An entry in a new series that covers these covenantal categories…
Today, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999)
AUTHOR: JK Rowling was born in 1965 in Southwest Britain. She published Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in 1997 and the book’s two follow-ups in 1998 and 1999, respectively.
HIERARCHY: Rowling was a divorced single-parent when her blockbuster novel came out. She had spent time in government housing and various teaching jobs before her first novel hit it big. Her father was an engineer, and her mother was a lab tech who died in 1990 from multiple sclerosis. Rowling does not write from the “inside” of society but as an outsider.
This third novel in the Harry Potter series showed Rowling’s maturity as a writer. Its subject matter is darker and more complex, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione enter puberty. The film adaptation of the novel is often considered the best of the film series.
CONFESSION OF FAITH: Rowling despises people who misuse their power and abuse loyalty. She prizes love and sacrifice as virtues. The books make this clear. This particular novel is about revenge. For the first time, Harry meets someone who (supposedly) betrayed his parents. He must confront his own unexpected anger and quell his internal desire to punish the Judas figure himself.
All of this is worked out without organized religion. There is no god in the Harry Potter world. All this power? Human-focused. That’s why the temptation to take revenge is strong. You can’t count on God to do it for you. If the judicial system has messed up, there’s only you to make it right. Harry, however, resists the temptation.
Rowling attend a Church of Scotland congregation and had her daughter baptized into that body.
CONSEQUENCES: Rowling’s broken marriage hasn’t come up in the series yet. Even the execrable Petunia and Vernon are still married. The headmasters at Hogwarts are alone, however. Minerva, Albus, Hagrid, and Snape are represented as single, rather than married or divorced. Their positions (apparently) demand they care for many children rather than their own families. They choose to devote themselves to others through education.
However, the broken trust of her divorced husband is all over the book. The theme of loyalty is central in the book. James Potter was the only one of his close-knit friends to get married (and, thus, have a child). As a result, friendship is what these men have, and one of these friends is a Judas (it’s just not the one everyone thinks it is).
It’s essential that Snape, whose backstory receives more development here, is someone torn by revenge. He can’t hate Potter completely because James saved his life, but he gives himself reasons why Potter is still worth hating to give him plausible deniability for hating his son.
Harry’s generation bears the weight of its predecessors.
LEGACY: The book is considered one of the best in the series. A 2012 poll from The School Library Journal ranked it as the twelfth best chapter book for children. Only Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone ranked higher (#3), and only one other book series made a list (Goblet of Fire at #98). JK Rowling’s legacy has taken a hit over the past couple of years.
Experiments in Criticism 