persecution fantasy (KAT ROSENFIELD, 9/02/22, UnHerd)
    -ESSAY: THE STRANGE FATE OF HAMILTON AND HARRY POTTER (Carl R. Trueman, 1 . 6 . 22, First Things)
    -ESSAY: Harry Potter And The Politics Of Diversity (Jeroen Bouterse, 4/13/20, 3 Quarks Daily)
    -ESSAY: Harry Potter and the Childish Adult: Why do Harry Potter books satisfy children and--a much harder question--so many adults? (A.S. BYATT, 7/07/03, NY Times)
    -ESSAY: Quidditch quaintness: The values that triumph in the Harry Potter books are those of a nostalgic, conservative Little Britain (Richard Adams, June 18, 2003, The Guardian)
    -ESSAY: Harry Potter and the fascist bully-boys (Rod Liddle, June 25, 2003, The Guardian)
    -ESSAY: JK Rowling is no antisemite: For most British Jews she is a heroine (Stephen Pollard, 1/06/21, UnHerd)
    -ESSAY: JK Rowling, goblins and anti-Semitism (Daniel Johnson, 1/https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/01/06/the-grotesque-assault-on-jk-rowling/07/22, The Article)
    -ESSAY: The grotesque assault on JK Rowling: So now she’s anti-Semitic, too? This smear campaign is increasingly unhinged. (Frank Furedi, 1.06/22, spiked)
    -
    -
    -ESSAY: JK Rowling and the goblins of ire (Nicole Lampert, 1/06/22, CapX)
    -ARTICLE: Countdown in Times Sq.: 3-2-1, It's 870 More Pages of Potter (N.R. KLEINFIELD, June 21, 2003, NY Times)
    -ESSAY: Breaking the Spell (CHARLES McGRATH, June 22, 2003, NY Times Magazine)
    -REVIEW: of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (MICHIKO KAKUTANI, June 21, 2003, NY Times)
    -
    -REVIEW: of Ink Black Heart (Darragh McManus , Independent ie)
    -REVIEW: of Ink Black Heart (Anne Marie Scanlon, Independent ie)
    -

FILM

    -
    -
    -
    -FILM REVIEW: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)

Book-related and General Links:

    -WIKIPEDIA: J.K. Rowling -WIKIPEDIA: Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix
    -ENTRY: Rowling, J. K. 1965- (Newt Scamander, Kennilworthy Whisp) (Encyclopedia.com)
    -ENTRY: Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix (Encyclopedia.com)
    -PODCAST: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Binge Mode, The Ringer)
    -PODCAST: Harry Potter and the Sacred Text
    -PODCAST: Season 5: Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter and the Sacred Text)
    -AUDIO BOOK: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Miss Smith Storytime)
    -STUDY GUIDE: Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix (Spark Notes)
    -STUDY: Guide: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Grade Saver)
    -Wizarding World: The Official Home of Harry Potter
    -Harry Potter Lexicon
    -The Leaky Cauldron
    -Hogwarts Professor
    -MuggleNet
    -Harry Potter Fan Zone
    -Harry Potter for Seekers
    -INTERVIEW: 'HARRY POTTER' AUTHOR J.K. ROWLING OPENS UP ABOUT BOOKS' CHRISTIAN IMAGERY: 'THEY ALMOST EPITOMIZE THE WHOLE SERIES,' SHE SAYS OF THE SCRIPTURE HARRY READS IN GODRIC'S HOLLOW (SHAWN ADLER, 10/17/2007, MTV)

"To me [the religious parallels have] always been obvious," she said. "But I never wanted to talk too openly about it because I thought it might show people who just wanted the story where we were going."

Indeed, at its most simplistic, Harry's final tale can in some respects be boiled down to a resurrection story, with Harry venturing to a heavenly way station of sorts after getting hit with a killing curse in Chapter 35, only to shortly return. (Read how Rowling revealed the characters' fates to the "Harry Potter" movies' stars here.)

But if she was worried about tipping her hand narratively in the earlier books, she clearly wasn't by the time Harry visits his parents' graves in Chapter 16 of "Deathly Hallows," titled "Godric's Hollow." On his parents' tombstone he reads the quote "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death," while on another tombstone (that of Dumbledore's mother and sister) he reads, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

While Rowling said that "Hogwarts is a multifaith school," these quotes, of course, are distinctly Christian. The second is a direct quote of Jesus from Matthew 6:19, the first from 1 Corinthians 15:26. As Hermione tells Harry shortly after he sees the graves, his parents' message means "living beyond death. Living after death." It is one of the central foundations of resurrection theology.

    -ESSAY: On Fairy Stories (J.R.R. Tolkien)
    -ESSAY: Magic and Fantasy in Fiction (G.K. Chesterton, March 1930, The Bookman)
    -LETTER: Letter To Milton Waldman (J.R.R. Tolkien, 1951)
    -ESSAY: HARRY POTTER'S MAGIC (Alan Jacobs, January 2000, First Things)
    -ESSAY: HARRY POTTER AND THE CHRISTIAN CRITICS (Mark P. Shea, 9 . 13 . 07, First Things)
    -REVIEW ESSAY: The Youngest Brother's Tale Harry Potter's grand finale. (Alan Jacobs, Sept 2007, Books & Culture)
    -ESSAY: Christian Theology as Depicted in The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter Books (Kristin Kay Johnston, Journal of Religion & Society, 2005)
    -ESSAY: Harry Potter film harbours Christian themes (PEGGY WEBER, July 12, 2007, CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE)
    -ESSAY: Harry Potter and the Art of Theology: (A Theological Perspective on J. K. Rowling's novels - Part Two: Sacrifice and Mission) (Wandinger Nikolaus, Drexler Christoph, Peter Teresa)
    -ESSAY: "Sacrifice" in the Harry Potter Series from a Girardian Perspective (Nikolaus Wandinger, 2010, Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture)
    -ESSAY: Master of Death: Love and Spirituality in the Harry Potter Series: A Thesis in the Field of English for the Degree of Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies (Johannah Katherine Park, November 2017, Harvard University)
    -ESSAY: Christian Themes in Harry Potter (Leonie Caldecott, January 15, 2008, The Christian Century)
    -ESSAY: The Christian Message of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (Professor Denton, Dartmouth Apologia)
    -ESSAY: The Christian Message of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (Professor Denton, Dartmouth Apologia)
    -ESSAY: “Harry Potter” and the Christian Allegory (LIS FRICKER, APRIL 12, 2020, MuggleNet)
    -ESSAY: Harry Potter and Jesus Christ: The Ultimate Sacrifice (FARYN BOQUIST, DECEMBER 17, 2019, Religion in Society)
    -ESSAY: Christian themes abound in Potter (Jeffrey Weiss, July 30, 2007, religion News Blog)
    -PRESENTATION: Looking for God in Harry Potter: The Pro-Potter Christian Response
    -ESSAY: Harry Potter and the Gospel (Novella, May 7, 2011, Teen ink)
    -ESSAY: The Good, the Bad and the Magic: Comparing the magical worlds of Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia (Ingunn James, May 2020, University of Iceland)
    -ESSAY: Looking for God in Harry Potter (Cassidy Snyder, Penn State Harrisburg)
    -ESSAY: 5 Ways Harry Potter Mirrors the Christian Story: There’s little doubt that the Christian tradition informs much of Rowling’s beloved series. (Patrick McCauley, BeliefNet)
    -ESSAY: Harry Potter and the Great Battle within the Church: A Christian Mother's Humble View (Poconobarb, The Leaky Cauldron)
    -VIDEO: Harry Potter's Religious Themes (Ari Armstrong, Jul 14, 2011)
    -ESSAY: I didn’t read Harry Potter when I was growing up. And I wasn’t alone.: A look back at religious opposition to J.K. Rowling’s stories — and what it says about the era. (Alissa Wilkinson, Sep 1, 2018,Vox)
    -ESSAY: Harry Potter vs. Gandalf: AN IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS OF THE LITERARY USE OF MAGIC IN THE WORKS OF J. K. ROWLING, J. R. R. TOLKIEN, AND C. S. LEWIS (SDG, Decent Films)
    -ESSAY: HARRY POTTER, SORCERY AND FANTASY (Marcia Montenegro, June, 2000, Christian Answers for the New Age)
    -ESSAY: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Already Nostalgic for Hogwarts (Carrisa Smith, Christ & Pop Culture)
    -ESSAY: Harry Potter and The Boy Who Loved (Erin Wyble Newcomb, JUL 18, 2011, Christ & Pop Culture)
    -ESSAY: Dying to Save: Child Sacrifice in the Harry Potter and The Hunger Games Series (Jeffrey Williams, Summer 2018, The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture)
    -ESSAY: Unlocking Lily Potter
    -ESSAY: Harry Potter and the Search for a Church: Spiritual Community and Sacrificial Love in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series (Dianna E. Anderson, M.A., Baylor)
    -ESSAY: Harry Potter and the Bible (Lisa Cherrett, Harry Potter for Seekers)
    -ESSAY: Why I use Harry Potter to teach a college course on child development: Harry Potter books are certainly entertaining — but a teaching tool? Let me explain (GEORGENE TROSETH, AUGUST 8, 2018, Salon)
    -ESSAY: Christian Imagery in the Half-Blood Prince Film (phoenixweasley, 10/24/10, Lord of the Hallows)
    -ESSAY: Christian themes part of 'Harry Potter' (JEFFREY WEISS, Aug 3, 2007, The Dallas Morning News)
    -PRESENTATION: PowerPoint Presentation - Harry Potter and Religion
    -REVIEW ARCHIVES: J.K. Rowling
    -ARCHIVES: rowling (AV Club)
    -REVIEW: of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling (Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly)
    -REVIEW: of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Fantasy Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Deborah Ross, The Spectator)
    -REVIEW: of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Tasha Robinson, AV Club)
    -REVIEW: of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (John Leonard, NY Times)
    -REVIEW: of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian)
    -REVIEW: of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Deirdre Donoghue, USA Today)
    -REVIEW: of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Publishers Weekly)
    -REVIEW: of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Bruce Peabody, Law & Politics Book Review)

But in HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX, Rowling shows greater concern for how the rule of law can be denigrated when it becomes subsumed by the capricious choices of individuals. In the book, legal and moral transgressions typically follow when the impersonal and formal equality of the rule of law is replaced with the agendas and vindictiveness of specific characters. Dumbledore, for example, chastises the Minister of Magic for deviating from past traditions in holding a full criminal trial against Harry for a “simple matter of underage magic” (p.149). As he further admonishes, “[i]n your admirable haste to ensure that the law is upheld, you appear, inadvertently I am sure, to have overlooked a few laws yourself” (p.149).

The danger posed by the unfettered rule of ambitious individuals is also embodied in the figure of Dolores Umbridge. Umbridge initially comes to Hogwarts as an officious teacher seeking to reform its educational system. In short order, however, she is appointed by the Ministry as “Hogwarts High Inquisitor” with sweeping and ever increasing power. As Rowling puts it, Umbridge consistently exhibits a “furious desire to bring every aspect of life at Hogwarts under her personal control” (p.551). The result of this conflation of the law at Hogwarts with the predilections of the High Inquisitor is calamitous. The students and staff are, in turn, bored, stifled, and terrified by Umbridge’s restrictive decrees (p.351, 416) and highly personalized rule.

As a cognate issue, Rowling seems to recognize that as a form of social regulation, law possesses distinctive traits and claims to authority. Among [*353] the features distinguishing and legitimating the Ministry’s law from, say, the decisions and agreements Harry makes with his friends, is its written-ness, specificity, and formalism. When Harry is first informed that he has violated the Decree against Underage Sorcery, the official Ministry notice outlines the particulars of his offense, the forms of law he has broached, and the terms of his preliminary and pending sanctions (p.26). This letter is almost immediately opposed by a short, scrawled message Harry receives from the father of his best friend. But this note’s command (exhorting Harry to stay where he is and not use magic again) is only backed by Harry’s personal relationship with the author, and the vague promise that Dumbledore is “trying to sort it all out” (p.28).

A second major theme throughout the novel is the complex and often divergent relationship between law and justice. Even Harry’s uncharitable Uncle, Vernon Dursley, is perplexed upon hearing that Harry has been disciplined for using magic to protect himself and Vernon’s son, Dudley. “If it was demenders [sic] who hurt Dudley, how come you’ve been expelled?” he inquires (p.35). At Harry’s judicial hearing, it becomes clear that the Minister of Magic wishes for a speedy resolution of Harry’s case, preferably with a finding of guilt. But Dumbledore, serving as Harry’s legal advocate, urges a more circumspect and deliberative approach. “[N]aturally,” he coolly suggests, “you would not care how many times you heard from a witness, if the alternative was a serous miscarriage of justice” (p.148).

Home | Reviews | Blog | Daily | Glossary | Orrin's Stuff | Email

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003)

Websites:

See also: