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The theme of xenophobia in J.K. Rowling’s fiction series “Harry Potter”

Xenophobia is a fear or contempt of that which is foreign or unknown, especially of strangers or foreign people. It comes from the Greek words ξένος (xenos), meaning “foreigner”, “stranger”, and φόβος (phobos), meaning “fear.” The term is typically used to describe fear or dislike of foreigners or in general of people different from one's self.

In various contexts, the terms “xenophobia” and “racism” seem to be used interchangeably, though they have wholly different meanings (xenophobia being based on place of birth, racism being based on ancestry). For example: to dislike a black person from France because they are French is xenophobic, but to dislike them because they are black is racist.

There are two main objects of the xenophobia. The first is a population group present within a society that is not considered part of that society. This form of xenophobia can bring out hostile and violent reactions, such as mass discharge of immigrants, or in the worst case, genocide. The second form of xenophobia is mainly cultural, and the objects of the phobia are cultural elements which are considered alien. It rarely leads to aggression against individual persons, but can result in political campaigns for cultural or linguistic purification. Additionally, in the world of science fiction, xenophobia may refer to a fear or hatred of extraterrestrial cultures or beings.

The effects of xenophobia (dislike against the genetically dissimilar out-group and nepotistic favoritism towards the genetically similar in-group) are analyzed by many sociobiological researchers. More than two hundred social psychological experiments have confirmed the intimate connection between familiarity and fondness.

Xenophobia is closely connected with discrimination. In general, 'discrimination' is the recognition of the differences between things. Direct discrimination involves treating someone less favorably because of their possession of an attribute (e.g., gender, age, race, religion, family status, national origin, military status, disability), compared with someone without that attribute in the same circumstances. An example of direct discrimination would be not giving a woman a job because she is more likely to take maternity leave.

The most common types of discrimination are:

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  Race discrimination
  

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  Age discrimination
  

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  Gender discrimination
  

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  Language discrimination
  

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  Disability discrimination
  

Discrimination is generally illegal in most Western democracies. Great Britain is a bright representative of the Western democracies. Still it has problems related to discrimination in many ways. For instance Irish and Scottish problems have deep religious roots. During the 1970s, successive British governments faced difficulties in Ireland and Scotland. A civil rights movement supporting social equality for the Roman Catholic minority in Northern Ireland clashed violently with Protestant extremists. In 1969 the British government sent troops to keep order, and in 1972 it abolished Northern Ireland’s autonomous parliament. A campaign of terrorism by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) followed; its aim was to unite Northern Ireland with the Irish Republic in defiance of the wishes of a majority of the Northern Irish people. British measures gradually curbed but could not totally halt the wave of bombings and killings in Northern Ireland and England.

Today the UK represents a multi-cultural, multi-national and multi-religious society. For centuries it had been the largest Empire having its colonies in many parts of the world until the 1950s. Rudyard Kipling's glorification of the “Empire and extension” which gained its peak in the poem 'The White Man's Burden' (1899) became the symbol of belief in the blessings and superiority of the British rule, without questioning its basic nature:

Take up the White Man's burden

Send forth the best ye breed

Go bind your sons to exile

To serve your captives' need;

To wait in heavy harness

On fluttered folk and wild

Your new-caught, sullen peoples,

Half devil and half child.¹

Nowadays the British reject the colonial idea to assimilate and culturally educate numerous immigrants who became their citizens and come to the idea of cultural diversity in all possible ways.

Strange it may sound; J.K. Rowling raised the problem of Xenophobia in her famous, extremely popular books about Harry Potter. Race, religious and national discrimination are absent in their usual form. Christian holidays constitute the only mention of religion in the book. Christmas and Easter are celebrated amongst wizards; Halloween seems to be held in higher esteem by wizards than Muggles, as it is the only holiday involving some realities of the wizarding way of life with its broomsticks, ghosts, witches and caldrons. We also know that Harry Potter was christened and has a godfather Sirius Black.

Christianity is not the only religion mentioned. The Hogwarts students (and twins) Parvati and Padma Patil have very traditional Hindu names. They also retain some cultural influences, including wearing something akin to a sari in the novel. Also in Goblet of Fire, a man named Ali Bashir is referee at the Quidditch World Cup; both his first and last names are common Arabic Muslim names in Islam (and it is hinted that he is from an Arab country), which suggests that Muslim wizards exist in the wizarding world. Another student, Anthony Goldstein is Jewish.

A person's most important capability – magical aptitude – does not depend on gender in the wizarding world. Similarly, racial equality seems highly advanced in the Wizarding world, with Hogwarts students featuring a wide range of racial and ethnic backgrounds and the black Kingsley Shacklebolt appointed Minister for Magic without any comment.

However, in other respects, prejudice and discrimination seem not only endemic to the Wizard world but in some cases ingrained to the level of apartheid. The most obvious example of wizard prejudice is a longstanding disregard (in some cases, genocidal hatred) for Muggles and wizards and witches of Muggle parentage (Muggle-borns, half-bloods). This has led to a eugenic philosophy among some of the older wizarding families, leading to a practice of “pure-blood” intermarriage that has exposed many of them (such as the Gaunt family) to the risks of mental instability.

Thus the xenophobian attitudes in the book are quite evident and complex. On the one hand we can see two different parallel worlds: the world of simple humans (Muggles) and the world of magic (wizards). It is evident that the Muggles who know about the wizards are afraid of them. After his parents’ death Harry was brought by his mother’s relatives who are a simple British family – the Dursleys. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia are aware of the wizards’ existance. Vernon’s attitude to them is absolutely xenophobic. He despises his relatives – Harry’s family who belong to another alien world, which is weird for ‘normal’ people like him. The Dursley’s are ashamed of Harry for his being unusual and treat him and his ‘mad’ friends as strangers. For example they prefer lying that Harry attends a school for “difficult children” (juvenile criminals to be exact) to the telling that the boy have some unusual gifts.

On the other hand the wizarding society itself is full of traditions which can be viewed in connection with xenophobia and discrimination of different sorts. First of all the wizards are alien to the world of the muggles. Wizards feel superiority as they have some unique, powerful magic abilities. They don’t value the genius achievements of human science and progress. Mr. Weasley, for instance, is despised by some wizards for his fondness of human devises (cars, underground, watch, telephones and etc). Why should the wizards be amazed by such ‘unnecessary stuff’ if they have a Floo Network helping them travel with the help of fireplaces, broomsticks, spells and magic portals?

Muggle-born is the term applied to wizards who come from Muggle parents. In the Harry Potter books, it has never been explained how Muggles are rarely able to produce magical children. However Rowling revealed that Muggle-borns will have a magical ancestor in the genealogy, possible numerous generations back. Pure-blood supremacists refer to Muggle-borns with the offensive derogatory term Mudblood, a term analogous to racial and ethnic defenitions found in the non-magical world. Supremacists as well believe Muggle-borns as magically impotential; however Hermione Granger and Lily Evans have proved to be exceptionally skilled in their classes. According to J.K. Rowling, the average Hogwarts annual intake for Muggle-borns is 25%.

Half-blood wizards and mudblood wizards are another side of the xenophobia. In spite of the fact that the contemporary wizarding society described by Rowling gives equal rights to “pure-blood” wizards (whose both parents are wizards), half-blood wizards (who have only one wizarding parent) and “mud-blood” wizards, the discrimination ideas have their place and are the bases of Death Eaters’ ideology. The Death Eaters seek the total destruction of wizarding families of Muggle roots, and complete power and control over the entire wizarding world, restoring leadership in the magical community to the pure-bloods. The Death Eaters not only seek the restoration of pure-blood rule over the wizarding community, but also the eventual subjugation of the Muggle community under wizarding rule.

The Death Eaters are supporters of pure-blood heritage, or wizards who have no Muggle ancestors. Claims that Voldemort himself is a half-blood are dismissed because he is also Heir of Slytherin and in any case exercised complete control over the minds of his followers. It was also unlikely within the context of the books that all of them could be pure-bloods, as very few pure-blood wizards still exist; J.K. Rowling has stated on her website that there are no true pure-blood families left, but that those who call themselves such simply strike Muggles, Squibs and Half-bloods from their family records.

Squib is the term applied to a child born of magical parents but possessing no magical ability; squibs are the opposite of Muggle-borns. Squib births are rare anomalies, and the Ministry of Magic does not keep records of them. Squibs share some things in common with wizards and they are aware of and comprehend the wizarding world. However, according to Ron Weasley's Aunt Muriel, the custom with Squibs has been to send them to Muggle schools and encourage them to integrate into the Muggle world, which is "much kinder" than keeping them in the magical world, where they will always be "second-class." Still we can feel that having a squib in a family is an unpleasant fact as if having a mentally handicapped relative. Thus even Albus Dumbledore never told about his squib sister.

One of the main characters of the book is Hermione Granger. Hermione is a Muggle-born Gryffindor student and the best friend of Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. The daughter of two dentists, she is an overachiever; she is book smart and is very good with logic. The girl is the most talented student of Hogwarts, but she is a “mud-blood”, she feels contemptuous attitude of the Slytherin’s pure-blood students. They don’t care about her being gifted; the only thing they care about is her background.

The magic world itself consists of different races. Besides human wizards there are goblins, elves, squibs, centaurs, giants. These beings are rational and can make magic at their will. Their magic abilities are different though. Being discriminated herself Hermione has an acute feeling of injustice towards these beings. She was brought up in the modern British society which has admitted the necessity of multicultural and national diversity, that’s why she cares so much about the exploitation of elves for the benefit of the wizards, who are also snobbish to goblins, giants and centaurs. Prejudiced wizards (such as Dolores Umbridge) often use the insulting term half-breed to refer to mixed-species wizard. This term is also used on werewolves, and to creatures like merpeople and centaurs because of their part-human, part-beast appearances.

House-elves are small humanoids (though their appearance differs markedly from that of humans) that are used by wizards as unpaid servants. Most house-elves spend their whole lives serving one family or institution; unless they are freed (which many house-elves view as shameful), their descendants will carry on their tasks. Though their condition shares similarities to that of human slaves, house-elves take great pride in their hard work and fear being set free; some appear to be happy in their bondage, though their subservience guarantees their status as second-class citizens in the wizarding world.

The Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, or S.P.E.W., is an organization created by Hermione Granger, who is also the only active member. Hermione forms the organization after seeing Winky abused and ultimately freed by Barty Crouch. Its goals are to secure house-elves fair wages and working conditions: "Our long-term aims include changing the law about non-wand-use, and trying to get an elf into the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, because they're shockingly under-represented".

The organisation is viewed by many students at Hogwarts as something of a joke, and by the Hogwarts house-elves as an insult: when Hermione begins knitting hats, scarves and other items of clothing for the Hogwarts house-elves and hiding them under rubbish, Harry learns from Dobby that the other house-elves refuse to clean Gryffindor Tower. Nevertheless, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Hermione says that she wants to do something worthwhile like continuing with S.P.E.W. she continued to care deeply about Elfish rights, convincing Harry to treat Kreacher better in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Centaurs in the Harry Potter universe are semi-wild creatures of intelligence supposedly greater than humans. Although sentient, they have not requested assignment as beings, preferring to remove themselves entirely from human affairs. Any centaur who decides to associate with humans, such as Firenze, who agreed to teach the Hogwarts students divination, is violently attacked by the other centaurs and banished. The Ministry of Magic's Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures has a Centaur Liaison Office, but no centaur has ever used it. In the Ministry's parlance, "being sent to the Centaur office" is a euphemism for being fired. Like Chiron, centaurs are skilled in healing and astrology, and spend much of their time scouring the stars for portents. They live in forests, and their society consists of groups called herds. They do not appear to employ or need any technology more advanced than a bow and arrow. They are intensely proud and fiercely territorial, and one must be highly diplomatic in dealing with them. Not paying the proper respect to a herd of centaurs can have violent consequences, as Dolores Umbridge learned to her cost.

In the 5th book “The Order of the Phoenix” the heroes find themselves in the Ministry or Magic. There one can see a wonderful fountain, representing all magical races. The figure of the wizard dominates in this composition. The wizard is above the figures of other rational beings that are kneeled, he looks patronizing and haughty. This symbolic embodiment of the relations in the magic world makes Hermione indignant. The destruction of the fountain during the battle between Dumbledore and Voldemort- the ideologist of Death Eaters is also symbolic.

When the character of Tom Riddle began to use the name of Lord Voldemort and declared war on the wizarding world, Dumbledore attempted to take control of the situation by founding the Order of the Phoenix. Several characters joined the organization, seeking with this to prevent Voldemort taking over the wizarding world and establish a new world order. During this time, the Order sustained heavy loses. Voldemort's first reign of terror ended with the murders of James and Lily Potter, and the unsuccessful attempt to murder Harry Potter at the beginning of the series. This severely diminished Voldemort's power. Dumbledore was the Secret-Keeper for the Order; the Order led the underground fight against Voldemort as the Ministry of Magic first refused to accept that the Dark Lord had returned.

During Lord Voldemort's racist totalitarian government, Muggle-borns are lawfully required to register with the Muggle-born Registration Commission. Supposedly (really a ridiculous lie), the Department of Mysteries discovered that Muggle-borns acquired their magic by "stealing" magic and wands from real wizards. After the regime is eradicated, the head of the Commission (Dolores Umbridge) and the supporters of this idealogy are imprisoned for crimes against Muggle-borns.

The escape of Muggle-born and half-born magicians and goblins during the racist regime of Lord Voldemort is the obvious allusion to our contemporary society’s national and religious conflicts with their refugees, fear and grief. Thus we follow the Weasleys, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, giant Gurg, Nymphadora Tonks and others, during their flee and see their loses and deaths.

One of the most striking moments of the book is the death and the funeral of the house-elf Dobby who had been sent to protect Harry. Dobby succeeded in his task, but the Death Eater’s knife hit him instead of Harry. Dobby's last words were "Harry Potter", his body was buried by Harry decorated with various pieces of the mourners' clothing symbolizing Dobby's freedom from elfish servitude even in death. Harry refused to use magic to complete the task, and laboriously dug Dobby a grave. Upon his tomb, using his wand, Harry marks "Here Lies Dobby, A Free Elf".

Goblin Griphook was impressed by such attitude to a simple elf. In fact Harry Potter was the first wizard known to him who treated such creatures like him with great esteem. Who knows, maybe particularly this scene influenced his decision to help the young wizards, though relations between goblins and wizards have been poor for centuries due to errors on both sides, and sometimes led to violence in the form of goblin rebellions and riots.

Another house-elf – Kreacher, who served to the Pure-blood wizards’ family undergoes a substantial change in personality. His attitude to Harry changes from despise to regard after Harry, with Hermione's encouragement, displays kindness and politeness to him. Later, Kreacher rallies the Hogwarts house-elves in the names of Harry and Regulus, and leads them into battle against the Death Eaters.

The climax of the book is the battle at Hogwarts which ended with the complete victory of the Order of the Phoenix. It is evident that the wizards could have never defeated the Army of Lord Voldemort without the support of magic creatures, elves, centaur goblins and even ghosts, who lived in the castle. They went to the battle field understanding someone might never come back home. All discords were forgotten to fight for peace in the world that has been built for long centuries. Elves sitting in the kitchen were suggested to run away and save their lives, but they stayed to protect a place that became their home. Also all residents of the Forbidden forest joined the battle. Many members of the Order of the Phoenix died that night but they knew it was worth it. The citizens of wizarding world united for first time in the long history of the magic world.

A fairy tale might it be, but the author is absolutely right that the Evil can only be defeated if we are united by a good idea. To our mind J.K. Rowling managed to express the appeal for necessity of respect to “the alien” and acknowledgement of their being unique. It’s obvious to the readers that most of house-elves are absolutely happy with their destiny to serve and obey and this devotion should also be respected, still some of them might follow the First Free elf Dobby. We can’t force people assimilate with the majority; we should value the cultural diversity of our world and cherish individuality.
LITERATURE

1) Harry Potter books:

• Rowling, J. K. (1997). Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone;

• Rowling, J. K. (1998). Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets;

• Rowling, J. K. (1999). Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban;

• Rowling, J. K. (2000). Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire;

• Rowling, J. K. (2003). Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix;

• Rowling, J. K. (2005). Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince;

• Rowling, J. K. (2007). Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.