For my journal, I used Nancy Reagin’s, “Was Voldemort a Nazi? Death Eater Ideology and National Socialism.” In my writing, I compared whether or not Voldemort was a good representation of a Nazi.
J.K. Rowling set out to create a villain in her stories that could be comparable to Hitler. An evil so great that even people reading the books understood the implications. The question to be asked is if she succeeded in her task. Could Voldemort be compared to Hitler? If so, how? If not, how could Rowling have committed better to this comparison.
Reagin states that, “Rowling probably chose to use symbols and language that would remind her audience of Hitler.” The idea is that Rowling wanted to just remind people of Hitler. The Nazis are the ultimate evil in Western culture, they are everything that humanity stands against. It’s easy for her to paint Voldemort to be a Hitler like figure. Especially since Voldemort believes in things like blood purity, blood purity was a big deal for the Nazis. Once the Ministry of Magic is taken over, the begin to fall under a more Nazi regime. They start calling people by their blood purity, and hunting them down if they hadn’t surrendered yet.
Rowling makes the mistake of having Voldemort looks like the “bad guy.” He is described as having a snake-like appearance with glowing red eyes and no nose. He is not someone to get behind, in fact, even some of his greatest supports are disgusted by his appearance. Voldemort never seems to appear in public, only in front of those who know his true form. Regain compares this with Hitler, “Hitler’s speeches often threw his audiences into raptures, whereas Voldemort avoided any public appearances.”
I believe this is where Rowling created her child version of Hitler. She paints Voldemort to be this very ugly figure. When the reader sees Voldemort as Tom Riddle we get a closer picture to Hitler. Tom Riddle is always described as being a handsome, young man. He has these striking features that most people seem drawn too.
Not only that, but he is very charismatic. He woos the professors into doing whatever he wants. For example, getting Slughorn to talk about Horcruxes even though they are forbidden. Tom Riddle seems more akin to the charismatic Hitler that history has told. He easily manipulates those around him to doing his bidding. Voldemort beings the Death Eaters when he’s in school. He easily turns this group of people into bending to his will. It’s heavily implied that he doesn’t even care about these people either. He just knows how to use his social skills well.
Voldemort seemed to have different ideals once reaching his height of power. Reagin jokes that “Once in control, he seems to have been most concerned with safeguarding his own personal power and immortality. He spends a good deal of the year tracking down the Elder Wand..” While Hitler was actively trying to conquer the world. Voldemort seemed to only care about his own immortality, he was always searching for a way to make himself live longer.
While he was in it for the power, it was a power all too himself. Voldemort is never actively seen as conquering anything but the British Wizarding World. The reader never seems him go after any other magical societies when their seems to be several. Dumbledore claims that Voldemort was a great threat to everyone at the end of Goblet of Fire, but it never seems to follow through.
Did JK Rowling create an evil that could be compared to Hitler? My answer would be yes and no, she created a child’s version of Hitler. Of course, this makes sense because of how the world started. I believe Rowling could write an adult version of the book now and show the darker side of the Death Eaters. She could really make a better comparison between Voldemort and Hitler.
Hi, Johnna!
I’m going to separate my comments by paragraph here, just to make it easier to locate what I’m talking about in your journal!
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Paragraph One
To begin, I think in class we were asked to mention the title and author of the reading towards the beginning of our journals, so you may want to say something like, “In Nancy Reagin’s piece, “Was Voldemort a Nazi? Death Eater Ideology and National Socialism,” she discusses how….. and then from there you can work in the rest of your first sentence, (although you should include a page number if that is something you paraphrased from a specific part of the text). Additionally, the wording of the second sentence is a bit confusing; if you could find a way to adjust it, or combine it with another sentence it may make a bit more sense for your readers. (If anybody else reading this journal has a thought on the second sentence, please post a reply!)
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Paragraph Two
In your second paragraph, you are missing the page number citation at the end of the quote, but the lead-up that attributes it to Reagin works – you just need to add the final step! Your sentence after the quote, however, just restates the idea, so I think it might flow better if the sentence after the quotation is the one that begins, “The Nazis…” It would also be interesting to have examples of how Western cultures stand against Nazis, and a comparison to how the magical world treats Death Eaters and Voldemort would be an interesting point to add in regard to this. Talking about how “blood purity was a big deal for the Nazis” could also be an opportunity for another quote from the reading. Additionally, more detailed comparisons to the Ministry’s takeover and blood purity to the Nazi regime could bring out more content in your journal.
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Paragraph Three
You discuss how it is a mistake that Voldemort looks like the bad guy, but do not follow up exactly with how this was a mistake on Rowling’s part. For example, despite looking like a bad guy, he /does/ still have followers – what is it that makes people follow Voldemort in comparison to Hitler? Voldemort instilling fear vs. Hitler’s rallies could make a good comparison based on the reading quote you used (and again, needs the page number citation.
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Paragraph Four
Here you suggest the idea of a “child version of Hitler” which I believe could be something to include as a thesis statement – that you believe Rowling’s villain does not quite live up to the actions of his (possible) real-life counterpart. Additionally, as this section compares Tom Riddle to Hitler appearance-wise, you may be able to merge this with the previous paragraph.
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Paragraph Five
Considering Tom Riddle had a lot of charisma, where did this personality transfer to when he became Lord Voldemort? This paragraph doesn’t seem to make a significant point on its own, but could be combined with either the previous paragraph or next paragraph to give it some supplemental information.
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Paragraph Six
Again, the attribution to the author is present in your quote, but it’s missing the page number citation. This states that Voldemort only cared about his own immortality when seeking power, so that raises the question of who was actually running the Death Eaters’ agenda while Voldemort was off running personal errands?
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Paragraph Seven
There have been other typos throughout the journal I’ve glossed over because they’re ones that would change with sentence restructuring, but here I think it’s important to note that when you say “their” you should be using “there.” In regard to other magical societies, do you think it is plausible Voldemort would have tried to expand his rule further if he attained his goals, or would he have been content with the British Wizarding World? Or is this a case of Rowling not having much of the magical world outside of Britain fleshed out at this point (we did, after all, only get brief glimpses of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons.)
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Paragraph Eight
Considering you base your point on the fact that the world started as a children’s book, could you compare the Voldemort we see living on the back of Professor Quirrel’s head to the figure we meet in later books? Additionally, do you believe that this could tie back into the charisma argument from earlier – just how did Voldemort convince people such as Quirrel – and Pettigrew, later – to be so loyal to him? Additionally, what do you think an adult version of the books would look like?
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That’s all I’ve got on this journal – if you’ve got any questions, feel free to leave a reply!
-Krista
Does a different HP character have similar qualities to Hitler? Maybe Fudge or Umbridge. Or maybe even tie in Trump as a Voldemort in our world today. I think you have a solid idea just make it bigger. What does this subject tell us about fiction or was Rowling trying to tell us something with Voldemort? Maybe explore with and beyond the article a bit.