One Last Complaint About Harry Potter
I think that my series of blog articles about Harry Potter will not be complete if I do not write my last complaint. This is one of the major obstacles between the series of Harry Potter and truly good fantasy writing. It seems that Harry ages too quickly.
Aging too Quickly
In our modern world, people master the abilities and knowledge they require at the same time that they grow into adulthood. The responsibilities that are gradually accepted by today’s adults are assumed along with the knowledge and experience to cope with such responsibilities. Although it is true that on occasion, the hero of a story is required to age before his time and deal with responsibilities beyond his years, this is the exception to the rule of society. This is not the case in Harry’s world of magic.
A Serious Problem
Rowling seems to be struggling with the problem of what adult wizards do. She doesn’t really know. It seems great to wield a wand and blast magical spells but she has no idea what to do with it in a society. Consequently, her characters have reached their educational potential at a very early age. They have nothing left to do in the world except fight evil and get married. There are some vague jobs that adult wizards work at but the details are incredibly unclear. Is this because adult wizards have incredibly boring jobs? I don’t think so! I think that Rowling is simply at loss at what to describe. Not only that, Rowling has already established that it is possible to convert muggle cash into wizard coinage. I fail to understand why wizards can’t simply make a fortune in muggle cash and then convert it. It would seem like something that is too easy not to accomplish.
