In Harry Potter and History, Were the Malfoys Aristocrats: The Decline and Fall of the Pureblooded, Laura Loiacono and Grace Loiacono talked a lot about the social class. Both the Muggle world and Wizarding world have a social class standing. Laura and Grace were able to compare the two throughout the chapter, and mentioned how each social class differed as well. Each type of family within the same social class lived a different lifestyle. The Muggles kept within their social class, and sometimes would marry out of their social class. However, in the wizarding world there was another level of keeping to their social class. They had to maintain their status by if they were going to marry a pureblood, half-blood, or a Muggle born. For example, the Malfoy’s had to maintain their class and only marry purebloods. Laura and Grace stated that “neither magical nor Smuggle elite families would tolerate marriages to just anyone who a young family member fell in love with” (178). Their families had to maintain this high level and would not allow a non-pureblood to be married in. However a paragraph down in the book says, “The marriage of James Potter and Lily Evan must have created a stir in families such as the Malfoys and the Blacks, because Lily was Smuggle-born” (178). James and Lily were in a different social class than the Malfoy’s; therefore the mixed marriage was tolerated, but created talk in a higher class. The higher class in the Wizarding world had a few more things to keep in mind than the Muggle world when keeping to their social class.

Even though the Wizarding world did not follow the aristocracy, but they can be listed and defined by books. On page 175 in Harry Potter and History it says, “they have their own version of Debrett’s”. It is titled Nature’s Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy and it lists all the purebloods. Which that then creates another line between social classes. Which that then creates the line for purebloods, half bloods, and Smuggle born. The difference between the Muggle world and Wizarding world is very small. The only thing that keeps it separated is that the Wizarding world has to manage purebloods, half bloods, and Muggle born. However, there are many of wizards who believe that all Wizards in their world are equal. In the book and in Harry Potter and History Albus Dumbledore, The Wesley’s, The Tank’s, and James and Lily Potter are just a few to be named. They are the reason to why the line between social classes keeps getting pushed further and further. Laura and Grace said “After the First Warding War, the pureblood aristocracy was somewhat diminished but still very much present during Harry’s childhood” (189). Which means after the Battle of Hogwarts in the seventh book, the pureblood aristocracy may have been more diminished than before. Which that then creates another divides in the social classes and then will make at the Wizards equal. In the Muggle world as each day passes more divides are being drawn in between the social classes with social class climbers. And that will create a new way to look at the social class in the Muggle world and Wizarding world.

Social Class in the Magical World VS. Muggle World; Same? Different?

Cassidy LeDonne

The magical world of Harry Potter sounds … magical … doesn’t it?  It’s a world filled with wizards, witches and of course, no muggles.  Here, in the muggle world, there’s people who were born into wealth, people who work hard for wealth, and people who just can’t ever become wealthy.  In the magical world of Harry Potter, could that be the case as well?  While reading “Marx, Magic, and Muggles: Class Conflict in Harry Potter’s World” in the book, Harry Potter and History, Susan Hall expresses the similarities between Great Britain’s muggle world of social class and the magical world during the early 18^th century.

In the section of this chapter, “All Wizards Are Equal … but Some Are More Equal than Others”, Hall talks about how J. K. Rowling depicts wizards or witches as the lower class in the magical world.  Hall states “The magical underclass certainly exists” (p 285).  One of the ways Rowling portrays and labels wizards as the lower class is by having those characters, such as Stan Shunpike, have a strong accent.  These characters lines are often hard to read, as Rowling clearly makes Stan have some type of poor English accent, which labels him as an “other” and allows readers to give him the label as uneducated.  Stan is an example of those who don’t have wealth in the muggle world.  “Stan’s life follows a depressing pattern, one that is familiar in the Muggle world. We first see him trapped in a dead-end job, limited by his class and educational disadvantages” (p 286). Later, Susan Hall states, “Joining Voldemort’s gang of extremist thugs offers a chance of excitement and glamour that his life lacks otherwise” (p 286).  Hall is saying that in the magical world, Stan was trapped at a dead-end because he was uneducated and therefore wasn’t able to make any type of money which ultimately determined his social class as “other”.  Since Stan’s social class was determined by the education he got, he wasn’t able to ‘climb’ the social ladder … until he turned to the ‘dark side’ or Voldemort’s gang.  Thinking about the muggle world, people who don’t have a higher education, such as people who don’t attend college, aren’t able to make as much money.  This ultimately does determines someone’s social class because they aren’t able to ‘climb’ the social ladder since they never got the education that the need.  There are similarities in the social classes between the muggle world and the magical specifically having to do with education.

Susan Hall also talks about the importance of how much money you have both in the muggle world and magical world.  If you aren’t born into wealth or work for wealth, then you’re labeled as an “other” and you’re stuck at a dead-end in your life, just like Stan.  Social class in Great Britain is not all about relative wealth; the source of that wealth is important also.  “The source of that wealth is important, with “old money” (inherited wealth) conferring more stats on its possessor than money acquired through business” (p 287).  Social class isn’t just determined by your educational background, it’s also determined by the how your wealth became to be.  If you inherited your money or were born into wealth, that’s known as “old money”; while earning your money is “new money”.  According to Hall, in the magical world, “old money” versus “new money” doesn’t necessarily exist.  A witches’ and wizards’ social class is more based on pure-blood families versus half-blood families, with the exception of the Weasley family.   “The Weasley’s are poor, but their class status within the magical world is second to none.  The Weasley’s are pure-blood” (p 287).  Even though the Weasley family doesn’t have all the money in the world (probably because they have seven kids), they are still high in the social class because of their pure-blood status.  It’s an easy comparison to the muggle world.  It’s all about who you know.  If you know the C.E.O. of a company versus some other person who knows a regular worker of that company, you would most likely get the job over that other person.  In the magical world, Harry Potter gets out of a lot of trouble with nearly zero consequences because he is a pure-blood wizard and he knows higher end people in the Magical Ministries.

The magical world doesn’t seem so magical anymore, unless you were a pure-blood witch who has a decent social class and education.  The magical world seems just like the muggle world.  It’s all about who you know, where your money came from and how much education you have that ultimately determines your social class.

Work Cited

Reagin, Nancy Ruth. Harry Potter and History. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2011. Print.

While I was reading the chapter “Marx, Magic, and Muggles: Class Conflict in Harry Potter’s World,” I found it interesting that while the amount of money and property a person has was important it seemed much less important than having the desired blood-status. Those who were pure-bloods had the most prestige, then those who were half-bloods with only one magical parent and lastly Muggle-borns who had little to no prestige and were often ridiculed and looked down upon despite their own personal achievements. Though it is true that society as a whole seems to look down on those people it can still be up to individuals to make their own opinions about the people they encounter.

The way I see it someone who is pure-blood but has next to no money, like the Weasleys, can have more prestige than someone who is a half-blood who has a lot of money. “The Weasleys are poor (in comparative terms), but their class status within the magical world is second to none” (Hall 287). The same would follow for half-bloods having more prestige than Muggle-borns. Under that logic, it would be next to impossible for anyone to rise out of the class that they were born into. As Susan Hall states “any outsider to the magical world, such a Tom Riddle, is immediately placed at a profound disadvantage” (274). Without the advantage of having the right class within the Wizarding world or at the very least knowing the right people, as Harry did to get out of trouble in the Order of the Phoenix, “[he] is saved only by his personal reputation and but the intervention of Dumbledore” (Hall 274), one has little hope of gaining any really stature in the Wizarding world.

But for some people money and prestige isn’t everything. The most obvious example being Harry. Since he grew up in a household with no love and seemingly no money problems, despite the fact that he didn’t reap the benefits of the Dursley’s apparent wealth, Harry valued the good company and the love he received from the Wesley family over wealth. It is true that Harry didn’t have to worry about money in the Wizarding world as his parents had left him a great deal of money; he still sometimes felt guilty about his abundance of galleons when the Weasleys mentioned their money problems, “Harry felt even worse when they reached his vault. He tried to block the contents from view as he hastily shoved handfuls of coins into a leather bag” (COS 57). Harry also didn’t care about the blood-status of the people he hung out with as it became apparent when he snubbed Malfoy for Ron. “Harry rejects Draco’s overture of friendship with outright scorn and sides with Ron Weasley, whose large, loving family he envies and whose money troubles he has nothing but sympathy for” (Hall 273).  The Malfoys have a lot of power and prestige in the Wizarding world but Harry doesn’t really care for Draco and how he treated other and so sided with Ron. Likewise, whenever anyone even seems to insult Muggle-borns Harry is fast to rely that “’one of my best friends is Muggle-born,’ said Harry, ‘and she’s the best in our year’” (HBP 70). Harry only seeks to fill his life with good natured people and seems to be a good judge of character in that respect.

So it would seem that in order to get ahead in the Wizarding world one has to be from a good family with a good blood-status. Money doesn’t really factor into a person’s class as it does in American society where money seems to be the root of a person’s class. So, in the Wizarding world it’s more about where you come from than what you make that gets you ahead in society. Though, money and power don’t matter to everyone and those people have got it right.

In her essay “Was Voldemort a Nazi?” Nancy Reagin drew parallels between the ideology of Voldemort and his followers and that of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. She argued that the “‘racial state’” that Hitler tried to establish in Germany is comparable to the vision that the Dark Lord saw for the wizarding world (129). The slaughter of innocents, the reinstatement of hierarchy, and the broken communities found in both situations revealed the similarities between the two dictators. Bringing Voldemort’s mission to a contemporary setting, one politician has risen to power on a platform of hate and hierarchy. President Trump has made his objective clear: “make America great again.” His means of doing so includes demonizing minorities, particularly Muslims. The Dark Lord of 2017 is U.S. President Donald Trump.

Reagin’s essay draws attention to the decrees issued by the Ministry of Magic in Deathly Hallows, placing steep restrictions on Muggle-born witches and wizards. The legal limitations began on a small scale: requiring Muggle-borns to register with the Ministry and to interview with the Muggle-born Registration Committee (133). In the beginning of Hitler’s reign, Jews and other “undesirables” were forced under a number of discriminatory rules. Donald Trump, although he ran on creating a national database of Muslims in America, so far has not held that promise. Instead, he recently signed an executive order banning immigration from multiple Muslim states. In doing so, he has created a trap for Muslim Americans. Those who leave the United States, even temporarily, are not allowed back home under any circumstances. With the threat of familial separation hanging overhead, Muslim Americans are now sitting ducks in the tense political climate of the U.S.

The Muggle-born witches and wizards who could not flee in time were dehumanized by Voldemort’s party and other purebloods who held his ideals. They ended up wandless in the streets of Diagon Alley, begging passing wizards for sympathy. Reagin points out that their lack of wands (and therefore lack of ties to the wizarding world) have marked them “completely dishonored in the eyes of Voldemort’s supporters” (143). Hermione, in the role of Bellatrix LeStrange, dehumanizes a Muggle-born woman by referring to her as “it.” By taking away her pronouns, Hermione widened the gap considerably, further distancing “proper wizards” from “Mudbloods.”

The extreme othering between pureblood wizards and Muggle-borns creates an environment of “us vs. them” that is comparable to the attitude many conservative Americans hold toward Muslims. Islamophobia is so prevalent in the U.S. that it affects non-Muslims as well. Sikhs, Hindus, and other Middle Easterners fall into the category of “terrorist” for many Americans. Ironically, it is one of the only times that difference in religion/ethnicity does not matter to conservative Americans. Voldemort blamed his poor quality of life on his Muggle father, fueling his hate for non-wizards. Despite their lack of involvement, he targeted all Muggle-borns and wizards who supported them. Donald Trump and other Americans hold a vendetta against Muslims and blame them for terrorism in the U.S., regardless of the fact that the vast majority of Muslims do not support the terrorist organizations. They have become scapegoats for frustrated Americans.

If Donald Trump keeps his promises, soon enough Muslims may receive the same treatment that Muggle-borns faced under Voldemort’s government. Instead of wandless wizards begging on the streets, we may see women in hijabs sitting on city corners, stripped of their humanity.

Works Cited

Reagin, Nancy Ruth. “Was Voldemort a Nazi? Death Eater Ideology and National Socialism.” Harry Potter and History. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2011. 127-52. Print.

Academics and Socioeconomics:

How Your Pocketbook Determines Your Schooling

If we take a close look at the wizarding school of Hogwarts and compare British boarding schools, it is obvious that J.K. Rowling knows her history regarding the schooling system. It is surprising to read how Rowling managed to make Hogwarts intricate by including socioeconomic statuses among the students. It reflects how boarding schools use to, and continues to this day, to be strongly influenced by a hierarchy of class. As an American reading up on the influences and history of boarding schools, as well as being a future teacher, it is riveting to see the similarities and differences in the British educational system.

As an outsider looking in on the world of boarding school, Americans are naturally going to romanticize the experience, since it seems to be a place of wonder and adventure from the little exposure we’ve had. Our picture is skewed of boarding schools, mostly because those who attend the very few schools available are typically reserved for the very wealthy, or the intellectually gifted and can apply for scholarships. Any additional exposure is most likely from what we read or watch from the Harry Potter series, which “strike[s] deep and lasting resonances” (School Ties, House Points…, 216). As a future educator myself, I was extremely interested to read up more about the schooling system that exists in Britain. I was surprised to read that “the term public school in Britain English denotes a fee-paying establishment, under the control of a board of governors  and not subsidized by the local or national government” (School Ties, House Points…, 201). Although the 1944 Butler Education Act mandated that the country must provide free secondary education to avoid the higher class from receiving the best and most prestigious education, there is still an obvious divide among the Britain education system. Urban schools in the United States also have this system setup, and although they are not boarding schools, the system in cities requires students to take various exams and maintain a certain GPA to get into academically prestigious, pay hefty fees, or be sent to their local (and usually not as prestigious) school.

In the first Harry Potter novel, readers see through the eyes of Harry all the supplies and encouraged extra items that are needed to perform well in school. As far as we know, tuition is covered somehow so the divide of the quality of education due to financial status is not an issue. But it is through material goods and supplies that the separation of class is shown . We can see the see the financial strain and socioeconomic divide when we compare the Wesley family to the Malfoys. A self-conscious Ginny Weasley is not proud of the secondhand robes and materials she inherited from her brothers (most likely), whereas well-off Draco Malfoy is able to provide the newest and fastest broomsticks are given to the entire Slytherin Quidditch team (School Ties, House Points…,208). Although this divide is not a displacement of quality academics, the socioeconomic divide reflects the divide in British boarding schools, and the divide in American school systems as well.