For children the only authorities that matter are their parents. And while Harry had no parents he had absolutely no respect for Dumbledore or any other adult who was trying to take care of him.
Harry
always has immense respect for Dumbledore. In fact, it is that respect which saves his life in
Chamber of Secrets. The
only time I can recall his disobeying or dismissing Dumbledore’s instructions is when he doesn’t work to get the real memory from Slughorn in
Half-Blood Prince, and when Dumbledore rebukes him for it, Harry feels
really bad and realizes he was wrong. He also respects Professor McGonagall
a lot, and indeed most of the Hogwarts teachers.
As for the others, they sometimes listened to their parents but most of the time what parents wanted was immaterial. After all, the adults were all too fuddy duddy to figure out what was going on and fix it.
Are Mr. and Mrs. Weasley “fuddy duddies” or dumb? What about Neville’s grandmother? Or the Hogwarts faculty?
The
only time I can think of when the students choose to act as though the adults can’t help them is the climax of
Order of the Phoenix, and we quickly find out they were wrong to make that assumption: the children cause the mess, and the proper authority figures (Dumbledore, the Order of the Phoenix) have to come in and save the day.
That’s what I meant by authority and the children in the book are constantly bucking authority. They aren’t exactly great role models BUT they are realistic depictions of children because that’s what children do - they see adults as stupid and want to go their own way.
Fair enough. Honestly, I think
Harry Potter rightfully inculcates in children a realization that there are principles higher than earthly authorities, and that those principles should govern our lives. When earthly authorities act in conformance with these principles, they are to be obeyed; if they command contravention of these principles, they should not be.
And
good authority figures in the series - like Dumbledore - do inspire devotion and submission from the kids. Even with Snape, the children’s lack of trust in him in
Order of the Phoenix ultimately gets Sirius killed.
As for the bad authority figures… well, they’re bad. They ought to be disobeyed, just as the Nazis ought to have been disobeyed. Can anyone seriously maintain that the children had some kind of moral obligation to obey Dolores Umbridge? The magic of Dumbledore’s office indicates that her status as headmistress of Hogwarts was not even legally valid.
He had respect for Dumbledore but he didn’t tend to listen to Dumbledore. Unless I’m remembering the books wrong or something? Harry did what Harry wanted, regardless what the adults wanted (IF he could get away with it, that is).
See… that’s what I have a problem with. The idea that the children somehow were privy to knowledge and wisdom that the adults lacked and because they did they were able to save the day. How often does this happen in real life? Usually when kids are ignoring the voice of their parents or teachers bad things follow.
This is true in
Harry Potter, too. For instance, Harry and his friends start “Dumbledore’s Army,” and the net result of it is that Dumbledore is forced to flee into exile. They feel really stupid and bad about that, and it wouldn’t have happened if they had listened to Dumbledore and McGonagall by not antagonizing or resisting the Umbridge regime.
Anyway, I know the kids saved the day over and over in every book. I realize this is just fictional… but these are the points I saw that were far more worrisome then the magic.
Sometimes it’s the children’s loyalty to proper authority that saves the day. For instance:
- in Philosopher’s Stone they attempt to alert Dumbledore (even sending him an owl) before getting involved, and Dumbledore does indeed save the day by returning and defeating Quirrell; in fact, he figures out on his own that he needs to come back without the assistance of the children’s owl.
- in Chamber of Secrets Harry’s loyalty to Dumbledore allows Fawkes to come to his assistance, which saves his life
- in the climax of Half-Blood Prince Harry listens to and obeys everything Dumbledore asks of him
But it’s a children’s book so if they weren’t like this the plot wouldn’t have gone anywhere.
Yes, I recognize this. And as I’ve said multiple times I was merely pointing out the only ‘negative’ things I saw in Harry Potter as that is the topic of choice.