All the reasons can only be asked by J·K· Rowling. Perhaps not by accident, she arranged Harry's half-blood identity-he has both muggle and wizard blood flowing in him. When we follow these two threads to the end, we will find that the muggle thread originated from J·K· Rowling's own experience and life; The wizard's blood comes from those great myths that are far away and accumulated deeply.
1997, when "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" entered the printing process, the bookseller asked the author if she could print her name as J·K· Rowling instead of Joanne Catherine Rowling, because they were worried that the latter, a typical female name, might make readers lose interest in buying. At that time, Rowling only wanted a sum of money to support her life and finish the story behind Harry Potter with peace of mind, so she agreed to this almost rude request almost without consideration. As a result, hundreds of millions of readers only saw the initials of Rowling's name on the cover. But when they finished reading the book, the abbreviation or full name didn't matter. Rowling had been given a better name: Magic Mother.
1966, Rowling was born in Chipin Saberi, a small town in central England, which is famous for its forests and hills. Rowling's parents love reading. They often read stories to little Rowling. Rowling recalled: "My most vivid childhood impression is that my father sat there and read the Wind in the Willows to me." After listening to many stories, she began to weave her own fantasy stories in her mind. Rowling has a sister who is one and a half years younger than her. Whenever the two sisters get along alone, she will tell these stories to her sister. At that time, all her stories were related to rabbits, always beginning with "Dai (sister) fell into the rabbit hole" and always ending with "Dai strawberry was fed by the rabbit's family". My sister never tires of hearing these stories. Rowling was asked to tell them again and again. At the age of six, she took out a pen and paper and wrote down one of them. This is Rowling's first work. It is worth mentioning that in this small town, Rowling has two close friends named Potter, Harry Potter's "Potter".
When Rowling was nine years old, her family moved to another town-Tuskegon, and Rowling entered Tuskegon Primary School. She hates this school and Mrs Morgan, who teaches math. On the first day of school, Mrs. Morgan asked her to do a math test paper. Unfortunately, Rowling didn't answer any of the ten questions correctly. So, she was arranged in the rightmost seat of the classroom, almost sitting on the playground. Later, she learned that Mrs. Morgan ranked the seats according to the students' intelligence, with "genius" on the left and "idiot" on the right.
However, she has her own way to resolve this unhappiness. On the one hand, she develops her own writing skills, gets good grades in English subjects, and at the same time tutors mathematics; Besides, she has made several best friends. One day, her efforts paid off, but it made her sad-Mrs. Morgan finally let Rowling exchange seats with a student sitting in the "genius row", but this student was Rowling's good friend. "A few short steps across the classroom made me' smart', but it also became annoying." Fortunately, in the rough primary school years, Rowling regained everyone's love and maintained good results. After graduating from primary school, she entered Whiting Comprehensive Middle School.
Like all girls, Rowling entered an awkward adolescence shortly after entering middle school, and she began to wear glasses. "I am quiet, nearsighted, with many freckles on my face, and I don't know anything about all kinds of sports." Even so, she still has a way to be recognized-she found some quiet, smart but lonely girls like herself at school and organized a small group. At this time, she will still use her spare time to write many stories, and then choose one or two of them to read to everyone in group activities. As a result, all her new friends liked it, which made her more confident.
Another accident happened, which made her a little conspicuous. Once, a fierce girl attacked her. She didn't run away like others, but resisted. At that time, her body was just supported by the locker, so she didn't fall. As a result, she became the only unstable student in her grade and became famous in the whole school. In fact, she was scared to death. For a long time, she kept a close eye on the corner of the corridor in case she was attacked.
With the growth of age, Rowling's middle school life is getting better and better. Her creative talent was praised and encouraged by teachers. Her cleverness and friendliness attracted many friends. In the last school year, she was elected as the female monitor.
In Rowling's teenage life, it is not difficult to see the characters and stories of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Schools are made up of bright side and dark side. The good side is friendly classmates, kind professors, active youth and all kinds of young people's tricks. The dark side is rigid school rules, eccentric and abnormal teachers, bullies, misunderstandings, loneliness and so on. Maybe Mrs Morgan is a lot like Professor Umbridge. That fierce girl is the prototype of Malfoy's best friend Crabbe and Goyle, and Rowling herself, no doubt, has entrusted her image to the cutest Hermione. When talking about Ani maggs, a wizard who can be transformed into an animal, she said, "I would like to be an otter, which is my favorite animal." And everyone knows that Hermione's patron saint is the otter.
You can easily find that Rowling and Hermione have many similarities: first, of course, they are smart, get good grades, win everyone's love, and become the head of a small group by strength; Second, independent, tenacious and brave personality; Third, they are all girls who love reading and neglect to improve their looks (in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Rowling created the most beautiful dream for such girls: Hermione was amazed when she put on her dress); Fourth, they all became prefects.
Hermione's name comes from Hermes, the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology. Hermes is also the god of sophistry, and the popular "hermeneutics" in today's philosophy also comes from his name. No wonder Hermione always finds answers when she goes straight to the library whenever she has any questions. In the story of Harry Potter, she is not a vase heroine who only waits for the hero to rescue her, but a think tank that plays a role in communication and exchange. Maybe she is Rowling's incarnation in the magical world.
When she graduated from Whiting Middle School, both teachers and parents expected Rowling to have a bright future. However, before the real bright day comes, she will have to spend a long period of darkness.
Rowling entered the University of Exeter. Originally, she thought the style of study here was free, but later it was found to be a more traditional college. In Exeter, she continued to write, writing all kinds of plots and outlines of epiphany on pieces of paper, which filled the folder. But whenever someone suggested her to contribute, she always refused because she was not confident.
Six years after graduating from college, she fell into the whirlpool of constantly changing jobs, all of which were unprofitable, and her mind was often unable to devote herself wholeheartedly. "No matter what I do, I always write like crazy," she once wrote. "In meetings, I usually don't pay much attention. Instead, I write down the latest stories or give names to the characters on the edge of my notebook. This can cause problems when your job should be to take minutes of meetings. "
At the age of twenty-four, she got a new job in Manchester, so she had to go back and forth between London and Manchester by train. One day, the train stopped for four hours because of mechanical failure. Rowling passed the time by looking at the scenery outside the window. She clearly remembers a herd of cows scattered on the grass. "Suddenly, I remembered Harry's story. I can't tell you' why' and' what triggered this idea', but I clearly saw Harry and the magic school. There is another version of the story about how this great inspiration came about: it was a stormy day, and Rowling was sitting on the train from Manchester to London, staring blankly at the gurgling rain outside the window. Suddenly, she saw a little wizard with green eyes flying around the window on a broom, so the idea of Harry Potter suddenly appeared in her mind. The only similarity between the two versions is the train. Perhaps this is why the train becomes the medium of the muggle world leading to the magical world in the story.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is the first book in the Harry Potter series. It took six years from conception to manuscript printing. During this period, Rowling experienced a series of blows, such as the loss of her mother, unemployment and marriage failure. 1993, she came to Edinburgh with her newborn daughter and the first three chapters of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Rowling can look for another job, but then she won't have much time to write. She decided to apply for public welfare allowance. However, Prime Minister Major said in a recent speech that single parents love the public welfare system. Rowling's application for pocket money is full of humiliation and is looked down upon everywhere. Rowling said in an interview: "This may be the lowest point in my life. My self-esteem has reached the floor, but I don't want Jessica (daughter) to grow up in this situation, so she has become my inspiration and writing has become a paradise for me to take refuge. "
Welfare allowance can only maintain the minimum living standard. Rowling lives in a cold and small apartment, and the ceiling almost touches her head. She called it a "small short room". Not to mention the computer, she can't even afford a typewriter. Every morning, she takes Jessica's baby basket out and walks around the city. It was not until the child fell asleep that she rushed to Nicholson Cafe, where she bought the cheapest drink and buried herself in writing all day. The owner of this store recalled: "She would push the cradle with one hand and write with the other. This is a miracle. "
Finally, all the sufferings, comforts, ideals and struggles were entrusted to writing, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was finished at the beginning of 1994. Rowling borrowed an old typewriter to type two manuscripts and sent them to the publishing agent. After waiting for another three years (during which she got a job as a French teacher and started writing the second Harry Potter series), this fascinating work finally came out. The following story fell into a rut: interviews, autographs, and packed book sales were translated into more than 60 languages and sold more than 260 million copies worldwide. Rowling has become rich, so don't mention it.
In a word, Rowling not only shows magic in the book, but also shows magic in her life. The causal relationship between the two seems to be closely intertwined and inseparable.
The origin of myth
In front of the Ollivander store where Harry Potter bought wands, there was a gold signboard: a wand that had been well-made since 382 BC. This is an era long before the birth of Jesus. Although Rowling lives in a Christian country, in the series of Harry Potter stories, she follows a myth system older than Christianity.
Christianity attaches importance to the relationship between father and son and rejects the goddess. As a single mother struggling alone, Rowling obviously can't agree with such a religion. In addition, the real society is also a patriarchal society. Rowling deeply understands its hypocrisy and indifference, so she creates a completely different world in her book.
Harry's college is Gryffindor, named after the Indian monster Gryffindor, and also the embodiment of the goddess of retribution. The dean of this college is Professor McGonagall, who is a little stuffy but kind-hearted. Meg's name was born out of Athena, the goddess of wisdom in Greek mythology. Athena's Roman name is Minerva, and Meg's Christian name is "Milla Wa".
Some people think that in the series of Harry Potter stories, the real world we live in is a prominent world, while the magical world is a hidden world. If the former is masculine, the latter is feminine. The train from platform 9 3/4 sent Harry, his classmates and readers who followed Harry to the maternal world. We got rid of the cold and rigid dogma and disguise of the patriarchal society and returned to the embrace of the goddess full of spirituality and miracles.
The struggle between the righteous party represented by Harry and the evil group headed by Voldemort is the main plot of the whole story. The Gryffindor mentioned above is a monster with a lion's head and body. Because the lion and the eagle are the kings of creatures in the earth and the sky respectively, Gryffindor has become the master of the Yang world and the opposite of darkness and evil. And Voldemort's pet is just a dark and evil animal-snake. In addition, the name "Draco" of Harry's old rival Draco Malfoy also means snake in Latin. The battle between the eagle and the snake is an ancient Egyptian myth, which Rowling used to give the battle between Harry and Voldemort a deeper meaning.
Voldemort is the embodiment of human greed and evil thoughts, and one of his main desires is eternal life (stealing the philosopher's stone, dripping Harry's blood to refine medicine, making horcruxes, etc.). In Rowling's view, the endless pursuit of life is as evil as the endless pursuit of wealth, because it violates the laws of nature and is a manifestation of human arrogance. Voldemort and Dumbledore are both magical wizards, and the distinction between good and evil depends only on their attitudes towards themselves and foreign objects: introspection and adaptation to nature or self-expansion and desperate grab? Now human science and technology have developed to an almost omnipotent level. We are the most powerful wizards in the world. The question is, will we be Voldemort or Dumbledore?
In addition to the battle between the eagle and the snake, there are traces of ancient myths everywhere in the series of Harry Potter stories.
Wizards usually send letters by owl. In Egyptian mythology, the owl represents death and night, and it moves with the dead sun in the shadow below the horizon. In ancient Greece, the owl became the incarnation of the goddess of wisdom, and the symbol of Athens was the owl.
Harry's godfather Sirius Black can become a black dog. Sirius is a real star in the sky, also known as the "dog star". In ancient Egypt, it was a symbol of the goddess Isis, as well as a symbol of religion and philosophy.
Abada's death curse is unforgivable and can kill people instantly. Any wizard who recites this spell to others will be sent to Azkaban prison for life. Abada's death curse probably comes from an old Middle Eastern proverb "abhadda kedhabhra", which is used by wizards to eliminate diseases, meaning "disappear like this word".
In addition, countless magical animals in Harry Potter series stories, such as centaur, Gryphon, unicorn, mermaid, etc., also come from different ancient myths.
Before writing the series of Harry Potter stories, Rowling must have wandered in the vast sea of books. Only in this way can she pick up so many mythical elements to ponder, and finally present a wonderful and profound magical world to readers.
This paper refers to Professor Ye Shuxian's paper "Harry Potter's pagan imagination and its prototype" from the Institute of Literature of China Academy of Social Sciences.