J. K. Rowling Interviews

[Jedo the Jedi]

Ok, so I have these two Christian friends who keep bringing up that Rowling has stated her whole intent was to depict Harry as the Christ figure. As a Christian, I have seen that symbolism in the series, and of course most clearly in the final book. Fine. My problem is they are now re-reading them and pointing out all kinds of minor things which they say she put in there on purpose under the same motif.

I want some sort of critical/analytical perspective on this. Are they just seeing what they want to see (as I believe they are), or is it more likely that Rowling really did infuse the series with that many allusions to the Christian narrative? I'll share more of what I think after some input.
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[Scurra]

I've read quite a few pseudo-academic articles that purport to show that Rowling incorporated any number of philosophical traditions/world views - curiously, all of them that seem to correspond to the tradition/world view of the particular writer in question...

Any half-decent structured work of narrative (as opposed to character) fiction will tend to find itself open to this, simply because there are only those dozen or so basic story types on which to build. I mean people like Jung, Frazer and Campbell and even Tolkien have explored this quite thoroughly

For myself, I don't think Rowling intended much specific religious allegory at all in the Potter story, beyond the standard Hero's Journey symbology which is hard to avoid but which will make the story look a lot more potent than it really is. Personally, I'd say there was less religious imagery in there than there is in, say, Tolkien - or Lucas. It's certainly not CS Lewis.

To her credit, Rowling has filled the "Potterverse" with a rich tapestry of (albeit frequently contradictory) detail - but that also means that you can find evidence for almost any theory you wish to propose. It's a bit like the Bible in that respect... (I will concede that I haven't been able to find supporting evidence for the "Riddle is Harry's father" theory, but that's about the only mythic standard that doesn't seem to be in there!)
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[Zag]

As has been said about The Lord of the Rings, if it is allegory, then it is so obscure that people can't agree on it. If you agree that it is well-written, you have to concede that it is not allegory. After all, any well-written allegory is understandable as such.

Send them to read The Chronicles of Narnia, which were actually intended as allegory of the Judeo-Christian god, or C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy, which is also intended as such.

[Jack_Ian]

There are many studies reporting similarities between Jesus and other Saviour/Hero type figures that pre-date Jesus.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa.htm (one of many)
http://thedevineevidence.com/jesus_similarities.html (a Christian response)

Miraculous Births: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miraculous_births

Some would argue that the Jesus "story" was told in a familiar narrative with his life-story peppered with classical hero incidents. But I think most successful stories, whether that's Harry Potter or some non-fiction success, will share many traits that tug at the heart strings and inspire.

[Scurra]

[Jedo the Jedi]

I agree that a lot of what is in the HP books is generally accepted symbols for heroes and such. That was part of my argument with my friends. For instance, they tried to argue that Harry spent most of his time with those on the outskirts of society (Neville, Luna, Dobby, Hagrid, etc.) and is therefore similar to Jesus in this respect. This is one place where I found their argument to be more of a stretch. Suppose they knew nothing of the Christ story, don't you just naturally expect the hero of the story to associate with those whom the main culture ostracizes? That's just natural goodness in my opinion.

The other thing which really made me wary of their argument is my friend said he's looking forward to re-reading the Horcrux scene at the end of book 6 to see how much it reads like a baptism (since Dumbledore=John the Baptist and Harry=Jesus). This just screams to me they will see what they want to see.

I guess what I wonder most about this is why it matters so much. Does the Christian faith somehow need validation from this piece of fiction? I sincerely hope not. Maybe it's just an example of carrying a metaphor too far. *sigh* This is the reason I think it would have been better if Rowling had just left the parallelism unconfirmed.
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[Lepton*]

Before the release of the final book, which depicts Harry's Christ-like death, the main reaction from the Christian audience was accusations that JK Rowling was trying to draw children away from Christianity by planting ideas of witchcraft into their minds. Other than Harry's death, I don't think there are any parallels between the stories of those two men that are so clear as to be intentional.

What parallels there are likely represent JK Rowling's upbringing in a Western culture that features the archetype. Against the strong, what can the noble young hero do except, ultimately, sacrifice himself? By contrast, in Life-story of the Moon Cuckoo a brilliant traditional Buddhist play I translated and cut a couple years ago, the hero finds peace, but not by confronting his enemy, who is vanquished by his own machinations. So Harry Potter is an allegory only insofar as Luke Skywalker, Frodo Baggins, Ted Mosby, and all other Western heroes are likewise.