Harry Potter’s Impact

Harry Potter became a household name almost immediately after it was released, due to its huge success. Resulting from such popularity, the Harry Potter series had a great impact on literature, specifically the fantasy genre. After Harry Potter, the fantasy genre and how it was viewed by society was permanently altered. Even works published before Harry Potter, such as The Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings, were often viewed differently afterward. The Harry Potter series also had an impact on its audiences, in general. Many of those who grew up during this fantasy revolution and were fans of the novels express similar views and beliefs. The total impact and success of the Harry Potter books are much greater and extensive than people may realize.

Upon release, the fantasy series experienced a record-breaking turnout. People were raving about the novels and rushing to get each new book when they came out. According to wizardingworld.com, “…since [the release of the first Harry Potter book] half a billion Harry Potter books have now been sold. On average, this means one in fifteen people in the world owns a Harry Potter book.” This statistic makes evident the Harry Potter series’ success and popularity worldwide. Not only were there films and musicals made based on the Harry Potter books, but there are even amusement parks made off of the franchise. These well-known and heavily visited places can be found attached to different Universal parks located around the world. In addition to the popularity of the series, the author, J.K. Rowling, was the first author to achieve a net worth of a billion dollars. J.K. Rowling never imagined Harry Potter would become what it is today. She says that she finds herself being frequently interrogated about whether or not there will be more Harry Potter books or spin-offs. For example, TODAY’s Matt Lauer discusses the likelihood of this idea in his interview with J.K. Rowling.

During the interview, Rowling talks about how she has been able to use the money she has earned from her great success to create a charity, Lumos, which helps children in orphanages and institutions. This may have not been attainable had Harry Potter not been such the hit it was.

Compared to other fantasy novels published before Harry Potter, there is a considerable distinction in popularity. However, after Harry Potter’s release, fantasy works written before and after found an increase in attention. When writing Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling related the characters to her prospective audiences. While this was a fantasy series, she allowed for some realistic aspects, specifically feelings and struggles, that would connect with many of her readers. In “Harry Potter’s World Wide Influence” author Diana Patterson wrote about Rowling’s ability to connect with her audiences. She stated that “The battle between good and evil in these novels is portrayed vividly…thus no matter at what stage in life we are located, the lessons present in this series of children’s books can be essentially insightful and applicable to the [human] world.”

Although this fantasy series was originally intended for children and young adults, it has been proven that older audiences were very likely to indulge in these books, as well. The lessons and morals in the stories are something that everyone can relate to. The fantasy combined with humanity makes the novels appealing to many of those who choose to read them. Many of the fantasy novels written before Harry Potter had the fantastical elements but lacked a direct connection between the characters’ struggles and those of the audience. J.K. Rowling found a way to modernize the fantasy genre to allow for a more relatable and timeless story. Beatrice Groves wrote in “Literary Allusion in Harry Potter” that, “Harry Potter imagines two different types of reality existing alongside each other as it creates a Wizarding realm parallel to, and sometimes intertwined with, the Muggle world. For the reader of a fiction, the awareness of an allusion brings a momentary incursion of the ‘real’ world into the fictional.” This directly supports the idea that J.K. Rowling was able to incorporate both realistic and fantastical elements in her hit series.

When further comparing Harry Potter with other fantasy novels, the similarities and differences are rather apparent. Diane L. Engbretson wrote about such comparisons in a research paper titled “Harry Potter: A comparison of the characters, themes, setting and plot with the Arthurian legend”. In this research paper, Engbretson discussed the similarities between characters in a few popular fantasy works when she said:

“A journey of self-discovery by heroes is seen in many stories for youth and adults. Frodo Baggins must find a way in himself to be able to destroy the One Ring in Tolkein’s (1991) Lord of the Ring series, Taryn must prove his worth as a man and as a warrior to become high king in Alexander’s (1999) Prydain series, and Will Stanton needs to discover what it is about himself that causes extraordinary things to occur in Cooper’s (1994), Dark is Rising series. The series of books about Harry Potter fit in this category.”

The character similarities between some of the more well-known fantasies may lead to discovering the similarities in themes. While the plots may not be identical, many of them have like concepts and conflicts. On wired.com, Matt Blum created an article comparing Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter to see which work prevailed in different categories, such as characters and setting. Blum highlighted the difference between the world of Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Middle-earth of Lord of the Rings. He does this by stating that, “The Harry Potter stories are so accessible largely because they take place in a world very like our own, only with one huge twist; whereas LotR takes place in Middle-earth, which has certain similarities to the world we know, but is mostly wildly different.” Harry Potter has an advantage with this concept because people can feel more connected to what is going on in a story if the setting feels familiar to them.

Before Harry Potter, many people did not take the fantasy genre seriously and viewed it as childlike. Adults were hesitant to read fantasy novels because they believed the genre was comparable to children’s books. However, after Harry Potter, many people began noticing the intensity of fantasy and reevaluated their perspectives on the genre. Cynthia W. Hallett edited the text “Scholarly Studies in Harry Potter: Applying Academic Methods to a Popular Text” that evaluated Harry Potter and credited it to be suitable for academic discussion. A direct quote from the literature states, “Providing both literary-critical views and a discussion of the pedagogical uses of the Harry Potter books, not forgetting a discussion of pedagogic styles within the books themselves, this collection ably identifies how and why these books should be given serious credence by academics.” Harry Potter opened up the idea of fantasy being discussed educationally. Once people began looking at fantasy as something that could be discussed with such depth, it greatly expanded conversations about literature. Mark A. Fabrizi wrote about the complexity and relevance of fantasy in Fantasy Literature: Challenging Genres saying that, “…[fantasy] tends to ask the “big” questions of life, forcing students to consider such topics as the nature of good and evil, universal morality, the afterlife, heroism and the quality of one’s character, the role of the individual in society, and the importance of cultural diversity.” Until recent years, few people took the time to analyze fantasy literature and look for underlying meanings and symbolism. Often, people took the novels for their surface value and assumed they were just fantastical stories meant for entertainment purposes only.

Once a fantasy series like Harry Potter had been introduced to society, people began to open up to the idea of reading and looking deeper into other fantasy works. This created many new questions in literature and identifying genre to genre. Some controversy arose revolving around what fantasy was and the criteria a novel had to meet to be deemed a work of fantasy. The controversy revolving around J.K. Rowling’s underlying intentions when writing the series also came about. “The first, and most vocal, are certain conservative Christian groups who feel Harry Potter’s content is dangerous for children. Stories about witchcraft and the occult lead children to try out spells of their own or research Satanism or Wicca on the Internet, the argument goes.” This quote was taken from Kara L. Andersen’s “Harry Potter and the Susceptible Child Audience”. Andersen analyzed a few such criticisms of Harry Potter and rationalized the validity of them.

With such speculation surrounding the Harry Potter series, people began to understand the impact it was having on society and culture. Harry Potter’s audiences were becoming invested in the Harry Potter franchise and the revolution it had kickstarted. Fans who grew up with Harry Potter have been found to share similar beliefs and interests. In “Cultural Politics in Harry Potter: Life, Death and the Politics of Fear”, Rubén Jarazo Álvarez and Pilar Alderete-Diez wrote, “…Harry Potter fans are more receptive when it comes to diversity and are more politically tolerant than non-fans. [The survey] found that fans tend to be less authoritarian and are opposed to the use of physical force in general, and the same seems to be true in the collection of chapters that you are about to read.” Álvarez and Alderete-Diez are writing about a study showing the difference in morals and political beliefs between Harry Potter readers and non-Harry Potter readers. This analyzation further exemplifies yet another impact Harry Potter may have had. Those who grew up when Harry Potter took the world by storm and introduced this new view of fantasy were inevitably going to experience an impact of some nature. Not only did Harry Potter affect people’s understanding of fantasy, but it also affected the way many looked at the real world around them.

Due to the maturity, modernization, and depth of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, fantasy was forever changed. Not only were fantasy works written and published after Harry Potter’s release affected, but the whole view of the fantasy genre has been altered. After being exposed to Harry Potter, many people recognized the unlocked potential of fantasy and how it could be made relevant to today’s society. Rowling expanded on the classic fantasies that came before Harry Potter and made something relatively original. She included relatable aspects of other genres, such as action and romance and comedy, while continuously focusing on the fantastical elements of the story. In doing this, she connected to the audiences and grasped their attention in a way no other fantasy work had before. The series’ numerous impacts on the world are ones that will never be forgotten nor denied.