Friday night I stood in line for 3 hours to see the 7:30 showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. These books were my childhood, me and my friends from 1st grade until 3rd grade pretended we were characters from Harry Potter every day during recess. So, I was clearly beyond excited (ask Emma, I was jumping up and down for a solid hour in line). When the movie finally started, I was struck by something. If you aren't familiar with the story line of the 7th book here's the Reader's Digest version. Harry and his friends are trying to fight the resurgent Death Eaters under the command of Lord Voldemort. The Death Eaters are attempting to kill all "muggles" (non-magic folk) and mixed blood wizards and witches. When first reading these stories, I thought of it as an allusion to the social order in England, where J.K. Rowling calls home. But while watching the movie, I saw something much more sinister at play.
In the scene where Harry, Ron, and Hermione use a polyjuice potion to pretend to be ministry workers when Harry is trying to sneak into Dolores Umbridge's office to find the horcrux Harry's Godfather's brother used to have. Outside her office sat hundreds of people (presumed mixed bloods) printing out propaganda that was pro pure blood wizards and witches. When I saw this I got chills. The propaganda they were spreading was almost the same sent out by the Nazi's in WWII against the Jews and for the Nazis. I realized the entire Second Wizarding War is a complete allusion to WWII and the Death Eaters and Voldemort are the Nazis while the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter are the U.S. and England.
This really threw me because I really had never seen it like that until now. Critical thinking I suppose, but my childhood book and life came into reality and I was definitely thrown for a loop. It's very interesting to see what movies and books you liked when you were a kid might be hinting to or about subliminally.
Hey Chloe!! It's so cool that we both made that connection after the movie, and after seeing it, I noticed it throughout the entire movie, not just the Ministry scene. It's cool to think that maybe that is what J.K. Rowling had in mind when she wrote the book.
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