Under 100 days to go!! :)

 

           SoulJacker's

Harry Potter

 

Home
Order of the Phoenix Quiz
Information about Book 6 (The Half Blood Prince)
Theories about the Half Blood Prince
Harry Potter Links
FAQ

The Real Prophecy (a sociologists prespective)  

I think Harry Has become extremely powerful over the last few years (his ability to produce a corporeal Patronus, His leadership skills in the department of Mysteries when he evaided a large number of death eaters, He taught Defence Against the Dark Arts to name a few examples)

So in my humble opinion Harry is powerful, the only thing he lacks is experience, Voldi has tricked Harry on a few occasions, in the triwizard tournament, the Quirrell incident and of course in the department of Mysteries.

My piont is that Harry is powerful not because he is destined to be so as th prophecy states
but for another reason. I think it may be because Harry has consistently been told in the magical world by many people that he will be powerful or that they expect greatness from him.

When Harry enters The Leaky Cauldron for the first time he is treated as a saviour (and i suppose rightly so)

QUOTE
'I Think we must expect great things from you, Mr Potter' Mr. Ollivander.



Harry's name is called out in the sorting ceremony the Hall breaks into whispers and people are saying 'The Harry Potter'

In Harry's second year people find out he is a Parselmouth and many believe him to be the heir of Salazar Slytherin, evil yes but still powerful.

the list goes on and on through the books of instances where people fear or are in awe of Harry and so he has been labelled as powerful.

As Harry has been constantly told by wizarding society that he is powerful he has to an extent, pardon this phrase fullfilled this prophecy.

The sociologist Robert Merton describes this concept as the self fufilling prophecy where a false definition (Harry is Powerful) envokes a new behaviour which makes the original false conception come true. Thus Harry becomes Powerful as he is living up (so to speak) to societies preception of him.

However the Self fulfilling prophecy works both ways. Take Neville for example, He has constantly been told by his Grandmother that he does not have his fathers talent. This false conception has been compounded into Neville by the likes of Snape and Draco making Neville think he is useless and as a result Neville is full of self doubt, clumsy amd has low self esteem.

I think its very intresting that JK has chosen Neville to be linked to the Prophecy (Sybil's one) as we can see how two babies (Neville and Harry) starting with probably similar life chances can be moulded by their society (and the way people react to them) to turn out completley different (in relation to how powerful they are).

I therefore submit that the only true Prophecy we see in the Harry Potter books is Robert Merton's one.

Submitted by souljacker 27-01-05

If you would like to respond to this theory email shane0h@hotmail.com

Submissions (0)