Journal 6 – Heroes

By: Cassidy LeDonne

            Without heroes, children and adults wouldn’t be able to determine the difference between good vs. evil, light vs. dark, or Harry Potter vs. Voldemort.  Heroes give people a purpose to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  They allow people to see that heroes can make mistakes too, and even rise greater from them.  Heroes give children a story of how life can be difficult and an understanding that when life doesn’t go your way, there is always a better day ahead and hope.  Heroes give adults a way to understand life’s obstacles.  Through Sharon Black’s article: “The Magic of Harry Potter: Symbols and Heroes of Fantasy”, readers get a glimpse of two totally different people who have both come to the realization that heroes aren’t just fictional characters but are courageous, brave and give people a better understanding of life.

Children read about heroes in a completely different light than adults do.  Adults and children have the same general outlook on heroes, however when reading about heroes, children use their imagination.  In Black’s article, she talks about a little girl named Kallie who loves reading Harry Potter and exploring his world and comparing it to her own.  Through Harry Potter’s life, she’s able to witness how hardships can turn into something magical.  Children use their imagination while reading about heroes to experience their own reality.  As Black states, “The ever-changing magic of Harry Potter is in the magic of the child’s own experiences, feelings, and imagination”.  Children have the ability to use their imagination while they read in a completely different way than adults.  Maybe the lack of experiences that children have compared to adults could be the culprit.  Children haven’t experienced the hardships of life (at least just yet).  They haven’t experienced “life lows”.  However, heroes like Harry Potter, give children that small experience to understand that even heroes, like Harry, can have a hard life but then one day, it gets better.  Through the journey of heroes, like Harry Potter, children can relate and express their feelings in similar ways.  Children are able to experience their fears, their sorrows and their happiness through these such journeys.  As Black states “The child may find it easier to face these fears when the abstract feelings are given form by Harry’s experience”.  Though children haven’t experienced the life “lows” or even the life “highs”, they gain experience through reading about heroes such as Harry Potter.

Adults read about heroes, like Harry Potter, in a different way than children do.  Even though adults use their imagination, as well, to try to visualize Harry’s journey, they don’t necessary use their imagination to visualize Harry’s full experiences in their own life.  Instead, they read about some of Harry’s mistakes or “lows” in life and watch how he breaks out of them.  Through heroes such as Harry Potter, adults can understand that life may get hard but it won’t always stay that hard.  Black talks about her daughter, Sandra, who is a young adult, and how she viewed and looked up to heroes.   Black states “As we talk about our heroes, Sandra explains that she needs Luke Skywalker, Frodo Baggins, and Harry Potter because she needs to believe and to share her belief that the hero can emerge victorious, no matter how oppressive the uncharted darkness may be”.  Adults need heroes too.  Just like children, adults need someone to look up too.  The need someone to relate too.  They need a hero to show them that life can and will get hard, but it won’t stay hard.   In fact, it will get easier and will get better.  Heroes show adults and children that life has all these twists and turns but it also has moments that are great and are amazing.  Heroes give people hope.