{"id":199,"date":"2014-01-12T16:22:35","date_gmt":"2014-01-12T21:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/?p=199"},"modified":"2015-12-14T07:20:32","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T12:20:32","slug":"potter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/potter\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Potter"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"harrypotter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Character:\u00a0<\/strong>Harry Potter<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Source Text:<\/strong> <\/span>\u00a0Rowling, J.K.\u00a0Harry Potter Series<\/i>. New York: Scholastic, 1998-2007. Print.<\/p>\n

Entry Author: <\/strong>Jessica Davis<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Harry James Potter holds half-blood status in Rowling\u2019s imagined wizarding world because his mother is Muggle-born and his father is pure-blood. There are three main blood statuses; pure-blood, half-blood, and Muggle-born, which are all methods of determining a witch or wizard\u2019s magical lineage. Pure-blood status is kept by only marrying other pure-bloods, Muggle-borns are the magical product of two Muggle parents, and half-bloods are any mixture of Muggle-born and pure-blood parents. This can be a pure-blood or half-blood witch or wizard procreating with a half-blood, Muggle-born, or Muggle. Blood status (like race) has nothing to do with magical ability, but is a long-lasting prejudice by the self-appointed superiority of pure-bloods. Many pure-blood witches and wizards intermarry within the series to keep their status \u201cpure\u201d and many lie about their status, claiming complete purity of their family tree. Harry possesses impressive magical abilities, proving that his half-blood status has no correlations with magical ability.The significance of Harry\u2019s half-blood status is his middleman position between the Muggle and wizarding worlds. The first ten years of Harry\u2019s life were spent growing up with his magic-hating aunt and uncle in the muggle world, which allows him Muggle world knowledge when he goes to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but also an innate comfort and belonging in the wizarding world. Harry\u2019s half-blood status also keeps him balanced between his two best friends, Ron Weasley, who is of pure-blood status, and Hermione Granger, who is a Muggle-born witch, and top student in the school. During Rowling\u2019s second novel of the series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets<\/i>, we uncover some of the story\u2019s underlining racism through Draco Malfoy\u2019s inappropriate slur towards Hermione.<\/p>\n

\u201cMudblood is a really foul name for someone who was Muggle-born \u2013 you know, non-magical parents. There are some wizards \u2013 like Malfoy\u2019s family \u2013 who think they\u2019re better than everyone else because they\u2019re what people call pure-blood\u2026 I mean, the rest of us know it doesn\u2019t make any difference at all\u201d (Rowling, Chamber of Secrets, 89).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mudblood is a sort of racial term describing a witch or wizard born to two muggle parents, describing their blood as filthy.<\/p>\n

One of the most profound advocates for equal rights of blood status, is Albus Dumbledore. He is a constant reminder in the series to treat people equally, and never judge them based on where they come from or what they may be.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou place too much importance, and you always have done, on the so-called purity of blood! You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be!\u201d (Rowling, Goblet of Fire, 708).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This sort of stance is what Rowling is trying to teach her readers that differences mean nothing to those with open minds and a willingness to accept others. The pureness of a witch or wizard\u2019s blood is thought to keep magical ability within magical families, but magic can be passed down even through muggle families.<\/p>\n

Ironically, Harry\u2019s half-blood status is one of the greatest plot movers, since Lord Voldemort uses this fact to choose Harry as his eventual downfall, due to a prophecy. The choice is between Harry the half-blood, and Neville Longbottom, a pure-blood schoolmate of Harry\u2019s. It is believed that Lord Voldemort chooses Harry because his half-blood status is closest to Lord Voldemort\u2019s half-blood status. This choice drives the whole novel from beginning to end, with the underlying message of tolerance towards others and social discrimination.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Character:\u00a0Harry Potter Source Text: \u00a0Rowling, J.K.\u00a0Harry Potter Series. New York: Scholastic, 1998-2007. Print. Entry Author: Jessica Davis Harry James Potter holds half-blood status in Rowling\u2019s imagined wizarding world because his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":200,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20621],"tags":[20607,20592,20578],"class_list":{"0":"post-199","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-harry-potter","8":"tag-indian","9":"tag-male","10":"tag-white","11":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}