I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 for the 3rd time yesterday. And I enjoyed it once more (though I fell asleep a couple times, caused more to jetlag than anything else).
From beginning to end (well, maybe middle, as this is only Part 1) the movie argues for the need of community.
This is the first movie to feature the three friends (Harry, Ron, Hermione) at the very beginning, within the first five minutes. While the saga is about Harry, this movie shows the importance that each person plays in eachother’s lives. It is not just about Harry, it is about Harry and Ron, Ron and Hermione, Hermione and Ron, Ron and Harry. There’s an amazing plot and great effects, but it is the characters that we follow, love, and cheer.
The Order of the Phoenix is a prime example of community in action. I wonder if there are actual groups that function like the ones we extol in movies. Each member of the community puts his or her life at stake for the one. All for one and one for all. They don’t just do it for Harry, but at the same time, they do. Would this happen in your family? Your friend group? Your workplace? Your church?
But the community of Ron and Hermione and Harry, that is a beautiful community at work. For though they fight and argue and run away and come back, they love each other. They are there for each other. They are one.
So often, we isolate and alienate and believe the lies. The lies of the locket.
The locket intensifies the fears and the beliefs that Ron has about Harry and Hermione. He feels useless, neglected, unloved. But with Harry’s help, after he helps Harry, a wonderful give and take relationship, Ron defeats the locket.
And so we too, must defeat the locket and Voldemort and our own demons and fears and problems. But not alone. With our friends by our side and our powers as one. Yes, I know, this sounds very Captain Planet-y, but it’s true. We are better together.
Ron: You don’t know how it feels! Your parents are dead! You have no family!
Harry has no parents nor family, in the blood sense, but his family is his friends.
Scrimgeour: These are dark times, there is no denying. Our world has perhaps faced no greater threat than it does today. But I say this to our citizenry: We, ever your servants, will continue to defend your liberty and repel the forces that seek to take it from you! Your Ministry remains, strong.
The Ministry falls. It is not institutions that can save the day, but the people themselves. And when the days are dark, people show their worst- and their best.
The Deathly Hallows in themselves are a community. They work best as one. Meanwhile, the Horcruxes function through the splitting of a soul. Gathering or Splintering, Community or Isolation, Together or Apart.
So that question must be asked. Together or Apart? Will you live life together or apart? Together with friends or apart and alone? Community or Isolation? Gather Together or Splinter Apart? Choose.
These are just some of my thoughts. For a much more in-depth analysis and story, check out Greg Garrett’s One Fine Potion. Here’s an interview with the author:http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Deeper-Magic-Deeper-Meanings-in-Harry-Potter?offset=0&max=1 and here’s the Amazon page for the bookhttp://www.amazon.com/One-Fine-Potion-Literary-Potter/dp/1602581983/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1294619475&sr=8-1