What it Means to be a Phoenix

To me, one of the biggest thematic elements of the Harry Potter series is coming of age, but in the context of what the past has been for the character. A couple of key characters, Harry & Neville specifically, make choices as they become adults that are both because and in spite of their brutal pasts.

Neville really stands out to me as possibly the most dynamic character in the entire series. When we first meet him he’s so pathetically bad at everything and I honestly just wanted to give him a hug whenever Malfoy made fun of him (especially after the episode with the Rememberall!). Neville does show a bit of backbone when he tries to prevent the trio from sneaking out past bedtime. But even then, Hermione quickly dispenses of any resistance he gave and Harry, Ron and Hermione rush off to take part in the heroics. For the first three books, Neville is pretty static. He’s desperately bad at Potions, is constantly teased by others and his apparent lack of talent is relentlessly bemoaned by his grandmother. In Goblet of Fire, we get an inkling that there is more to Neville. His knack for herbology is revealed and even encouraged by his family. Harry finds out the Neville’s parents are not, in fact, dead but something far worse—tortured into insanity and continually mourned by Neville and his grandmother, giving him and the reader some much needed background on why Neville seems so insecure. I personally believe that Order of the Phoenix could just as easily been named The Year of Neville. He really begins to come into his own, showing previously hidden abilities for Defense Against the Dark Arts and something very like a backbone, even in the face of his friends finding out the truth about his parents.

Harry too struggles with his past, the senselessness of his parents’ deaths and the question of why he had to live with the Dursleys. He never feels in control of his life, until he is told that he’s actually a wizard and will be attending wizard school. There, Harry’s life is drastically different. Yes, he’s still bullied (Malfoy sure spreads the hate around…), but this time he has friends to mitigate the pain. He goes from being on the bottom all the time to a place where everyone knows his name and wants to thank him for something he doesn’t remember doing, if he actually did anything at all. He finds himself pitted against Voldemort again and again, always finding a way out in the end. But in Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix Harry gets another taste of his muggle life, but this time it’s while he’s in the wizarding world. He deals with bad press (thank you Rita Skeeter), his first big fight with Ron, the horror of witnessing Cedric’s murder, the return of Lord Voldemort, more bad press (thank you Ministry of Magic), general distrust from others, Dumbledore’s abandonment and Sirius’ death just to name a few awful things. Through it all, he struggles to maintain his sanity and self-confidence. Over the course of the five books we read, Harry becomes a wonderfully strong character, moving from the lonely, slightly awkward faux hero (in his own mind at least), to the courageous if a bit rash hero he must be to fulfill the prophecy.

I think the key about Neville and Harry’s development is their connection with the brutality of their pasts. Both lost parents, though not in quite the same manner, and are being raised by people with high expectations of them, Neville to live up to his father’s memory and Harry to be “normal” and unobtrusive. They grow both because and in spite of the horrors of their pasts. Neville, despite his humble beginnings, starts to become a brilliant wizard gaining confidence, I believe, when he’s not hiding from his past any longer. He acknowledges his parents’ sacrifice and succeeds because his parents would be proud of him and also to escape the tragedy of losing parents, so he’s not simply an orphan, but something far more. Harry continually fights Voldemort in memory of the parents that were stolen from him, and also so other children will not be orphans. Our past can shape so much of us, and either Harry or Neville could have slipped into simply being an orphan, wallowing in the grief, or disappearing into shame. Instead, they rise out of the ashes of their past to become brilliant, strong young men.

And just for a laugh: