Harry Potter, Personally: Heroism

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”

“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

These inscriptions are found on two tombs in Godric’s Hollow: the tomb of Harry Potter’s parents, and that of Albus Dumbledore’s family. You probably know, however, that the inscriptions are taken from a far less obscure source: the Bible.

J.K. Rowling specifically chose these verses to highlight critical themes in the story. But the biggest “borrow” of all is the final choice of Harry himself. Did Rowling mean to make such obvious allusions to Christianity, or was it coincidental? Read on to find out.

Harry the Hero

Many (really, most) of the characters in The Deathly Hallows show courage and heroism to some degree. Neville Longbottom, Professor McGonigal, and even Molly Weasley are powerhouses in the final battle. But in this post I plan to focus on Harry’s role as the main hero. I mean, it’s his series after all.

Everyone loves a good hero, especially when he’s an underdog. Harry is a nobody who turns out to be a very great somebody. Instead of choosing the cool kids in school, he prefers the weirdos and the snubbed. He has greatness thrust upon him, and while he staggers at first, he learns to bear up under the load and to acquit himself admirably. Although he’s far from perfect, he’s a champion of good at Hogwarts. But why do his choices resonate so deeply within us? Because his heroic qualities reflect that of a Greater Hero: Jesus. 

Sacrificial Love

I read that Rowling enjoyed the Chronicles of Narnia as a child but felt disappointed and even betrayed as an adult to know that the stories had religious parallels. But later she purposely included the Christian themes of death and redemption in the Harry Potter series. It was sacrificial love that saved Harry as a baby and gave him impunity later in life. That may seem corny, or it may seem like a plot gimmick. Regardless, it’s a corny plot gimmick with pre-creation significance: sacrificial love has always been the ultimate means of salvation. 

It’s the same way that Voldemort is defeated and everyone is saved in the end: Harry willingly gives up his chance to live, turning himself over to Voldemort for the good of his friends. He chooses the death of one in exchange for the lives of many. His death defeated evil incarnate and gave freedom to those who were enslaved by fear of death. That reminds me of Someone Else…

Allegory, Supposal, and Symbolism

Rowling said that she didn’t want to publicize her churchy side until the series was over for fear that people would anticipate the inevitable conclusion of the series. But while she was intentional about the similarities between Christ’s death and Harry’s, they’re just symbols and allusions. This is distinct from the “supposal” of Narnia. 

Lewis said that the parallels between Aslan and Jesus in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe aren’t allegory but supposal. In a letter, Lewis wrote, “[Aslan] is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question, ‘What might Christ become like if there really were a world like Narnia, and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?’ This is not allegory at all.” Aslan is a picture of Jesus, but Harry is just a regular hero whose choices reflect those of Jesus like the moon reflects the sun.

Echoes of the Greater Hero

And that’s the big point: every hero embodies and reflects the True Hero. Our good qualities stem from their Source, our good Creator. Jesus is the archetype; myth, story, and reality are echoes and reflections of him. Our love for Aslan, admiration of Harry, and awe at real-life heroes are signposts pointing toward Christ. 

At the risk of having to rename this article “Aslan, Personally,” I’d like to clarify the point with one more C.S. Lewis quote. Once a boy’s mother wrote to Lewis about her son’s concern that he loved Aslan more than he loved Jesus. “[Lawrence] can’t really love Aslan more than Jesus, even if he feels that’s what he is doing,” Lewis wrote back, “For the things he loves Aslan for doing or saying are simply the things Jesus really did and said. So that when Laurence thinks he is loving Aslan, he is really loving Jesus: and perhaps loving Him more than he ever did before.” The same is true for Harry Potter’s sacrifice, a firefighter’s rescue, and even the selflessness of a mother for her child. When we love what’s beautiful in another person, we’re loving the One who put it there.  

A Primal Theme

We know that Rowling felt betrayed when she understood the religious significance of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, so why did she include Christian themes in her own books? Because, whether she knows it or not, they’re the most poignant, primal, and passionate themes in human history. Our hearts were created to resonate with sacrifice, even if it takes place in a fictional forest with witches, wizards, and Hagrid looking on. The biblical ties don’t lessen the significance of the story—they intensify it. 

True Hope

One of the epigraphs for The Deathly Hallows ends this way: “This is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die, yet their friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present, because immortal” (William Penn, More Fruits of Solitude). We desperately want this to be true, don’t we? Anyone who has lost a loved one longs for them to be ever present, for the relationship to be immortal. While there’s certainly a sense in which it is true, our hearts long for it to be completely true. 

The final battle for Hogwarts take a heavy toll. Lives are lost, and families are fractured. Even though it’s fiction, our hearts are still heavy for the characters we’ve come to love over the past seven books. Our hearts are heavier still because we know what it’s like to have loved and lost. 

But the beautiful thing is that true hope doesn’t lie in wishful feelings—it lies in Christ. For those who love Jesus and have been changed by him, death is just a crossing from the shadowlands into the true Kingdom of Light. Because Jesus sacrificed himself—the One for the many—and conquered death itself, we can live together with him, not just for a while but forever. 

Now that’s the work of a Hero.