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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – Book Themes

The Government vs. The Truth

Order of the Phoenix is largely characterized by the Wizarding world coping with Voldemort’s return. To the Ministry of Magic, “coping” means ignoring the facts, and pretending it’s not true. For Harry and Dumbledore, “coping” means informing as many people as possible of Voldemort’s return and preparing to fight. But this is hard when Fudge, as the figurehead of the Ministry of Magic, is under the impression that ignoring reality will make its problems go away.

Firstly, Fudge seeks to condemn Harry and forbid his return to Hogwarts just so Harry can’t go spreading the word of Voldemort’s return. Then, when this fails, Fudge employs Umbridge at Hogwarts to convince the students and staff that Voldemort has not returned. Obviously, the government and the people are at extreme odds here. Some serious problems arise when Fudge would rather maintain normality than protect his people.

The Ministry becomes corrupt, inefficient, and useless. If it weren’t for Harry, Dumbledore, and the Order’s undying efforts to convince the public of the truth and protect the ones they love, it would have been all too easy for Voldemort to spread his terrible reign over the naïve Wizarding world. The entire fiasco elicits the importance of questioning our leaders and seeking the truth, because ignorance is not bliss in the face of danger.

Unity in the Face of Evil

Another leading theme in Order of the Phoenix is the importance of uniting in the face of threat. The Sorting Hat stresses this in the beginning of the book: “Our Hogwarts is in danger from external deadly foes. And we must unite inside her or we’ll crumble from within.” Though Hogwarts is inherently divided into four very separate, very different houses — it is vital that differences be set aside in order to rise against the threat of Voldemort and his followers.

Unity is also essential in another way: uniting against the threat of the Ministry. Necessary unity is achieved in two ways in this book. First, the trio takes a necessary step toward unity against both Voldemort and the Ministry by creating Dumbledore’s Army. Rightfully so, Harry, Hermione and Ron see the importance of learning to defend themselves even though they are forbidden by Umbridge. Like the concerned students at Hogwarts, former Order members take matters into their own hands as well.

By the re-kindling of the Order of the Phoenix, believers of Voldemort’s return-—like Lupin, Sirius, Molly, Arthur, and Kingsley—-are able to unite and prepare to fight Voldemort. If the students at Hogwarts or the former members of the Order hadn’t come together, they would have been unprepared and unable to fight off the Death Eaters at the Ministry of Magic, and Harry would have been left to Voldemort’s deadly hands. Our heroes’ efforts in this book remind us that unity is one of the most important tools when faced with adversity.

Life Is Not Defined By Death

There is an extremely important distinction made between Harry and Voldemort’s character that is revealed in this book: the ability to love. In the confrontation between Dumbledore and Voldemort in the Ministry of Magic, Dumbledore tells Voldemort: “Your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness.”

One of the things “worse than death” that Dumbledore refers to is the absence of love. Voldemort, being so consumed by gaining power to avoid death, is unable to fathom anything related to love or compassion for others. Without love, Voldemort is inhuman. On the other hand, Harry has no greater fear than losing the people he loves, which in turn makes Harry the strongest kind of human-being there is.

When Harry is overcome with the pain of losing Sirius, Dumbledore tells him: “The fact that you can feel pain like this is your greatest strength.” Harry begins to understand that life is not defined by death, but defined by love.

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