Discrimination of Mudbloods

The wizarding world of Harry Potter has discrimination just like the world we live in. In the Harry Potter movies and book series there is a portion of the wizard population that believes only “pure bloods” should be allowed to practice magic. Pure bloods are individuals who have two magical parent. Those who have 1 or no magical parents are known as “mud bloods'” meaning they have dirty blood. A majority of the wizarding world have no problem with people who aren’t pure bloods. However some people think differently. Hermione Granger, Harry Potter’s best friend doesn’t have any magical parents. However one of their classmates, Draco Malfoy is a pure blood and has been brought up to believe that mud bloods are less than pure bloods. Even though the wizarding world portrayed in these books and movies is far different from our own, they still have a class system and discrimination.

In the second book/ movie Draco Malfoy calls Hermione “a dirty mud blood.” Draco views himself as better than Hermione based on his heritage, his “pure” blood. This belief of his and other members of his community gives him the power to discriminate against those whom, in his eyes, are not as good as he is. In many ways Hermione is better than Draco, she is smarter, kinder, and over all a better wizard than Draco is. Yet for some reason she can be viewed as a lesser person based on simple fact that her parents do not magical parents and his do.

In the last book/movie the government is taken over by Voldemort and his followers. Voldemort is obsessed with taking over the wizarding world. He kills anyone who gets in his way, he is also a member of the group that believes mud bloods are dirty and shouldn’t be allowed to practice magic. Although since Voldemort is a power hungry psychopath he takes his disapproval of mud bloods to a whole other level. We wants to ban any wizard from marrying a muggle (non magical individual) and wants to kill or in prison an mud blood he comes across. In one scene in the final book/ movie Harry, Hermione, and Ron go into the Ministry of magic and see something horrible, a statue of dead mud bloods encased in cement.

Marxism can be defined as a method of socioeconomic analysis, originating from the mid-to-late 19th century works of German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, that analyzes class relations and societal conflict using a materialist interpretation of historical development and a dialectical view of social transformation. The relationship of pure bloods and mud bloods shows the classist relationship in the wizarding world, mud bloods are less than pure bloods simply based on their parent’s magical abilities. This classist divide shows one of the societal conflicts in the  world of Harry Potter.

Anything He can do She can do Better

Hermione Granger is one of the Harry Potter’s best friends in the Harry Potter book and movie series. Hermione is a muggle born wizard (has non-magical parents) and is an extremely intelligent and resourceful young heroin. She is portrayed as an independent and strong young woman throughout the series. Hermione is often the character who saves the day using her knowledge and ingenuity. At the start of the series she is unfazed by other peoples opinion about her and she is dedicated to her studies. With that being said as time goes on throughout the series Hermione is portrayed differently. On occasion she is portrayed as over emotional, weak, a sexual object, and foolish. This portrayal is very conflicting with her overall character’s personality and development. In my opinion Hermione is a great role model for all young girl. She shows that young women can be smart, strong, independant, and clever (also beautiful). With this in mind I will be looking at two scenes from the Harry potter series that analyzes Hermione with a feminist criticism view. Barry states “The representation of women in literature, then, was felt to be one of the most important forms of ‘socialisation’, since it provided the role models which indicated to women, and men, what constituted
acceptable versions of the ‘feminine’ and legitimate feminine goals and aspirations” in his novelBeginning Theory. 

In the fourth movie/book there is a Yule Ball that takes place at Hermione’s School, Hogwarts. The Yule Ball has students from three different schools that are all partaking in the Triwizard tournament. At this ball Hermione is shown entering from a grand stair case. She pauses at the top of the stair case and as she cascades down the stairs everyone in the entire ball room turns to look at her. Harry and his other friend Ron turn to look Hermione and their jaws practically drop to the floor. For the first time Ron and Harry see Hermione dresses up and decked out with make up. During this time both boys see Hermione in a different light, rather than seeing her as their smart and intelligent friend they see her as a sexual being. In the perspective of the viewer/ reader the past reputation of Hermione fades and she suddenly becomes a sex object for men to look at. In this scene Hermione is seen as what is traditionally portrayed as an acceptable version of a woman. She is viewed as beautiful and sexual rather than smart and clever (smart and clever describe her character much better).

In the 6th book/movie Hermione cries over her friend Ron after seeing another girl kiss him. In the past Hermione has not been overly emotional and has shown little to no romantic interest in Ron. However all of a sudden Hermione is overcome with emotions after watching another girl kiss the guy she is apparently interested in. Traditionally women are shown as more emotional than men, they are often shown as overly emotional. In this scene Hermione falls victim to that stereotype. Hermione has experienced loss, tremendous fear, and trauma and has shown limited emotions in all those occasions. However a boy apparently can causes her to burst out in tears. A typically strong independent woman is disrespected by being shown as weak and too emotional.