Ravenclaw House

Journal #1: Marx, Magic, and Muggles

Throughout the golden trios adventures in the wizarding world, they are subjected to the whims of the Ministry of Magic. Although in the first few books the Ministry was seen as a beneficial governmental organization, in the final books it is easy to see how ugly the Ministry can get, and that’s before it’s taken over by Voldemort in the final book. I believe that the Ministry holds a great deal of power in the British Wizarding world because it has its hands (or wands) in so many things.

One of the places where the Ministry holds a tremendous amount of power is with employment. Many people seem to work for the Ministry. In fact, according to the reading “one factor that jumps off the page is the dominance of the Ministry as an employer” (pg. 289). Most characters work for the Ministry in one way or another. The only real exceptions to that are those who work in stores and restaurants, at Gringotts, for a newspaper, or for Hogwarts. Additionally, even though newspapers and Hogwarts might not be directly under the Ministry’s control, the Ministry has a lot of say in what happens at those places. Since most of the books are focused at Hogwarts, one could argue that the books simply don’t delve into other jobs that aren’t relevant to the storyline. To combat that, I would say that even if that is the case, the books acknowledge that people’s job prospects depend directly on what they get on their O.W.L.S and N.E.W.T.S., which are tests that are run by the government.

The Ministry has a variety of departments that aren’t typical of the United States’ government. One example of this is the Department of Magical Games and Sports. This department deals with things like quidditch and the Triwizard Tournament. The United States equivalent would be things like the National Football League and National Basketball Association. The Ministry also has the Department of Mysteries, which assumingly takes the place of all other research facilities. In fact, besides individuals like Fred and George who create things on their own “the only place for structured, funded research is through the highly secretive Department of Ministries” (pg. 281). The Ministry seems to have a monopoly on a solid portion wizarding life in the U.K.

All of this might not be so bad if the Ministry was totally benevolent and worked for the good of all people, but that’s simply not the case. Like all bureaucratic organizations, its ability to help people is directly tied to those who are part of it, or more specifically, those at the top. The ministry launches a particularly brutal campaign against Harry in the 5^th book, teaming up with the Daily Prophet to get people to think of Harry as insane. In the 7^th book, it goes even further by implementing Voldemort’s plans with ruthless efficiency. Even before Harry’s first year, the Ministry can be seen discriminating against groups of people and example of this being that “werewolves … can be deemed unemployable by Ministry decree” (pg. 289). The power that the Ministry has is nearly absolute and many people refuse to rebel against it until it’s blatantly evil, and some not even then.

The British Wizarding World is very much run by the Ministry of Magic, which controls a large majority of wizarding life. This allows for the people at the head of the Ministry to implement whatever policies they like, giving them a great deal of power.