Harry Potter 7

Like a large percentage of New Trier students, I saw Harry Potter 7: Part 1 at midnight on Thursday.  And like a complete nerd I dressed up, but that is not the point of this blog post.  In class these past weeks we are working on connecting the Crucible to a 'perilous times' period in America's history.  We are using civil liberties limitations to connect our war to the witch trials in the crucible.

I am in the group of the Cold War and it was my job to discuss Senator Joe McCarthy (for background information on the senator click here). A word that appeared often in my research was McCarthyism.  This word did not just apply to that specific era in history but is applied whenever there is endorsement of unfair accusation and evidence against a group of people.  I started to think about the connotations of linking to certain events in history.

I noticed during several instances in Harry Potter that the army for the Ministry of Magic wore red armbands.  The movie mentioned how the government wanted a "pure-blood" society, and the government was seen making propaganda posters against the half-blood and 'mud-blood' wizards.  If you haven't already guessed, there is a very clear link to the Nazi government and their soldiers.

This link evoked a strong emotion towards the actions, that would not have been evident without the link.  It gave a tangible connections to previous thoughts and feelings and applied them to this situation.  It told the audience how to think.  The connotations of Nazis is pure evil.  How does this transfer to the view we are told to have of the Ministry?

How do links to real world events strengthen or weaken fictional stories?  How do connotations applied to the events linked affect the way the work is received?