What is the Main Theme of Harry Potter?

In this episode, we talk about the main theme of Harry Potter. Enjoy!

Topics/ Summary:
·     Click here the enter the giveaway and win Harry Potter and the Order Illustrated and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore – The Complete Screen Play!

·     2:40 Why does the main theme of the story matter? The theme of the story is the core element that it needed to understand the plot and characters and give us a better view of the story. We have a better grasp on the different events, the climax, and why different characters do what they do. 

·     6:31 J. K. Rowling said the main theme of the story is death. Does that make sense? Essentially, yes. Death is described as not the end, but the beginning of another great adventure. Harry sees his parents and Sirius and Dumbledore long after they died. This theme applies to may different aspects of the story, but death is not the only message in the story.

·     12:07 What are other main messages in the story? Love and friendship are the obvious ones, but what are some others? The inner struggle also takes a front seat. Harry struggles with Voldemort possibly possessing him in the Order of the Phoenix and beyond shows this. One of the main story lines in the fifth book was Harry trying to escape Voldemort. The value of working together was also highlighted. Harry was rarely working alone. He always stood united with his friends. Voldemort is the opposite, working with his supporters in much more of a cold relationship. The final theme that I saw was the “you’ll be fine” mentality. Harry learns very little information in the beginnings of the story, and only knows the full story at the very end of the story. Did the world collapse? It was close, but no. 

·      20:54 Which characters have the authority to make a theme out of a message? There are three scenarios: single person, multi-person, and prolonged single person. The first example (single person) is the least common. This is when a message is already present, and a character points it out. Multi-person is the most common. This is when many people join a movement or commit an act of make a statement that has lots of repercussions. Single person prolonged is the final example. This is when a single person will create the theme themselves over many years, doing the same things and helping the same people, creating a dynamic that allows for a theme to grow.

·     26:01 Do characters or events create themes? Both! One or more characters should be performing an act over a long period of time or do something so monumental it has lasting effects.

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Transcript

VO:
Welcome to The Potter Discussion.

Oscar:
Welcome back to the Potter discussion. Discussing Harry Potter, fantastic beast in the Wizarding World. Fandom I'm your host, Oscar And, and this is episode 159. Thank you all for joining me today. It is, of course, a pleasure and a privilege to be speaking to you. Today is rather overcast where I am residenced, but I'm still going to enjoy the day. I went for a nice walk this morning. I'm ready to record so many fun things going on in this episode, so I definitely hope you will stick around. So today we are talking about the main theme of Harry Potter, because that's a question that I think many people either dismiss or can't seem to find an answer to. What is the main theme of Harry Potter? It's such a big topic to tackle. I think there's so many different avenues on schools of thought, if you will. So I think discussing that today is going to be very interesting. So that is definitely going to be an interesting topic to discuss. I do have several announcements before we get into this episode. I mean, first off, probably most important, I believe the baguette was just announced as an item of UNESCO World Heritage, which is just amazing. I am just shocked and yet I am so pleased. This is a monumental day that will be remembered in history. So that is just wonderful. And probably on the closer to the podcast side, I'm running a giveaway if you want to win the New Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Illustrated Edition, illustrated by Jim K and Neil Packer, and the original screenplay to The Secret of thermodor Where. Of course, it has on the lines, on stage directions and special notes from Jude Law, Eddie Redmain and David Yates and many, many more. So if you want to win those two things, click the first link in the description. You just got to enter. And I will note the winner will be announced in a couple of weeks. So you have got time to enter. But tell your friends, tell your family, it is a wonderful opportunity to win some stuff. So go ahead and answer that below. All right, let's get into today's episode. The very first topic we should discuss before we go any further is why does it matter? Why does the main theme of the story matter and what does it do for us? And how does it better help us understand the story? Because this is a very important thing to talk about. Because I think this theme of a story is always one that I think is vital to the core elements of this whole thing. Because really understanding major events and the motivations of characters and finally, the ending scenes, the climax. Without the main theme or message of the story, it's really difficult to have any inkling of what these really mean and things are made the net is cast wider and the message goes so much farther if we really understand what these things mean. So I think it matters because it allows us to understand the story better. And like I like I just said, we can understand the climax. We can understand different characters motivations and things that happen in this story that we may not completely understand and we were not supposed to for that specific moment. We could perhaps guess about what's going to happen. For example, when Harry and Dumbledore went off in the Haplod Prince to find the locket and kind of guessing at what the main theme of the story is which we will talk about in the next talking point we could make a pretty solid guess at what's going to happen next. And I think that is a very important part of storytelling and reading for us. Because understanding where the story's going will help us really get a full image of where it has been. Because knowing where, which stones are, used to as stepping stones and which elements of the story and which sections and chapters and events are the most important and picking out those and really, really seeing them for what they are will help us really make this huge web of Harry Potter and the story of the whole. And that is exactly what happened. And that is why I think Harry Potter has flourished as a main reason why it flourished because the web has been built and the message has been realized and I think it has all come together in a really wonderful way. So that is definitely something that is important to realize before we really dive into the nitty gritty of this episode because I think really knowing what we are talking about, I mean, in any episode just knowing what we're getting ourselves into very important. But I think especially with this one really knowing the main theme and then kind of building on that, that is really what we're going to be doing in this episode. Because I think, as you'll find and as the things we'll talk about, I don't 100% agree with a lot of the things that the author has said about the theme of the story. And it's not that I don't agree with the main message but the only thing that she included when she was talking about the main theme is not exactly a full story. So I think I'm definitely looking forward to kind of diving into that, adding on to our main theme, going into the messaging different characters, which characters do watch for the main theme of the story as a whole. So there's definitely more to get into. So let's move on. Okay. So now let's really get into this. What did J. carrolling say about the theme of the story? Well, in her opinion she is quoted saying that she believes that one of the main themes of the story is death and that plays a big role in the story. The story ends with death. It begins with death and death is one of the deciding factors in where the story goes. So let's really kind of take this apart, let's break it down and let's really get into the agree or disagree of this episode. So yes, does that make sense? I think just as an overall, does it work? I think absolutely she is totally correct when she says it ends with death. It begins with death and death is something that really drives the plot and I think that's definitely a very good message main theme to have in the story because I think that is a large thing to do. I mean, death is the end of everything, but I think this also means death is also kind of encapsulated. And the way that these stories are written, death is described as not the end, but simply the beginning of another great adventure. And that is absolutely something that I totally agree with, and I think it definitely holds true in the story. When people die, they're not gone. Harry sees his parents, I mean three, four times out the story after they initially die. He sees serious again. He sees Dumbledore, of course in the famous scene. He sees Dumbledore very clearly yet again and it is certainly kind of jabbing at the fact that when you die you may be gone from Earth but you're certainly not gone from the world. I think that's definitely an important message in general. I think that is definitely why this theme is carried so far, because it means so much to so many people in the story, and it proves that it is very valuable later on in terms of like I said. Dumbledore song and Harry seeing his parents and also kind of playing with death with the Resurrection Stone and Harry surviving at the very end. So I think the bottom line is I really absolutely fully agree that death is a huge part of the story and it is definitely deserving of a spot of one of the main themes. I think the key thing here is one of the main themes because the next thing we're really going to get at is the fact that I don't really think there is just the theme. It's always so annoying when your professor is just like okay, now write down the main theme. There's just too many, there's so many and you have to compress it and break it down into like one or two sentences and it's just hard. It is so hard to it's like trying to summarize the entire story but you're not talking about the plot, you're talking about the met. It's like too many layers to just really go into. So that's why I don't really like talking about the theme of a story because there is no theme. There are themes. There is no one theme of the story which I think is something that I firmly believe in every single thing. And if I'm reading a story and it is not, there's, like, one recurring thing, if that's a really engaging, driving thing for the story of that theme, if that message is vital and it applies to life, it applies to the story. It applies to characters and applies to us. Then maybe I might think of that as a valid theme singular for the story. But even then those kinds of themes are just multifaceted and there are so many different things you can go into. For example, death. Death I think could work as the one theme because there are so many different aspects of it. It's the end and the beginning. It is how the plot is driven, it's how the characters are motivated, it is how all the different things. But of course that is not I mean, with a story of the Harry Potter, that is absolutely not just the only thing. So with this specific example, I think we can definitely move forward. But just in general, I think multiple themes are definitely what we need in terms of a good story, good messaging and a good plot in general because a theme is what drives everything and it is the lesson at the end of the story. So I absolutely love reading stories that are multi layer, that have big reveals. I have plot twists that are full of course, like magic and fantasy, but also the learning of lessons and the expanding of horizons which is exactly what Harry Potter is. And that is why I think it is such an awesome thing and why I've been talking about it for 159 and a half hours. So those are kind of my thoughts on the author proclaimed message of the book. But I think there is so much more to dive into in terms of what other main messages are. So let's move on. What are some other of the major themes in the story? That is the next topic of discussion floor in this episode and it's an important one. Like I said in the previous point, death is a hundred bajillion percent, a huge element of the story. But what are some other things that come into play here? So I think let's get the obvious out of the way. I mean, love and friendship, of course with many stories those two things are usually some big things in the story. Of course, Harry and her mind you, are super close friends and their friendship is really a huge element and a huge help to their inevitable of victory against Voldemort. And the love that Harry has for, I mean, again, pretty much his friends and his family and everyone in his life I think is what motivates him to keep going and why he fights so hard in the end because he said to himself voldemort is going to lose because we have something to fight for. And I think that is the underlying message in essentially everything to do with Harry fighting Voldemort so love and friendship of course are huge elements of this orient are huge themes that we should be looking out for. I think another one of them is probably like the inner struggle, you know, kind of struggling with yourself and your identity. Because you see Harry, especially in the order of the Phoenix, really just being almost like destroyed mentally. By Voldemort because that's really the book that occlamency and kind of breaking into the others mind becomes prevalent and that continues and really kind of hits a high note in the Deathly Hollows. So Harry is struggling with the fact that maybe Voldemort is possessing him. You know, teleporting him to London, attacking Arthur Weasley, then teleporting back and then waking up and then they find him, he almost dies. So Harry is struggling with that. And then they had that whole conversation in St Mungo's where Harry overhears him saying well, maybe he's being possessed, maybe this and that. And Harry's just like no, no. God. Oh my God. He shuts himself in his room, he doesn't want to see anyone, he thinks he's going to attack someone else. So it is really psychological torture that is being performed on Harry in the fifth book because of his thoughts and of what's happening to him. And I think struggling with that within himself and really coming to the conclusion that it is impossible and he can fight it, I think is a huge turning point in the story. And it definitely shows the inner struggle that Harry was having, because one of the major elements of the fifth book was Harry trying to kind of escape the scrutiny of everyone and kind of finagle his way out from under Voldemort, but also work with Dumbledore because Dumbledore was really pretty separated from Harry in the north of Phoenix and that's what Dumbledore wanted. So Harry wanted to move back in to Dumbledore's circle because he wanted Dumbledore's help. Dumbledore's the only person who could help Harry at that point and I think Dumbledore did make a mistake and he did not help Harry as much as he should have but of course Occlamancy was a major help but after that I mean there's really not much they could do. So I think self and struggling with your problems inside of yourself and identity huge elements. I think there's another big theme that unfortunately, it cannot really be summed up in one word, but I think it's kind of the value of working together that is kind of just like another thing that I noticed, because I think a major element of the story was seeing how Voldemort was having great triumphs and then a sudden downfall of quite epic failures. And I think that is indirectly it is indirectly implied that it is because it is cheese kind of very isolated, and there are various choices that he has made that has really led to his demise, because Harry is working together. I mean, pretty much the entire story with other people. Even when he was in the maze he met Cedric and he passed Crumb and he helped FLIR and he was with all the creatures, which is rather strange to think about. And then even in the graveyard he got helper to the graveyard with Cedric and then Cedric died. But then he was with Frank and with his parents and with all these different people and all the deaths in Baltimore. So Harry has been working with people for a very long time. Pretty much for everything he does, he's always with someone. He always has a teammate, so to speak. But Dumbledore, Voldemort really doesn't have that. Voldemort doesn't have his right hand person that he really has an emotional connection with. I think Bellatrix is kind of the closest to that. But I think Valdemar and RIA kind of accepts that Bellatrix is insane. She is pretty crazy. And Voldemort knows that. And so he can't really connect to Beltrick. He doesn't really have anyone that he truly loves. Which I think is why he is such a formidable force because he doesn't have anything to lose. But I think it's also why it was impossible for him to win. Because like I said before, like Harry's line, voldemort wasn't fighting for anything. It was just power. It was just in his mind the cleansing of the world. That's not a great motivator when you have no one else to fight for. So I think it is definitely a prevailing theme in the story that working together is always far more effective than working apart. The final kind of theme that I noticed in the story was another not single worded one. And that is making mistakes and not knowing things is okay and it's all going to be fine, you're going to be fine, it's all right. I think that's actually what I'm getting at. You'll be fine. That's kind of the theme that I'm talking about because we see Harry not know stuff all the time. Especially in the beginning. Dumbledore wasn't, didn't really tell him a lot of stuff. So Harry was very much in the dark about his parents, about Voldemort, about Horcruxes, even about certain professors like Snape's backstory. Harry had no idea. Harry just thought that Snap was mean to him and that was the end of it. And flash forward to when Harry does learn all of these things, it is a huge impact on him. But I think after he learns them, I think there are certain, there are certain events that kind of are trying to teach him that maybe it's all right, that he didn't know that and it all worked out in the end. And yes, there was lots of death going on to the very first team in his episode, but he managed to pull through and he didn't need to know the exact timeline from the 1910s and all the way up to his life for the timeline of old Martin, Ropes, Snape and Dumbledore all combined. So he didn't really need to understand that he didn't know anything about Grindelwald. I mean the only elements of Grindelwald that we saw in the story were marked at Deathly Hollows and Richard Crumb not really liking it and Philips loved, so we really like that kind of thing. But then we're watching the Fantastic Beast series now and it is just Hugh Grindelwald had this huge impact and to think that if he was made supreme with the chilling bout, if any number of things happened like the world would just collapse. But no, we don't really pay attention to that because we don't need to know. So I think we definitely need the reader's perspective to see this theme. But I think it is certainly apparent that we don't need every single piece of information for the world to go around and that sometimes it's okay to not know stuff and maybe it's even better for us like we saw in Harry Potter. So those are a couple of the more main themes that I was noticing in the story. But now let's move on to something that I think is one of the more interesting and thoughtprovoking topics in this episode. This next question was one that I was having while I was writing this episode and I knew we had to put it in because it really makes you think, think about the characters, the events and kind of also how you put them together and it really brings the perspective of a theme to a different light. So this is the question that I am posing to you right now. This is what we're going to be talking about in this talking point. Which characters have the authority to make a message, a theme? I'll let you mall that over for a second. But essentially what I'm saying is which characters have the authority to say something or do something or do or say anything at the same time or do nothing or whatever and have that thing become a central idea to the story. So let's think about this. I think the initial reaction would be no one because it has to be multiple people and I think you are correct in some capacity because I think it is almost impossible for one person to say something and for that to become just a central element to the story. The only time that I could possibly think of when that would happen is when someone just points it out because it might already exist. Like a theme might already exist in the whole kind of zeitgeist of the story and element of like say it's like betrayal. Just like a random example. Say betrayal is a core element as a message in the story. Then in characters, like, this whole group is full of backstabbers and liars. You know, like, whole, like, survivor out speech kind of thing. And they like, you know, just point it out. And then people realize, like, oh, like, oh, my gosh, I've been betrayed so many times, I don't have any allies. It isn't everyone for themselves kind of kind of situation. So that's the only time when a character could create a theme because they are just putting a name to the situation that has already been happening. But it is impossible for one person to just say something and have that be a theme. No one person either has to do it for I mean, many, many chapters, many books, many instances, and then kind of have it be rolled into the batter, so to speak, of the story to then be made into a theme. Or it has to be a lot of different people that kind of create this theme and then bring it to light. But the other kind of theme that is created that I was thinking about besides these two one that I think is rather less common and that is how can one person who is not a horribly main character make a theme and how can that kind of be rolled into the story? Well, I think the answer is time. With time a character can say the same catchphrase or a character can do the same thing, can betray the same people, can be friends with the same people, can deliver the same message, can do X of y j number of times, I don't know, can do anything. If they do it enough, I think it has a higher chance of becoming a theme of the story. And we have very little evidence of this in the story because a lot of the themes in Harry Potter are created by multiple characters and evidence that we can see created by Voldemort and Harry and Dumbledore and all those different people. But I think just we could predict that certain themes could come to pass and could become themes in the first place by just one person doing something a lot. And I think the closest example of this is Snape because Snape loves Lily. I mean, she is the love of his life. And we see him really helping Harry before Lily and he is getting even with James in the first book. And then he loves Lily, so he still helps Harry. But then he realizes he loves Harry is his friend too now and they actually like each other. So I think Snapper is the closest example of this in terms of creating a team by himself. But of course Dumbledore did have some help in creating what you call his team. So that's the answer. Either you are with a ton of people and you're doing the same thing or it is a group of characters or like one character points a team out or someone does something over and over and over again. So that is essentially which kind of characters can create a theme. We have one final topic for the day. It is similar to the last one, but I think it is a good end point. It is a good cutoff for this episode and it definitely wraps up this talking point nicely. So what we're going to be talking about for the final talking point in this episode is do characters or events create themes? And let's just get straight to it. Both. I think both characters and events and the combination of the two are what really make a theme. You know, it's what really drives at home if a character and this is really hard to explain, but it's like the graveyard scene with the characters of Voldemort and Harry doing some pretty crazy events. That is how a theme is born, if you will. So I think this is a pretty common one to think about because I think it definitely matters in a story. It matters if it's the characters or the events that make the theme. I think more often than not it will be both. It will be the combination of the characters and the story. But I think in the certain stories that are just characters or just events, they're always just like missing a little bit. Because if that is the case, then there are pretty interesting characters or pretty interesting events. And if those are the case, then I'm not that disappointed. But there's always a little bit missing those a piece that they just don't have cuts quite right if it is one or the other that is creating these themes. So I think in Harry Potter story is absolutely both. I think characters doing stuff with other characters like dueling or talking or running away from the snatchers or disarming or flying with flying a broomsticks or arguing, whatever it is, it's the aftermath and the characters that perform the act that really consolidate the theme properly into the story. So that is pretty much it. I very much hope that you enjoyed this episode. I suited this is a very fun episode to record. If you enjoyed this episode and if you enjoyed previous episodes and you enjoyed the podcast as a whole, consider leaving a review on Apple podcasts podcaster or spotify five stars, if you would. But if not, please tell me how I can make it so with a written review on Apple podcast. Or you can send me an email. My email is thepotterdiscusion@gmail.com that is thepotterdiscusion@gmail.com if you can also send me a DM on Instagram or Instagram is at the Potter discussion. That is at the Potter discussion. Don't forget the giveaway is running. I will announce that next week as well, so you don't forget and I will definitely notify you as to when it is closing. So get your submissions in soon. Okay? As always, remember that happiness can be found even in the darkest of times. If one only remembers to turn on the light.  I will see you later.

VO:
This was The Potter Discussion.