'Abandoned boys' and 'pampered princes': fantasy as the journey to reality in the Harry Potter sequence

With the publication of the seventh and final novel in the Harry Potter sequence, it is at last possible to judge not only the thematic agendas of the sequence but also its overarching narrative strategy. The early novels of the Harry Potter series were derided, among other things, for an apparent formula. The later novels of the sequence, however, introduced more disturbing elements at both plot and emotional level, and moved away from the cosy pattern selectively established in Philosopher's Stone. In this paper I wish to consider the implications of the final Harry Potter novels, especially Deathy Hallows, for understanding the pedagogic strategies of the sequence as a whole. Several educators have pointed out ways in which Rowling's novels can be used illustratively for the teaching of various topics, from the trauma of Holocaust survival (Katz 2003) to the operation of Latin etymology in English (Nilsen & Nilsen 2006), I argue here that Rowling's developing narrative not only describes Harry's moral journey, as is made very explicit in the later texts and which I therefore shall not belabour, but requires the reader to enact a journey from the cosy and cliched fantasy derided by Zipes (who says Rowling 'remains within the predictable happy-end school of fairy-tale writers' [Zipes 2001, p.182]) to a readiness for moral and intellectual encounter with reality. While the early novels do provide easy satisfaction, I argue that the sequence as a whole leads us beyond them and invites us to interrogate their pleasures not only through the development of the action but through Rowling's changing narrative strategies.