As a first time reader of the Harry Potter series, I'm pleasantly surprised at the vast amount of themes and the tightly woven plot within both a single novel and also throughout the series. With so many themes, characters and plots, I find it difficult to pinpoint any certain theme as the most prominent. Certainly the ones standing out in my mind are the issues of class, death, trust and how the past and present relate, all which are interwoven within one another. In terms of class, their are parallels between how the muggle world and the wizard world function. the Dursley's, a middle class, suburban family keeping up with tho Jones' mirror the Malfoy's in the wizard world, and both families are not much liked (because they are mean, horrible people). They have histories and reputations they would like to uphold within their societies. Harry cannot fit in to either of their worlds; he's too much of a "freak" for the Dursley's and too nondiscriminatory to fit in with people like the Malfoy's. Most of the reader's understanding of class discrepancies in the wizard world comes from Harry's enemy and arguably his foil, Draco. He's the wizard racist it would seem in his world. "Mudbloods" as he calls Hermione are less than wizards, in fact he thinks they are a disgrace to the community and shouldn't be allowed to learn at Hogwarts. Naturally, Draco has picked up these ideas from his father just as Dudley learns to be a real man in the muggle world which constitutes apparently being fat, a bully, dominance, and going to Smelting in a ridiculous uniform. And once again going to the right school is all a part of how class works.
Death is obviously a major theme because it surrounds the entire life of Harry. If it wasn't for the death of his parents, we wouldn't have the same stories. Death is this all encompassing things within the stories, especially at Hogwarts as dangerous as it is and with all the ghosts floating around constantly to remind you. What is very interesting about Harry's relationship with his own death is he seems not to fear it as much as a child normally would, but he certainly isn't praying for an early demise as one might living with the Dursley's for ten years. Death reveals the strong resilience within Harry and also his courage. Death is an imporant theme to keep in mind when understanding how trust and the past and present work. As we've discussed in class before, knowing who to trust is important because it can either save you or get you killed in the wizard world. For instance the present works as such, Harry trusts Ron and Hermione (characters in a certain class system, underdogs) but not Draco Malfoy. The past reveals people trusting Tom Riddle, the once nice, good student at Hogwart's instead of Hagrid. Unfortunately, enough people join Tom Riddle becoming Voldemort and they basically kill a bunch of people. Trust is more prominent in Prisoner of Azkaban so I won't go further into it despite everyone having read it already. But certainly death and trust issues follow on the time line leading up to Harry and his friends who are forced to deal with the issues as they keep peeling back the past further and further. Perhaps forced to deal with isn't the right term considering Harry does go looking for the answers. The driving force for him is most definitely his search to understand himself through his past, the past of his parents, and the past of the wizard world in which he's been plunged.
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