Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the much-anticipated fifth installment in J.K. Rowling’s popular series which began with Harry Potter’s admission to the magical school of Hogwarts and his discovery that his parents were wizards. Harry also learned that his parents had been killed when he was an infant by the powerful and evil wizard Lord Voldemort. However, when Lord Voldemort had tried to murder young Harry, the spell had mysteriously bounced back on Voldemort himself, rendering him powerless. Harry survived the attack, with only a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.

Each volume tells the story of one school year at Hogwarts, as Harry battles Lord Voldemort’s attempts to regain his power. Harry finds that his lightning-rod is no ordinary scar, as it connects him to Lord Voldemort in ways that he does not completely understand. At the end of the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Lord Voldemort used Harry’s blood in a spell that returned him to full power.

Thus the stage is set for Order of the Phoenix, where we learn that the wizard government, the Ministry of Magic, has refused to believe Harry’s tale of the return of Lord Voldemort and is using the government-controlled press to portray him as emotionally unstable. The wise Headmaster of Hogwarts, Dumbledore, is forced to take the organizing against Lord Voldemort underground. Harry, who is now an emotionally immature and hormonal 15-year-old, endures a year of intense frustration as he is kept in the dark about much of what is going on.

The central theme of the Harry Potter series is the epic struggle between good and evil. This classic message is not complex. These are children’s books after all, no matter how appealing to adults. But J.K. Rowling does have something important to say, no matter how simple or banal it may seem at first glance – resistance is necessary and young people can make a difference. Despite their simplicity, there are complexities in the application of these principles to the situations faced by the characters. In a world in which young people often feel powerless to resist what parents and teachers tell them to do or to change their circumstances, the Harry Potter series is a useful reminder that there is an alternative to apathy.

Clampdowns on Campus

In the first four books, Lord Voldemort and his followers were the central enemies that Harry and his friends had to fight. The terrain becomes more complicated in Order of the Phoenix, as the wizard government begins to intrude into the life of the school, and itself becomes a source of repression.

In an attempt to control Dumbledore and the teachers at Hogwarts, the Ministry of Magic appoints a teacher to teach “Defense Against the Dark Arts.” This is a change from the normal practice by which Dumbledore selects teachers, and the new teacher, Dolores Umbridge, is clearly appointed as a spy for the Ministry. She proceeds to take control over much of the running of the school, and has herself appointed the “Hogwarts High Inquisitor.” She uses this power to outlaw all student organizations that are not expressly approved by her, to limit academic freedom and to severely punish Harry when he speaks out about Lord Voldemort. As the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, she also employs a curriculum that is designed to ensure that her students are woefully unprepared to face the dangers before them. Although these problems arise in a magical world, the issues do have many similarities to the problems faced by students today. A curriculum divorced from concrete experience is the norm for today’s students, rather than the exception. The past few years have also witnessed a renewed emphasis on discipline, conformity and respect for authority figures, as educational systems attempt to create malleable workers prepared for today’s workplaces. In Ontario, for example, the Conservative government has introduced a “zero tolerance” approach for “problem” students and a new Code of Conduct as part of the Safe Schools Act. The past few months have also seen numerous examples of the repression of political speech in schools such as the disciplining of students wearing anti-war t-shirts or the organizers of high school walkouts and teach-ins.

However, Harry and other students at Hogwarts constantly challenge these changes in their school, fighting back against the increasingly repressive atmosphere. For example, they organize a secret group of students to teach themselves Defense Against the Dark Arts. Harry refuses to be silent about Voldemort’s return, despite the painful punishments to which he is subjected. Harry and his friends find ways of getting out the message about Voldemort’s return through by-passing the Ministry-controlled newspaper. In an inspiring example to all would-be high school dropouts, the Weasley twins flood an entire section of the school with a magical practical joke, before flying off on their broomsticks and leaving the school forever.

In consolidating her power within the school, Umbridge employs tactics that go beyond strict discipline and a tight control over student groups. She explicitly raises racial categories as a way of determining who can have access to privileges within the school. The basis for these racial divisions are not the same as those found in the “Muggle” (or non-wizard) world. Rather the essential categories are those who do not have a pure wizard background, known as “mudbloods”, and those who can point to a lengthy pureblood wizarding heritage. Purebloods are favoured, and mudbloods are, as the name itself implies, seen as dirty and polluting. These categories are clearly intended as a simplified way of addressing issues of race and racism.

There are many students in the school who were born and raised in “muggle” families, and Harry’s best friend Hermione is one of them. She is also one of the top students in the school and an enormously talented young witch. The distinction between pureblood and mudblood is therefore shown to be invalid, as genes are shown to be irrelevant in predicting who will be a talented witch or wizard. The “good” characters in the series are those that reject these categories completely. Harry, for example, is prepared to fistfight anyone who calls Hermione a mudblood. The “evil” characters invariably rely on racial categories, with Voldemort having gone so far as to engage in a campaign of murder and violence against mudbloods (interestingly, he is himself a mudblood, though few are aware of this fact).

Order of the Phoenix raises issues of race and racism within schools, albeit in simplified terms, and highlights the role that racism can play in repression and discipline, something that likely reflects the experience of many readers. Most importantly however, Rowling shows her (primarily young) readers that racism can and should be resisted.

The message about resisting racism and repression is less clear in the strangely ambiguous treatment of the house elves, a species of unpaid house servants who are in a state of permanent bondage unless their master gives them clothing, a gift that sets them free. Hogwarts is itself tended by house elves. In the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry befriended a house elf named Dobby and was instrumental in setting him free. Apart from Dobby however, the house elves appear to enjoy their slavery and one becomes a miserable alcoholic when she is freed. Only Hermione appears to take issue with this state of affairs, and she begins to organize a movement to free the house elves under the name SPEW (Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare). However, she gets no support from other students who view her cause with derision.

Underground Resistance

Of course, these struggles are minor skermishes in the ultimate struggle between good and evil which is the central theme of the series. With the Ministry of Magic refusing to acknowledge the pending danger and criminalizing Dumbledore and his supporters, those wishing to fight Voldemort are forced to form a secretive underground resistance movement known as the Order of the Phoenix.

Unlike most of their peers, Harry and his friends are aware of the existence of the Order, although they are denied membership as they are considered too young. This exclusion of young people from the Order is shown to be a serious error on the part of the adults when Lord Voldemort exploits his connection to Harry in an attempt to manipulate him into revealing the details of a prophecy. Without full and complete information, Harry lacks the tools he needs to understand what is happening to him. But in the end it is Harry and several other Hogwarts students who must take on Voldemort and his followers, in a harrowing battle that takes place within the building of the Ministry of Magic itself. Dumbledore realizes his mistake, and reveals to Harry the details of the mysterious prophecy.