Harry Potter in The Age of Trump

Harry Potter in the Age of Trump
Jacqueline van Bronkhorst

HON 498-01: Honors Capstone
April 13, 2019
1
Introduction
During the 2016 American presidential election season, there was a flood of internet
memes depicting Republican nominee Donald Trump as the fictional arch-villain Voldemort,
from the popular children’s book series Harry Potter. Immediately after the inauguration in
2017, people protesting at Women’s Marches across the United States made dozens of signs
comparing Trump to Voldemort and calling back to the Harry Potter series for hope in dark
times. These signs show the continuing cultural prominence of Harry Potter. The series was so
popular during “the formative years of political socialization” for the Millennial generation that
“being a fan of the boy wizard resulted in the development of a generational unit within the
Millennial Generation”: the Potter generation.1 Members of this generation grew up with Harry
Potter, the titular character of the series. Many dangerous political concepts were introduced
within the series that members of this generation, children at the time, were able to grapple with
from the safe distance of fantasy storytelling. Now, in today’s era of political turmoil
surrounding Trump’s nomination and subsequent election, members of the Potter generation are
turning back to the Harry Potter series for guidance and reassurance.
The story of The Boy Who Lived is the perfect vehicle for this paper to explore the
phenomenon of popular culture affecting political decision making because of its immense, long-
lasting popularity. While there have been popular series in the past, few compare to the “cultural
phenomenon” that is Harry Potter.2 The series itself spans nearly three decades of fictional time
and two decades of real world popularity with its seven books, eight movies, two stage plays,
new spin-off film series, and countless fan works. This time period is also significant, as it

1
Anthony Gierzynski and Kathryn Eddy, Harry Potter and the Millennials: Research Methods and the Politics of
the Muggle Generation (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), 40.
2
Diana C. Mutz, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Donald,” PS: Political Science & Politics 49, no. 4 (2016), 722-29.
doi:10.1017/S1049096516001633.
2
allowed readers to grow up “at roughly the same pace as Harry, Ron, and Hermione.”3 Not only
did the characters become beloved friends for readers to turn to during their childhood, but the
series also increased in maturity as it progressed and the characters and readers got older. The
books became longer, and the topics addressed became darker and more intense. This maturation
process allowed the series to become “a mirror to examine the views and values of the real
world,” while also creating space between readers and serious issues addressed in the text.4
Using this space, young readers of the Potter generation were able to grapple with and
understand complex, unsettling issues through “the safer context of the books.”5
Readers were likely to finish the series and take life lessons from Harry Potter instead of
a different source because of their enjoyment of the books. Researchers who interviewed
members of the Potter generation found that, those who continue to identify as fans years after
reading “see the series as formative in terms of their literacy.”6 The series is held in high esteem
by its readers, particularly readers who were exposed to the story at a young age. Oftentimes,
Harry Potter gave its young fans their “first taste” of being “part of a story bigger than their
own.”7 Fan communities continue to exist now, long after the last book of the original series was
released, both because of its lasting cultural prominence and because of the influence it had on

3
Rebecca Nicholson, “He who must not be named: how Harry Potter helps make sense of Trump’s world,” The
Guardian, last modified March 13, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/13/he-who-must-not-be-
named-how-harry-potter-helps-make-sense-of-trumps-world.
4
Amber Becton, “Harry Potter and Politics: A Case Study of Political Factions in the Literary Realm” (dissertation,
University of Tennessee at Martin, 2006), 53.
5
Deborah J. Taub and Heather L. Servaty-Seib, “Controversial Content: Is Harry Potter Harmful to Children?” in
Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter, ed. Elizabeth E. Heilman (New York: Routledge, 2009), 28.
6
Steve Dempster et al., “What has Harry Potter Done for Me? Children’s Reflections on their ‘Potter Experience’,”
Children’s Literature in Education: An International Quarterly 47, no. 3 (2016), 268, doi:10.1007/s10583-015-
9267-x.
7
Hephzibah Anderson, “How Harry Potter became a rallying cry,” BBC online, last modified March 26, 2018,
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180326-the-links-between-harry-potter-and-millennial-protest.
3
young readers. The series was many children’s first exposure to various political issues that
continue to plague our society.
Throughout the series, the story of Harry Potter imparts moral lessons on children.
Subsequent research about the role Harry Potter specifically has played in influencing children’s
worldviews suggests that “the messages of tolerance and diversity in the Harry Potter world
have influenced the beliefs of its readers, rather than reflecting an existing point of view.”8 Harry
Potter does not merely pander to those who share author J.K. Rowling’s worldview, rather it
actively changes opposing viewpoints. The text does this by employing empathy for Harry and
his story, which, through the psychological process of abstract modeling, allows readers to learn
positive out-group attitudes that they bring with them into their everyday lives.9 The cultural
phenomenon that Harry Potter became made the series “an important agent of political
socialization” for fans, leading them to internalize political lessons from the books.10 The Potter
generation’s current approach to politics would not relate to Harry Potter as strongly had they
not grown up with the series.
Learning from Stories
People’s practice of transferring lessons from stories into their everyday lives, ultimately
seeing real world events the way Harry does in the series, happens because of how stories are
processed in the human brain. People are compelled to finish reading, watching, or listening to a
story because, when experiencing good storytelling, the human brain releases “a surge of the

8
Nicholson, “He who must not be named.”
9
Loris Vezzali et al., “The greatest magic of Harry Potter: Reducing prejudice,” Journal of Applied Psychology 45,
no. 2 (2015), 107, doi:10.1111/jasp.12279.
10
Gierzynski and Eddy, Harry Potter and the Millennials, 39.
4
neurotransmitter dopamine,” compelling people to keep going, to stay with that story.11 When
someone is swept away by a story, they change internally alongside the protagonist, allowing the
character’s insights to inform the reader’s own worldview.12 Author Lisa Cron puts it best when
she writes: “Stories instill meaning directly into our belief system the same way experience does
– not by telling us what is right, but by allowing us to feel it ourselves.”13
This is not a hopeful assertion by an author, but a fact backed up by neuroscience.
Functional MRI (fMRI) scans of human brains show that, when reading a story, the reader’s
“brain activity isn’t that of an observer, but of a participant.”14 The human brain’s mirror
neurons, which allow people to experience the actions and emotions of others and create
empathy, are very active when reading, forcing the reader to experience “the protagonist’s
internal struggle” and “hard-won truths” as if the story were happening to them.15
Communication theorists call this phenomenon passive or incidental learning, which occurs as a
byproduct of a fun activity like reading for pleasure.16 The stories people read stay with them
long after they put the book down, as their brain experiences the plot as though it were
happening to them in real life.
The brain evolved to use stories as learning tools so a person would have a better chance
of surviving. Stories allow people to step back from the present and imagine the future, to plan
for terrifying possibilities and learn to outsmart predators.17 Modern day people do not have to
worry about outrunning literal predators anymore, “so story’s purpose evolved from simply

11
Lisa Cron, Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (New
York: Penguin Random House, 2016), 13.
12
Cron, Story Genius, 13.
13
Cron, 13.
14
Cron, 13.
15
Cron, 13.
16
17
5
decoding the mysteries of the physical world to deciphering the far more intense social world.”18
Our brains still interpret stories the same way as they did when our lives were in danger,
vicariously living out unexperienced situations imagine what they would feel like and to learn
how to survive them.19 When we, as readers, become immersed in a story, “we truly experience
all that the fictional world offers and take to heart the lessons that our heroes learn,” in both a
literal context and a social one.20 Instead of the popular adage that people use fiction “to escape
reality,” people actually “turn to story to navigate reality.”21 This remains true across genres and
audiences, each story offering its readers a new perspective on the world.
This understanding of the neuroscience of storytelling is supported by researchers
studying the effects of reading Harry Potter on students in the UK. These researchers had
students read Harry Potter and subsequently measured their levels of empathy. The research
found that “exposure to media characters elicited cognitive and affective experiences similar to
those produced by real contact.”22 Students, while reading the series, put themselves in Harry’s
shoes, practicing empathy so thoroughly that their brains responded to the plot as if they were
living Harry’s life themselves. This research investigated how students take lessons from the
Harry Potter series and applied them in their own lives, as the students were old enough to
realize that their world and Harry’s are fundamentally different. When readers identified with
Harry, researchers found that “participants observed the positive attitudes and behaviors of Harry
Potter toward stigmatized fantastic groups, and projected them onto real stigmatized

18
19
Cron, 11.
20
21
22
Vezzali, “The greatest magic,” 115.
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categories.”23 Regardless of our world’s difference from the fictional one, students’ brains took
lessons from Harry’s magical world as if they actually happened.
Harry Potter readers can apply knowledge acquired through the books to their everyday
lives. A participant in another study credited the Harry Potter series thus:
“All of the morals that I took away from the book gave me a much more profound
understanding of wrong and right than any Sunday school class I ever attended. What
Harry did for me as I was growing up was to provide me with a template for human
interactions that I could refer to as I struggled through different social situations… He
showed me examples of when to be respectful, when to rebel, how to be gracious, how to
resolve conflicts with friends and foes alike.”24
Recognizing the inherent power of fiction and storytelling is essential to understanding the way
the Harry Potter series specifically translates into modern day political activism amongst
members of the Potter generation.
Even before science evolved far enough to allow scientists to understand the inner
workings of the human brain, people were aware of the innate power of story. Storytelling has
existed in every human civilization throughout history, and “the idea of using fictional stories to
understand and interpret the world is as old as time.”25 Fiction, particularly fantasy, can portray
real-life issues, even amplifying these issues to make them vividly real and more easily
understood by the brain’s mirror neurons.26 Stories about revolutionary or free thought, from
Shakespeare to Star Wars, “inspires the struggle for freedom” in readers.27 Such fantasy fiction
encourages hope in readers, because they show people that even dragons can be beaten.28
Consumers often do not approach fictional reading material with the idea that the story will

23
24
Gierzynski and Eddy, Harry Potter and the Millennials, 75/76.
25
26
Taub, “Controversial Content,” 20.
27
Anderson, “How Harry Potter.”
28
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change their political opinion, but while they are reading fiction for “fun, people are exposed to
politically relevant information, ideas, and lessons, and that exposure can lead to learning those
perspectives.”29 Readers approach the material expecting a fun story, rather than assigned in a
classroom or work setting, so they leave their cognitive defenses behind. Fiction readers are not
mentally prepared to counter-argue any political message they encounter, thereby “making them
more susceptible to being influenced by the messages.”30 The Harry Potter series is not alone in
its power to sway readers’ minds, but it is unique in its lasting popularity during the Potter
generation’s youth and the vast array of issues incorporated in the text.
In today’s society, most social norms are produced by popular culture texts like Harry
Potter. Though “popular culture is not the only source of norm production,” modern capitalist
society ensures that the norms produced by popular culture are the most prominent and
important, due to their wide reach.31 The social norms that popular culture creates often affect
political ideology, because both popular culture and politics are “often personal, emotional,
symbolic, and reliant on fictions of various sorts.”32 Both popular culture and political rhetoric,
through their “depictions of people, social relationships, and political issues affect how [people]
imagine themselves and the world around them.”33 Political speech often taps into the same
processing centers of our brains that compelling storytelling does. The two are linked
biologically, therefore it makes sense that stories can influence our political thinking.

29
Gierzynski and Eddy, Harry Potter and the Millennials, 29. Emphasis original.
30
Gierzynski and Eddy, 29.
31
Dustin Kidd, “Harry Potter and the Functions of Popular Culture,” Journal of Popular Culture 40, no. 1 (2007),
75, doi:10.1111/j.1540-5931.2007.00354.x.
32
Neta Kligler-Vilenchik, “From Wizards and House-Elves to Real World Issues: Political talk in Fan Spaces,”
International Journal of Communication (19328036) 9 (January 2015), 2043,
http://search.ebscohost.com.libproxy.chapman.edu/login.aspx?direct=tru&AuthType=ip,uid&db=ufh&AN=1108026
88&site=eds-live.
33
Ashley Hinck, “Ethical Frameworks and Ethical Modalities: Theorizing Communication and Citizenship in a
Fluid World,” Communication Theory (1050-3293) 26, no. 1 (2016), 1, doi: 10.1111/comt.12062.
8
This is particularly important to understand in reference to the Millennial generation, and
more specifically the Potter generation. This generation grew up at the dawn of the internet age,
and was exposed to more popular culture on a daily basis than previous generations were.
Research has suggested that “Millennials’ media consumption during their politically formative
years has indirect and direct implications on their voting practices and attitudes to authority and
power.”34 Such research supports the political socialization theory, which posits that “we acquire
our politically relevant values and perspectives from our culture,” a culture that is increasingly
shaped by popular elements.35 Not only are our brains wired to learn political values through
popular culture, but we are also exposed to more popular culture now than ever before because
of the internet’s production and dissemination of such culture.
The speed of the flow of information across the internet and the increased access to texts
of popular culture in the past decade has allowed scholars to identify a gap in knowledge. They
now “argue for the need to more strongly connect the study of popular culture with that of
political communication” because of popular culture’s increasingly important role in young
people’s lives.36 Outside of one’s own lived experience, the closest you can get to fully
understanding another person is through a story, which can be viewed as “the world’s first virtual
reality.”37 Most, if not all, of the popular culture we are exposed to tells compelling stories.
These stories make popular culture “a crucial domain in which societal and political life are
represented” because of how readily our brains learn from stories, turning the very narratives we
consume into “generalizations about other people, the world, and political life.”38 The lessons we

34
Natalie Ann Hendry, Review of Harry Potter and the Millennials: research methods and the politics of the
Muggle generation, by Anthony Gierzynski and Kathryn Eddy, International Journal of Social Research
Methodology 17, no. 6 (2014), 742, doi:10.1080/13645579.2014.959323.
35
36
Kligler-Vilenchik, “Wizards and House-Elves,” 2043.
37
38
Becton, “Harry Potter and Politics,” 15.
9
learn as children, when our brains are most elastic and able to learn, stay with us long after we
forget the original material. We may not consciously know where we learned certain political
ideologies or moral attitudes, but we remember them from stories we heard and found relatable.
Lessons in the Harry Potter Series
The influence Harry Potter has over readers’ ideas of politics is not purely because of the
messages it conveys, but also because of its popularity. The Potter generation in particular was
swept away by the series’ popularity, “growing up during the ten plus years the series literally
dominated the culture.”39 That said, the popularity would have much less of an influence if it did
not telegraph a message of morality to its readers. Therefore, it is essential to dissect the moral
and political lessons the series imparts on young readers.
The early Harry Potter books feature an eleven-year-old Harry learning about his innate
power and making friends. He is victorious over several foes that his peers would not have been
able to overcome, but in the grand scheme of things, are ultimately small feats. The first three
books – The Philosopher’s Stone, The Chamber of Secrets, and The Prisoner of Azkaban – are
the most child-friendly in their writing and messaging. The lessons are simple; the stories are
morality tales. The first three Harry Potter books and various other works of children’s literature
impart “values such as courage, love, friendship, loyalty” and “a moral approach to good vs.
evil” to the children consuming the stories. 40 Like many other popular children’s books, “the
Harry Potter series also promotes non-violent means of conflict resolution.”41 Even when Harry
defeats Voldemort for the first time in The Philosopher’s Stone, he does so passively. Professor

39
40
Taub and Servaty-Seib, “Controversial Content,” 16.
41
Mutz, “Deathly Donald,” 723.
10
Quirrell attacks Harry, but when Quirrell touches him, Harry’s skin burns Quirrell.42 Harry has
no control over this – he acts completely nonviolently while the violence happens around him
and to him. Harry also only uses non-violent spells, like the disarming Expelliarmus charm, in
magical duels during these early books.
Perhaps the most important lesson in the early books is about empathy. Throughout the
first three books, the characters “learn in different ways to recognize how past events continue to
influence and shape their own and others’ character.”43 The characters talk about where they are
from and what they have experienced, thereby understanding each other better and being better
friends as a direct result of that communication. When Draco Malfoy calls Hermione a
Mudblood, Harry does not initially know what the term means or why it is insulting. Ron, a
pureblood wizard raised in the community, explains the slur to the others; Harry sees firsthand
how the violent language has hurt Hermione.44 Because of this experience, both Harry and the
reader learn how harassment makes the victim feel, deterring them from becoming bullies
themselves. This is just once instance of many throughout the first books where characters learn
moral life lessons from each other, thereby teaching their readers those same lessons.
The second half of the series builds on the lessons taught in the first half, introducing
more mature topics and nuanced moral questions. Though the Harry Potter series starts as a
children’s series, the books mature with their audience, allowing later books to deal with heavy
topics usually reserved for a history class. Starting in book four, The Goblet of Fire, biased
journalism, “ethnic cleansing and inequality, enslavement, corrupt governments, torture and

42
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (London: Bloomsbury, 1997), 297.
43
Ann Curthoys, “The Magic of History: Harry Potter and Historical Consciousness,” History Australia 8, no. 1
(2012), 13.
44
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (London: Bloomsbury, 1998), 115.
11
mind control all feature,”45 eventually playing a key role in the narrative. The seventh book, The
Deathly Hallows, features a world where the government has been taken over by a fascist
dictator, Lord Voldemort, and torture, mind control, and ethnic cleansing become magical
reality. Harry and his allies must combat these injustices, culminating in a large battle where
Harry defeats Voldemort by destroying all his horcruxes.46 While this defeat does not address the
ideology that allowed Voldemort to become powerful in the first place, it does provide a hopeful
ending for still-young readers to model in their own lives.
The last two books of the series confirm fans’ earlier assumptions: Voldemort and his
followers, the Death Eaters, are fictionalized versions of Hitler and his Third Reich. Voldemort
sets up a puppet government that tries to eradicate cultural difference – everything from half-
human creatures like centaurs to Muggle-born wizards – and advocates genocide of these races.47
He and his followers “not only disdain all who are not pure-bloods but also think that only pure-
blood wizards deserve all the rights and privileges of society.”48 In Voldemort and his followers’
perspective, “Mudbloods, Muggles, and all the rest of the magical creatures are deemed second-
class citizens at best.”49 When facing such incredible odds, Harry and his friends, and the readers
by extension, learn about the importance of “championing direct action – small acts always
count, sometimes in big ways.”50 Love and empathy are Harry’s secret weapons, the things that
will allow him to overthrow Voldemort, but those secret weapons only work because of Harry
and his allies’ cooperation and organization. Voldemort has his Death Eaters to fight for him, but
Harry fights alongside everyone else who wants to live freely. The difference between an

45
46
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (London: Bloomsbury, 2007), 709 and 743/744.
47
Rowling, Deathly Hallows, 12.
48
49
50
12
authoritarian state and a democratic one, at least as taught in the Harry Potter books, is small
actions of everyday people.
Between Voldemort and Harry is the rest of the world, falling somewhere in between the
two diametrically opposed forces. Some of the earlier, more straightforward villains are
obviously aligned with Voldemort, as they are working for and with him. Even in the first book,
the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor has Voldemort in the back of his mind, literally
living on the back of his skull.51 In the fifth book, The Order of the Phoenix, the Ministry of
Magic assigns one of their unqualified employees, Dolores Umbridge, to serve as the Defense
Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts.52 Umbridge is considered, among fans, to be an
even worse villain than Voldemort at times because her archetype exists in almost every
institution, a bully who uses her position of power to force her agenda on others.53 Her boss is
Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge, who is “bumbling, but seemingly well-meaning.” 54 Fudge
does not believe Harry when he insists that Voldemort has returned, but he changes his mind
when faced with proof.55 Readers are left to make their own decisions about what kind of person
Fudge is, and whether we want someone like him in high office.
The series asks pointed questions about who is worthy of our respect, why we respect
certain authority figures over others, while showing readers that no one is perfect. Harry and his
friends “march under the banner of Albus Dumbledore,”56 but by the end of the series they learn
that he made immoral choices to achieve his position of power.57 He not only put Harry in an

51
Rowling, Philosopher’s Stone, 293.
52
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (London: Bloomsbury, 2003), 212.
53
54
55
Rowling, Order of the Phoenix, 817.
56
57
Rowling, Deathly Hallows, 563-567. We learn a lot about Dumbledore’s past in the last two books of the series,
including his ties to Grindelwald (his generation’s Voldemort) and the accidental killing of his sister Ariana.
13
abusive home,58 but part of his overarching plan to defeat Lord Voldemort involved sacrificing
Harry, still a child at the time, to prevent Voldemort from achieving his murderous goals.59
Dumbledore is a useful character through which to explore lines of morality because, while his
intentions are good, he often acts in ways that hurt others and seem questionable. Yet, knowing
the terrible decisions Dumbledore made in the past, Harry and his allies still chose to fight for the
cause he championed. This poses authority as “something that should not be respected
unquestioningly,”60 while acknowledging that authority figures are necessary to lead a successful
rebellion. While not all political leaders are evil, and no one is perfect, the text teaches readers
that “citizens cannot always count on those in charge to make the right decisions for the good of
the whole.”61 Readers are taught neither to follow nor turn away from authority figures simply
because of their position of power; you must make choices about what you want from your
leaders and what you can and cannot support.
Rowling wrote the Harry Potter series to be as morally grey and questioning of authority
as possible without losing significant readership. Immediately after the last book came out in
2007, she said that she hoped readers would see her books as preaching tolerance, becoming “a
prolonged plea for an end to bigotry.”62 Rowling assumes this messaging is “one of the reasons
that some people don’t like the books,” but relentlessly pursued her message about the
importance of questioning authority and not assuming “that the establishment or the press tells
you all of the truth.”63 This point about questioning authority was driven home in each of the

58
Rowling, Philosopher’s Stone, 19/20. This was present in all the books, but it is particularly notable in the first.
Not only do Harry’s Aunt and Uncle force him to live in the cupboard under the stairs and malnourish him, they also
neglect him and emotionally abuse him by not allowing him to contact his friends over future summers.
59
Rowling, Deathly Hallows, 686. In Snape’s memories, readers see Dumbledore’s grand scheme to allow Harry to
kill Voldemort. Snape is shocked Dumbledore would keep Harry alive so he could die at the right moment.
60
61
62
qtd. in Anderson, “How Harry Potter.”
63
qtd. in Anderson, “How Harry Potter.”
14
seven books and subsequent plays and films, inextricably intertwining the anti-authoritarian
message with the rest of the series in readers’ minds.
In order to reinforce this anti-authoritarian message, Rowling’s series also emphasizes the
importance of personal responsibility. Voldemort and Harry have very similar beginnings, both
were orphaned in their infancy, raised in abusive homes, and brought to Hogwarts with no
knowledge about magic.64 Despite their nearly identical backgrounds, they end up being
“complete opposites in character.”65 Put in the simplest terms, Harry has friends who encourage
him to be good, whereas Voldemort was alone and turned bitter. As the series progresses and
morality greys, Rowling “emphasizes that it is the decisions that create individual character, not
upbringing or lineage.”66 The argument for the allowance of evil or immoral actions as a result of
one’s upbringing is dismantled through the series. Harry and Voldemort came from equally
painful, destructive places, but when Voldemort went on to try to destroy the world, Harry risked
his life to try to save it. As Harry’s godfather tells him, “the world isn’t split into good people
and Death Eaters. We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose
to act on – that’s who we really are.”67 While you cannot change where you come from, you are
responsible for your actions. Harry’s self-sacrificial nature shows readers that they, too, should
be concerned about others and act for the good of the whole.
Perhaps the most important element of the series is its happy, hopeful ending. Readers are
more likely to both finish a series and re-read it, thereby taking away stronger life lessons, when

64
Rowling, Philosopher’s Stone, 51; J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (London: Bloomsbury,
2005), 270.
65
66
Becton, 7.
67
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, directed by David Yates (2007; Burbank, CA: Warner Bros.
Entertainment Inc., 2007), DVD.
15
it contains an “optimistic message,” as seen in Harry Potter. 68 The series assures readers that,
while there are still threats in the world, if you “are guided by morality, ethics, and justice, you
will attain reward, fame, and honor for your actions.” 69 Not only does Harry defeat Voldemort
by the end of the seventh book, but he also goes on to raise his own children and lead a full life.70
Though he stumbles at times in his role as a father, Harry ultimately achieves his goals and
spends the rest of his life famous for the sacrifices he made in defeating Voldemort.71 Harry lives
his life guided by morality and ethics, and is able to save the wizarding world because of his
convictions and bravery. Harry’s continued successes throughout the series encourage readers to
be brave and stand up for their beliefs. If Harry was able to defeat Voldemort by fighting for his
morality, readers learn that they should be able to do so, too.
What started as a simple morality tale about the importance of belonging and friendship
in the first book turned into a story about teenagers fighting unjust governments and
overthrowing an authoritarian dictator by the last book. The characters in the series, all children,
take it upon themselves to resist those in power when they fail to act for the good of all.
Resistance movements come to the forefront of the series in the fifth book, when “the reader is
immersed in a revolutionary atmosphere that is developing in the wizarding world.”72 The
leaders of the resistance, the Order of the Phoenix, do not allow Harry or his friends to join their
organization officially, as they are too young,73 yet the children still work to prepare themselves

68
Danielle Gurevitch, “Fantastic Literature at the Beginning of the Third Millennium: Terror, Religion, and the
Hogwarts Syndrome,” Looking Glass: New Perspectives on Children’s Literature 17, no. 1 (2013), http://the-
looking-glass.net/index.php/tlg/article/view/386/380.
69
Gurevitch, “Fantastic Literature.”
70
Rowling, Deathly Hallows, 753.
71
Jack Thorne and J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two, (Broadway: Scholastic,
2016), 9 and 63. Harry’s fame and sacrifices are evident through the entirety of the plays, but these two pages
contain particularly poignant moments.
72
73
16
for the battle they know is coming.74 They had heard of the atrocities Voldemort had committed
last time he was in power. The students defy unfair school rules75 to prepare themselves to fight
against Voldemort and his Death Eaters, who want to bring back a world of “strict hierarchy of
social classes and fear of a dominant and powerful leader.”76 Instead of letting the adults take
care of politics, the teenagers risk their lives to fight for democratic ideals, for a world “where
individuals, regardless of ability or background, have a voice and an opportunity to succeed.”77
The characters, most of whom are 15 when Voldemort returns to power in the fifth book, are not
content to let adults fight for their survival, instead choosing to put their own lives on the line for
the good of all. Their tenacity and unwillingness to be sidelined could inspire the same
persistence towards a bright future, politically and otherwise, among readers.
The resistance group in the series, the Order of the Phoenix, occupies a unique position.
The Order existed in the early days of Voldemort, before Harry was born, and was re-formed
when Voldemort returned, but it did not continue to exist between these two eras of terror. It is
not a revolutionary group for the sake of being revolutionary, rather “it is a reactionary faction,
one that was formed specifically to protect society from what it believes to be the harmful ideas
of another group.”78 Instead of relying on others in power to establish a revolutionary group, the
young people did it themselves. When Harry and his classmates are kept out of the Order in the
fifth book, they decide to create their own resistance group, Dumbledore’s Army.79 They follow
their convictions through the rest of the series, in the last book leaving school to fight for the

74
Rowling, Order of the Phoenix, 326. This moment is when Hermione suggests Harry teach defensive magic.
75
Rowling, Order of the Phoenix, 352. Dolores Umbridge uses her power in the ministry to create a new position for
herself at Hogwarts – high inquisitor. This new position gives her more power, which she uses to control students
and staff alike, issuing educational decrees that disband student organizations, ban teachers from giving any
information to students that is unrelated to the subject they teach, and firing teachers to display her power.
76
77
Becton, 19.
78
Becton, 43.
79
17
“resistance, as outlaws.”80 Their illegal actions are framed as morally correct and laudable,
teaching readers not only to question authority, but to act against it when those in power are
acting immorally.
The Harry Potter series centers not only around Harry’s battle with Voldemort, but
around Harry’s magical education. This is both a good way to pull children into the story and an
apt presentation of education’s significance in political decision making. Throughout the series,
Harry’s mentor Dumbledore “is the headmaster of Hogwarts, an educational institution which
empowers youth through knowledge,”81 and “trains its students to be leaders.”82 There are rules
at Hogwarts, of course, but when students break those rules for the betterment of the school, they
are awarded with trophies and feasts: Harry and Ron are at the end of the second book when they
sneak into the Chamber of Secrets and keep Ron’s younger sister Ginny from being ritualistically
murdered.83 When students break the rules carelessly or for no reason, they are sent into the
terrifying Forbidden Forest84 or forced to do manual labor for detention.85 However, when they
break the rules for a good reason, like to save Ginny86 or Harry’s godfather, Sirius,87 they are not
punished and sometimes even rewarded. Readers thereby learn that it is morally necessary to
break rules that prohibit them from helping others.
Not only are readers taught to question authority, they are also taught to think about the
motives behind media and news sources. The wizarding newspaper, the Daily Prophet, spouts

80
Curthoys, “Magic of History,” 17.
81
82
Gurevitch, “Fantastic Literature.”
83
Rowling, Chamber of Secrets, 307.
84
Rowling, Philosopher’s Stone, 248.
85
Rowling, Chamber of Secrets, 121. These kids get detention all the time so there are plenty of these instances
throughout the series, but this is a particularly obvious example of physical labor being used as punishment – Ron is
forced to polish trophies while still vomiting up slugs from an earlier magical mishap.
86
Rowling, Chamber of Secrets, 331.
87
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (London: Bloomsbury, 1999), 415.
18
non-facts for the Ministry of Magic, what we today would call fake news, leaving the off-kilter,
often sensational Quibbler to do the real reporting.88 The Quibbler reports the truth about
Voldemort’s return and Harry’s bravery when confronted with the Dark Lord, while the Daily
Prophet only writes about how Harry is unreliable. The Daily Prophet carefully selects their
stories to show readers that everything is fine and that Voldemort is dead, while Harry tells the
truth about Voldemort’s return.89 As the wizarding world despises muggle technology, these
competing news sources are the only news outlets to compare within the Potter books. Even so
they both portray Harry “in a variety of ways, not all of which are beneficial to his cause.”90 The
Daily Prophet goes so far as to call Harry a liar and mentally unstable.91 Harry endures “physical
pain and embarrassment for telling the truth about the return of Voldemort”92 both from the
Daily Prophet’s slander and Dolores Umbridge’s detentions.93 Yet Harry never wavers in his
story, and “continues to speak the truth, regardless of consequences.”94 Harry sacrifices his
reputation and his physical well-being to bring attention to Voldemort, to alert people of his
return so they can fight him before too much damage can be done. This situation becomes a two-
pronged lesson for readers. Umbridge does not believe Harry because she trusts the Daily
Prophet, as many do. Since readers know that Harry is telling the truth, they learn both to
question what the media tells them and to do their own research when reporting seems biased.
The Harry Potter series allows readers insight into the horrors of an authoritarian
dictatorship. Older characters talk about what the world was like when Voldemort came to

88
89
90
91
Order of the Phoenix, dir. Yates.
92
93
Rowling, Order of the Phoenix, 273. As punishment during detention, Umbridge forces Harry to cut the words “I
must not tell lies” into the back of his hand with her enchanted quill. She also gives students illegal truth potions.
94
19
power, then Harry and his friends experience the terror for themselves by the last book. They go
underground, pretend they dropped off the face of the earth, as do many people who “live in
constant fear that they will be killed, either for having impure blood or for sympathizing with
those who do.”95 This further validates speculated links to the Holocaust, while instilling in
readers a fierce opposition to any kind of authoritarianism. Like the protagonists, readers “are
united in their opposition to authoritarian characters in the novels” and in real life.96 The
depiction of authoritarianism in the series, paired with Harry’s bravery and willingness to fight
for his beliefs, can teach young readers follow to Harry’s lead when faced with similar issues.
An important cause of Harry’s victory over Voldemort by the end of the series is
teamwork and friendship. As a children’s series, it does focus on the importance of friendship,
but more than that, Rowling ensures that “the forces of good in the book are decentralized”:
while Voldemort’s power “is derived solely from his own being,” Harry and his allies in the
Order of the Phoenix win “because the power of good is spread among them.”97 While it is
important to do good things as an individual, a group of individuals all doing good together has
more power than any one person could have on their own. In fact, celebrity and obsession with
an individual can have detrimental effects. Harry accomplishes “the most when he is disarmed,
disillusioned, and even invisible, hiding under a cloak that conceals both his celebrity and his
scar.”98 His individual power as a recognizable celebrity ultimately means nothing, as he is more
able to uncover the truth and learn to make meaningful change while he is unrecognizable, just a
normal person. In context this is not discouraging, rather it is empowering as it suggests that

95
96
Mutz, 724.
97
98
Robb A. McDaniel, “Watching the Defectives: Identity, Invisibility, and What the Squib Saw”, in Harry Potter
for Nerds II, edited by Kathryn McDaniel and Travis Prinzi, (Oklahoma City, Unlocking Press, 2015), 294.
20
anyone can make a difference by nature of being a person without having to worry about gaining
people’s attention before seeking to make a change.
Harry Potter and Authoritarianism
Though Voldemort is portrayed as a fascist dictator, he and his followers’ ideology is
best seen in our world as authoritarianism and right-wing populism. Common traits seen in
authoritarian regimes, fictional and in the real world, include projecting strength, often “out of a
concern that they may be seen as illegitimate”; the tendency to demonize enemies, “sometimes
manufacturing a group of evil doers from whom they and they alone can save the country”; and
dismantling institutions, trying to “weaken any check on them” and attacking “foundational
checks and balances such as courts and legislatures.”99 Right-wing populism is the main ideology
that supports the current wave of authoritarian leaders. It is a “reaction to progressive social
change by a group that sees itself as losing power,” that seeks “to mobilize ‘the people’ through
demonization and scapegoating, conspiracy theories, and apocalyptic narratives.”100 Countries
where right-wing populism flourishes often elect leaders, or have un-elected leaders, that exhibit
authoritarian traits.
The social environment Harry exists in creates the opportunity for Voldemort to return.
There is no one reason that Voldemort was able to return, rather he took advantage of multiple
pre-existing conditions that allowed him to regain authoritarian power. The wizarding
government, the Ministry of Magic, is “full of incompetent, corrupt, bumbling figures whose

99
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, episode 149, “November 18, 2018,” performed by John Oliver, aired
November 18, 2018, on HBO, https://www.hbo.com/last-week-tonight-with-john-oliver/2018/90-episode-149.
100
“What is Right-Wing Populism?” Political Research Associates, accessed April 12, 2019,
www.politicalresearch.org/report/up-in-arms-a-guide-to-oregons-patriot-movement/up-in-arms-section-i/the-patriot-
movement-historically-nationally/what-is-right-wing-populism/.
21
only ambition is to cling to power”; “the press is untrustworthy, hysterical,” and “often used as a
puppet of the system in order to sway popular views.”101 Typically, when future authoritarian
regimes are gathering power, warning signs include systematic efforts to intimidate or use the
media, using state power to punish opponents, fear mongering, and demonizing the opposition.102
These are all symptoms that Harry and his friends see within the Ministry of Magic before
Voldemort returns to full power at the end of the fifth book. In these symptoms, there are
harrowing parallels to real life, with “so many examples of how media is subverted by political
institutions” and examples of “how legal institutions are failing in some scenarios.”103 Harry and
his friends were in no way responsible for the way the system was disintegrating, but they took
action anyway, making the series hopeful and ripe for re-reading when times get tough.
The most recent movie series, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, pushes the
original Harry Potter book series’ anti-authoritarian message to a new degree. Rowling said in
an interview promoting the first film that she was “partly inspired by the rise of populism around
the world.”104 Critics and academics alike find that “the political realm of the Harry Potter series
is of increasing interest to readers given the current political issues” of our world, including
“threats of terrorism, an emerging civil war in a faraway country, and corrupt government
officials.”105 This trend of increasing populism is not limited to the United States, or even the
West. Countries like Poland, Brazil, Turkey, Hungary, and the Philippines106 are all experiencing
a trend towards right-wing populism and nationalism, resulting in increased authoritarian

101
102
Stephen M. Walt, “Top 10 Signs of Creeping Authoritarianism, Revisited,” Foreign Policy Voice, last modified
July 27, 2017, https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/07/27/top-10-signs-of-creeping-authoritarianism-revisited/.
103
Sarah Young, “You can now study ‘Harry Potter Law’ at an actual university, and it’s one step closer to a real-
life Hogwarts,” The Independent online, last modified October 25, 2018, https://www.independent.co.uk/life-
style/law-university-national-university-of-juridical-sciences-harry-potter-india-a8600546.html.
104
qtd. in Nicholson, “He who must not be named.”
105
106
Last Week Tonight, “November 18, 2018.”
22
tendencies and terrorist attacks.107 In conjunction with this swing to the right, members of the
Potter generation are using lessons taught by the series and stepping up to fight the fear-
perpetuating reactionary movement.
Researchers who have spent over a decade looking into the effect Harry Potter has on the
minds of young readers think the lessons the series has to offer are “even more relevant today”
than they were for the 2012 election or before.108 Author and researcher Anthony Gierzynski
says that the changing political climate allows Harry Potter fans to apply the series’ lessons
more thoroughly now, in real life, than in any other years since the series began. “We have a
president whose rhetoric promotes intolerance and who fits the typical authoritarian personality,”
he says, urging readers to use critical thinking skills and resist like Harry would.109 The same
nationalist values perpetuated by the villains in the Harry Potter series, including intolerance,
disrespect, violence, punitiveness, and authoritarianism, were also “prominent in coverage of
Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.”110 This line of research connects “messages of
tolerance for difference and opposition to violence,” as taught through Harry Potter, to “Harry
Potter readers’ policy views,” turning them against Trump’s campaign.111
Scholars studying Harry Potter are not the only ones to see the growing parallels between
Lord Voldemort and his followers and Donald Trump and his administration. Fans see many
comparisons between the incompetent leaders in Harry Potter’s Ministry of Magic and Trump’s
administration. During her year as High Inquisitor at Hogwarts, Dolores Umbridge “introduces
limitations on freedom of speech and movement,”112 something eerily similar to Betsy DeVos’

107
Michael Coren, “Right-wing populism will not be easy to stop,” iPolitics Opinions, last modified March 20,
2019, https://ipolitics.ca/2019/03/29/right-wing-populism-will-not-be-easy-to-stop/.
108
109
110
111
Mutz, 728.
112
23
proposed cuts to the Special Olympics and retraction of Title IX protections and affirmative
action guidelines.113 In the last Harry Potter book, “Voldemort seizes control of the government
and his troops become government troops.”114
If we continue this analogy, Trump, like Voldemort, has gained control of the
government. His troops, though, look different than Death Eaters, instead coming in the form of
white supremacists and domestic terrorists, whom Trump defended after the Neo-Nazi protest in
Charlottesville, Virginia, saying that there were “very fine people” on both sides of the racist
dispute.115 These white supremacist protestors, much like Voldemort’s followers in Harry Potter,
“vest their power in a single, all-powerful head of state”116 to protect them and embolden them to
continue their domestic terrorism as they please. The series shows readers “that individual
politicians, not the institutions, are the problem,”117 and that a government’s authoritarian traits
will diminish if a different, non-authoritarian leader is instated.
Though they come from different backgrounds – and one is fictional – both Donald
Trump and Voldemort share interesting character traits. In fact, President Trump himself “shares
many traits with authoritarian leaders”: “he loves appearing strong, he actually wanted a military
parade, and when it came to demonizing enemies, he’s gleefully gone after immigrants and other
marginalized groups.”118 Part of what drove Voldemort to seek power was his “long possessed

113
Mark Pocan, “Betsy DeVos is unfit to lead the Education Department. It’s time for her to resign,” NBC News
online, last modified April 2, 2019, https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/betsy-devos-unfit-lead-education-
department-it-s-time-her-ncna990241.
114
115
Ellis Cose, “Column: One year after Charlottesville, Trump has normalized racism in America,” USA Today
online, last modified August 10, 2018, https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/08/10/white-supremacists-
neo-nazis-charlottesville-unite-right-rally-trump-column/935708002/.
116
117
118
Last Week Tonight, “November 18, 2018.”
24
desire to hold power over others,”119 which could also be said for Donald Trump, given his
history on reality television where he was famous for firing people.120
Voldemort had “a disdain for things considered common,”121 that readers see throughout
the series. Trump eats copious amounts of common fast food,122 perhaps to make himself appear
more relatable to his base, but he loathes anything else that is common, so often degrading
people who are not rich white men that “websites have become devoted to keeping long lists” of
such comments.123 Strictly within the Harry Potter series, “among the most powerful and
frequent allusions” is to the “rise of authoritarian regimes during the twentieth century,”
specifically narrating “the importance of racism and the exploitation and exclusion of people on
the basis of race” and “the creation of an atmosphere of terror so great that for many the best
option is to flee.”124 These phrases bring to mind countless comments by Trump that make
people feel the same way in real life under his leadership.
Reading of the Harry Potter series has been correlated with “improved attitudes toward a
stigmatized outgroup.”125 Amongst a sample of white students in the UK and Italy, researchers
found that exposure to Harry Potter “raises evaluations of Muslim and homosexuals by 1-2
points on the feeling thermometer scale” per book read.126 Following that correlation, the act of
reading Harry Potter makes the reader more tolerant of any outgroup, and therefore less willing

119
120
Samantha Schmidt, “Clay Aiken says Trump didn’t make the decision to fire people on ‘The Apprentice’,”
Washington Post online, last modified June 12, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-
mix/wp/2017/07/12/clay-aiken-says-trump-didnt-make-the-decisions-to-fire-people-on-celebrity-
apprentice/?utm_term=.607d1bfd2605.
121
122
Sam Gillette, “President Trump’s Love Affair with Fast Food: A Brief (and Salty) Summary,” People online, last
modified February 26, 2019, https://people.com/politics/president-donald-trump-loves-fast-food/.
123
124
125
126
25
to accept authoritarianism and racism. Further research only found two significant factors that
could explain people’s attitude toward authoritarianism: “the cognitive skills necessary to deal
with complexity and openness to experience.”127 Specifically, “Harry Potter fans scored
significantly lower on authoritarian predisposition” than non-fans.128 It is possible that reading
the Harry Potter books at a young age helped fans develop both these cognitive skills and
openness to experience at the same time as they were processing the series’ anti-authoritarian
messages.
While Harry Potter fans are significantly less likely to accept authoritarianism, there are
certain groups that are more likely than others to engage in authoritarian activity. Researchers
also found that “social dominance has a strong positive relationship with both authoritarianism
and racism.” 129 Trump is at the top of America’s social ladder, and his strong authoritarian
tendencies give these findings credit. Combining Harry Potter and Trump, the “most convincing
analysis shows that Potter fans are less supportive of punitive policies” in general, regardless of
their political ideology.130 Members of the Potter generation, who grew up with tales of victory
over authoritarian rule, are critical of Trump’s policies and the social climate that facilitated his
rise to power.
Researcher Diana Mutz from the University of Pennsylvania has surveyed people from
all walks of life, who have read Harry Potter or not, and found a correlation between exposure to
Harry Potter and attitudes toward Donald Trump. There is an undeniable “association between
reading Harry Potter books and opposition to Trump” and his policies: reading Harry Potter
“encourages more negative attitudes toward Trump,” lowering the reader’s “evaluation of

127
128
129
130
Mutz, 724.
26
Donald Trump by roughly 2-3 points” per book.131 Mutz found that “reading Harry Potter books
engenders opposition to Trump in a way that goes beyond encouraging negative attitudes
towards outgroups,”132 reinforcing Vezzali’s argument that exposure to Harry Potter improves
attitudes towards outgroups.133 Readers are making this correlation between Voldemort and
Trump, perhaps not only because of policy, but because “it may simply be too difficult for Harry
Potter readers to ignore the similarities between Trump and the power-hungry Voldemort.”134
Regardless of the reasoning behind it, the connection has been made between Trump and
Voldemort. Research like this and op-eds across the internet have irrevocably linked the two, for
better or for worse.
The striking parallels between Trump and Voldemort alone do not cause people to use
Harry Potter and its lessons in their political activism. Though Harry Potter, like all popular
culture, “does not directly lead to political activism or citizenship performances,” it does
“provide the resources” for people to become politically active themselves.135 The first step in
turning private reading of a popular text into activism is sharing the experience with others:
reading becomes social when it “becomes an important feature of conversations,” either formal
or informal, where readers become an interpretive community by working “together to produce
the meaning of the novels.”136 In these groups, fans talk about the books, the characters, and
ultimately come to some conclusion about what the books say about our world. Based off these
conclusions, people can then choose to use Harry Potter’s lessons as a “political and rhetorical”
source for them to practice citizenship “from the many other choices available.”137 Members of

131
132
Mutz, 726.
133
134
135
Hinck, “Ethical Frameworks,” 14.
136
Kidd, “Functions of Popular Culture,” 84.
137
27
the Potter generation around the world are choosing Harry Potter to frame their political
activism, using the lessons they learned as children to inform their opinions as adults.
Millennial Politics and the Effect of Harry Potter
The Millennial generation has a different approach to politics than previous generations,
an approach which facilitates the use of Harry Potter and other texts of popular culture in their
political actions. While political talk is important in our culture, as it enables “citizens to form
opinions and understand the significance of the political world,” members of the Millennial
generation in particular “may find political talk intimidating or divisive.”138 This generation
typically harbors “a feeling of alienation toward political parties, and [given] the limits of formal
discussion spaces,” young people seek out alternative spaces “to discuss politics with peers in a
supportive – and enjoyable – context.”139 These alternate spaces are unestablished, often using
the internet to form “grassroots civic groups,” full of young people rejecting “the obligations of
government institutions in favor of finding a sense of individual purpose in loose and fluid social
networks.”140 The most common model of citizenship among young people, particularly
members of the Potter generation, is “self-actualizing citizenship in which they want to express
their voice and connect their action to their interests,” which can be anything, including “popular
culture texts, games, social media, or other hobbies and interests.”141 Rather than participate in
traditional political groups, young people are gathering around shared interests rather than
ideologies.

138
139
Kligler-Vilenchik, 2033.
140
141
28
All the popular culture we consume is political, as it was created within a society
controlled by politics. The act of creating popular cultural stories within our society inherently
comments on the political happenings of the time – even the most escapist of narratives emulate
the feminist idea that the personal is political. Young people’s attraction towards interest groups,
rather than traditional political groups, results in political discussion regardless of the intended
formation of the group, and a cross-pollination of sorts in people’s politics. Within groups of
young people, there is greater “potential for political deliberation [that] occurs primarily in
groups where politics is not the central purpose”; groups that tend to bring together people of
varying ideologies because they are not limited by political identifiers.142 In Harry Potter based
groups specifically, many group “conversations are not about Harry Potter” at all: “the fictional
world helped members come together, feel a connection, and create an environment of trust”
where people “could have political conversations unrelated to the fictional narratives.”143
Groups that gather to talk about Harry Potter or other popular culture interests “serve as a
starting point for political discussion,” and ultimately create third spaces, safe places to talk and
learn that combine popular culture and politics in an understandable and exciting way.144 In such
spaces, even the most “informal political talk can be seen as valuable for its own sake or as a
precursor for other outcomes, such as civic participation.”145
Members of the Potter generation who do choose to use the series as a way to practice
their citizenship encourage other fans to join them in their efforts. One of the core themes of the
Harry Potter series is that we all have the power to fight back against injustice. In one of the
more visceral moments in the sixth movie, Harry tries to attack Snape – when Snape walks away,

142
143
Kligler-Vilenchik, 2036. Emphasis original.
144
145
29
Harry bellows at him to “fight back.”146 Fans are turning this outburst into a rallying cry in the
modern political age, “motivating and mobilizing legions of fans” with its powerful political
message.147 Fans, in the spirit of paranoid Order of the Phoenix member Mad-Eye Moody,
remain vigilant to protect themselves and their country from authoritarianism. These activists are
motivated, in part, to rebel because of the lessons they learned through Harry as a child,
including his revered “willingness to go against established norms and to question authority,”
which gives him “the power to seek his place as a civic leader.”148 Inspired by, and having
internalized those lessons, fans are willing to do the same in their political lives, leading them to
become activists.
The Harry Potter series showed fans that the best way to make change with their political
activism was to band together, a lesson that members of the Potter generation have taken to
heart. There are Facebook study groups like “Harry Potter as a Tool for Social Change”, which
investigates “how Harry Potter relates to current sociopolitical and personal identity issues.”149
Members of such groups practice “fan-based citizenship,” where “a political argument is
authorized and justified by a fictional story” and members’ commitment to being fans of the
series.150 Because these people identify so strongly as Harry Potter fans, they are willing to go
further than non-fans in activism under the umbrella of Harry Potter. The books “served as the
starting point for conversations,” allowing group members to engage in “in-depth discussions
around current political and social issues.”151 These groups are not unlike consciousness-raising
groups popular during second-wave feminism, where people get together and share things they

146
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, directed by David Yates (2009; Burbank: Warner Bros. Entertainment
Inc., 2009), DVD.
147
148
Becton, “Harry Potter and Politics,” 12
149
150
151
30
did not consider political until spoken aloud in a group setting. The community gathered around
Harry Potter is able to share experiences and learn from each other in a similar way as they did
with the books, because of their shared vocabulary from the fictional series.
Aside from Rowling’s own nonprofit organization, Lumos, several activist groups have
been formed by fans under the banner of Harry Potter. The most influential of these groups is
the Harry Potter Alliance (HPA), “a non-profit formed to mobilize fans and campaign against
real-world ‘horcruxes’ like bigotry and climate change.”152 The organization uses the fantasy
series as “not only an escape from our world, but an invitation to go deeper into it,”153 engaging
more than 1 million fans in their “fan-based civic engagement” since the organization began in
2005.154 They use the Harry Potter series “as a guiding framework for civic action.”155 Fans,
through the HPA, are encouraged to donate time and money, to protest, to stand up for their
beliefs however they can, under the familiar and safe banner of Harry Potter. They rally fans to
support everything from gender equality to net neutrality, from racial justice to climate change,
turning “fans into heroes.”156 Members of the Potter generation take cues from the series and
band together to make political change themselves, instead of leaving the world saving or
changing to the adults.
Conclusion
Harry Potter fans have been using the series to facilitate their citizenship for decades.
However, there has been a surge of Harry Potter themed political activism since the 2016

152
153
154
155
Hinck, 2.
156
“What We Do,” The Harry Potter Alliance, accessed April 2, 2019, https://www.thehpalliance.org/what_we_do.
31
campaign and subsequent election of President Donald Trump. Having already opened up new
lines of communication between members of the Potter generation, these young activists used the
cross section between Harry Potter and politics as a rallying cry for global activist groups to
fight growing right-wing populism. The Harry Potter series specifically has this effect because
the Potter generation was raised on the story, thereby internalizing the lessons Harry learns as if
readers had experienced them for themselves. Because of the neuroscience of storytelling, the
lasting popularity of Harry Potter, and the lessons imparted by the narrative, fans are able to use
the series as a way to justify their political activism and make it more understandable for others.
The series gives members of the Potter generation vocabulary to explain their motives and
actions that anyone familiar with the series can understand.
The Harry Potter series has had such a strong impact on the larger world not because it is
fundamentally better or different than any other series, but because of its popularity. “Fiction –
whether found in books, films, television shows, or video games – has the power to shape our
politics,” and does so most noticeably when the fiction is very popular and consumed by
hundreds of thousands of people.157 This popularity allows anyone familiar with the series to
converse about it in terms of the series, allowing for the flow of ideas and information through
the series as a non-confrontational, understandable form of communication. Our brains interpret
stories the same way regardless of their popularity among others, and a story’s lessons compel us
to act when a series touches our spirits. The only thing that makes Harry Potter fans unique in a
world saturated by popular culture is their great numbers.
Upon hearing this argument, one may be tempted to conclude that we must carefully
control the stories that our children specifically are exposed to. To clarify, this is certainly not a

157
32
call for censorship of stories – on the contrary. The more diverse media we consume, the more
we are able to make emotionally informed and empathetic decisions about our political positions
and beyond. By encouraging and consuming media with diverse protagonists, that is,
protagonists of various races, genders, and religions, who come from various socioeconomic
backgrounds and walks of life, we best set our selves up for social success and the ability to
empathize with people very unlike ourselves. The more practice a person has empathizing with
others, the easier it becomes in reading and in real life.
In the coming years, it will be essential to gain a greater understanding of how popular
culture influences our political opinions. The internet exposes us to more popular culture faster
than ever before. This popular culture is not necessarily coming from Hollywood or the
publishing industry: much of what is disseminated over the internet is made by individuals and
posted on a social media platform that allows it to gain popularity. Further research is required to
understand the existence of these works of self expression, created without the guarantee that
anyone else will see it, and what sway they may have over the forming of political ideology.
This paper has dissected the political influence the Harry Potter books and movies had
on the Potter generation, but its limited scope leaves much to explore. Further research is
necessary to investigate how this phenomenon can be applied to other works of popular culture,
from young adult fiction series or comic book movies. This research can only correlate the Potter
generation’s activism with their consumption of the Harry Potter series: further research is
needed to establish a more secure connection between popular culture and political ideology.
Recently, fans have been able to use their Harry Potter inspired activism to critique
American President Donald Trump. Though the series has inspired various forms of activism,
including charitable donation and social media campaigns, fans are taking to the streets for
33
various protests with Harry Potter themed picket signs in tow. These fans, members of the Potter
generation, compare Trump to Voldemort because of their similarly authoritarian ideologies.
This comparison is not only eye-catching, but it also puts often difficult to grasp political
concepts in terms that people can understand and relate to because of the lessons they learned
reading the Harry Potter series. The Harry Potter series is able to create empathy particularly
well by exploring various different characters in depth, showing their struggles and their
triumphs in an understandable and exciting way. The Potter generation is moved to political
activism because of the lessons they learned from the seminal series.
34
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Jacqueline van Bronkhorst

continue to plague our society.

not grown up with the series.

Learning from Stories

– not by telling us what is right, but by allowing us to feel it ourselves.”13

This is not a hopeful assertion by an author, but a fact backed up by neuroscience.

happening to them in real life.

This understanding of the neuroscience of storytelling is supported by researchers

lessons from Harry’s magical world as if they actually happened.

members of the Potter generation.

This is particularly important to understand in reference to the Millennial generation, and

of the internet’s production and dissemination of such culture.

political communication” because of popular culture’s increasingly important role in young

Lessons in the Harry Potter Series

and political lessons the series imparts on young readers.

magical duels during these early books.

ending for still-young readers to model in their own lives.

actions of everyday people.

leaders and what you can and cannot support.

message with the rest of the series in readers’ minds.

morality, readers learn that they should be able to do so, too.

immersed in a revolutionary atmosphere that is developing in the wizarding world.”72 The

individuals, regardless of ability or background, have a voice and an opportunity to succeed.”77

persistence towards a bright future, politically and otherwise, among readers.

break rules that prohibit them from helping others.

people’s attention before seeking to make a change.

Harry Potter and Authoritarianism

Though Voldemort is portrayed as a fascist dictator, he and his followers’ ideology is

demonization and scapegoating, conspiracy theories, and apocalyptic narratives.”100 Countries

a trend towards right-wing populism and nationalism, resulting in increased authoritarian

perpetuating reactionary movement.

disrespect, violence, punitiveness, and authoritarianism, were also “prominent in coverage of

Potter readers’ policy views,” turning them against Trump’s campaign.111

and his troops become government troops.”114

will diminish if a different, non-authoritarian leader is instated.

history on reality television where he was famous for firing people.120

significantly lower on authoritarian predisposition” than non-fans.128 It is possible that reading

better or for worse.

or informal, where readers become an interpretive community by working “together to produce

Millennial Politics and the Effect of Harry Potter

precursor for other outcomes, such as civic participation.”145

Members of such groups practice “fan-based citizenship,” where “a political argument is

changing to the adults.

actions that anyone familiar with the series can understand.

the series as a non-confrontational, understandable form of communication. Our brains interpret

world saturated by popular culture is their great numbers.

others, the easier it becomes in reading and in real life.

generation, compare Trump to Voldemort because of their similarly authoritarian ideologies.

Walt, Stephen M. “Top 10 Signs of Creeping Authoritarianism, Revisited.” Foreign Policy

"What We Do." The Harry Potter Alliance. Accessed April 2, 2019.

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