从哈利amp8226波特看儿童的成长

　　Abstract
　　Today, children’s literature is not excellent; the series of Harry Potter is a nice novel and a main work in children’s literature. From backgrounds, contents, reality meaning, the author points out the factors of Harry Potter’s success and makes more research, analyzes the influence of Harry Potter on children. J.K.Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, knows children clearly because she is a teacher. Through her point, children can be analyzed easily. Then, in order to understand children’s inner heart, the author analyzes what they think, and analyzes the factors of their characters being lost from three parts: school, household and society. Finally, the author calls for the close attention to children and the changes children themselves need.
　　Key Words
　　Harry Potter; magic; moral; character
　　摘 要
　　在儿童文学作品风光不在的今天，哈利波特系列无疑是难得的佳作，是儿童文学的中流砥柱。从背景、内容、现实意义出发，笔者分析揭示《哈》成为神话的原因。更通过进一步的研究，分析此书对孩子的影响。另外，逐步深入孩子的内心世界，分析他们的所思、所想，并分析造成孩子人格缺失的各方面原因，主要从社会、教育、家庭三方面分析。最后，呼吁社会对孩子的关注及孩子所需的自身的改变。
　　关键词
　　哈利波特；魔幻；道德；品行
　　Introduction
　　According to the list of richest and famous women in the world entertainment circle released by Forbes on Jan.28, J. K. Rowling took the second place with her property of 10 billion. At first, she was a poor teacher and single mother who lived off social relief fund. But depending on a series of Harry Potter, she immediately became the richest woman in Britain. Thus，it can be seen how successful Harry Potter is. Most of the loyal readers are children.
　　Being 24 years old, she was in a train trip from Manchester to London, a tin and weak witch with a pair of glasses and black hair burst into her eyes. He always smiled to her from the outside window. Then, this boy immediately burst into her life and became a part of her. Although at that time there was no pen and paper, she still imagined like a heavenly steed soaring across the skies. Finally she showed this story about Harry Potter to the world. Harry Potter was born— a 10 year-old boy, with thin and small figure, a black and disheveled hair, bright green eyes, and a pair of round glasses. And there is a long and thin, lightning-liked scar on his forehead. Harry Potter is popular all over the world as a story of children.
　　From what is said above we can see that the whole world is crazy for the work of Harry Potter. In information times, the birth of a good novel is just the first step. It still needs a good operation. When Harry Potter sold well in Britain, the publishing businessmen made use of Internet, news and other ways to publicize this book all over the world. Harry PotterⅥ published in China was also translated at the same rate on the Internet. After this series being produced into film, they push Harry PotterⅥ into the market depending on the hot atmosphere. Just in China, the market of children’s book was made up of 300,000,000 children. The capacity was so big that it can not be compared in any other country.   It was a new astonished record that it was translated into 46 languages and was sold wholesale up to about 30,550,000 books in the world. After the film of Harry Potter was produced, the record of box office was always broken at many places.
　　With so many miracles, lots of questions appeared. What are the shining points of Harry Potter’s? Why can it attract so many children even adults? What influences do the children have after they read this book?
　　Ⅰ. Harry Potter’s Attractive Points
　　Harry Potter’s author, Rowling have ardent love for English literature. And she majors in French in college. For her, being good at literature and language is especially important for her novels, and so is her understanding of cultural background. After her graduation, she becomes a teacher. This job helps her to be close to her students, children. Through this, she could deeply understand what children’s love is, what children’s psychology is, what their act is and what their inner problem is. All these help her create Harry Potter, a thrilling story.
　　A. The Reflection of the Real World from the Magic World.
　　In story, there is a magic school-- Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In this school, all the students and witches should obey its role. They will be punished if they go against the rules and they will be expelled from school if they do something terrible. It has the same rules and regulations like the reality school does. It is pided into four parts of school. Students must belong to one of them. If they do something wrong or against regulations, the part they belonged to will be deducted marks. In contrast, if students perform well on class and win honor, it will add some marks. At the end of the term, school will choose the best part and praise it according to the marks. One more point is that there is an extremely interesting and exciting sport in the school— Quiddich, which is like the hockey ball except it is matched in the sky. The witches fly on the magic broom, catching the Golden Snitch, beating the Bludger with all kinds of the sharp sounds. In film, audiences out of the fictional world are excited as well as the players and other students in the film. An interesting detail is that the Nimbus Two Thousand broom is the latest and rapidest broom in the magic world when Harry was in grade one. Then, the broom is upgraded and Nimbus Two Thousand and Three took the place of Nimbus Two Thousand to become the most advanced. In the fictional world, all things are developing like in the real world, just as office 2000’s being upgraded to office 2003.
　　In school, witches also should take part in examinations. If they can not pass, they also have a chance to have make-up exams or they will fail to go up to the next grade. For exams, children have the deepest feeling. Through this novel and films, they can appreciate this as a personal favor. ＂There are still many other students just like me!＂ Maybe they will think. In novel, there are many kinds of students, just as
　　intelligent Hermione Jane Granger, idiotic Neville Longbottom, kind Ron Weasley, arrogant Draco Malfoy, timid Ginny Weasley and so on. May be you will find that one of them is similar to you. These students are just common children if we do not see their identity.
　　No matter where and when, discrimination always exists. Due to the existing of right, history, culture and many other factors, lots of inequalities come out. Discrimination of race, discrimination of extraction, discrimination of poverty, and so on, all those show the shadow side of human nature. In reality, although these phenomena gradually weaken, lots of inequalities can be seen all over the world. Just from the field of education, large numbers of examples can be taken.
　　Firstly, it is because of inequality that children could have education according to money. Children from rich family can go to noble schools, and enjoy excellent sources of hardware and software. Children from poor family can only go to ramshackle school, and even some of them can not take the chances to accept the education.
　　Secondly, sex discrimination. In many places, especially in rural areas of China, boys can go to school, but girls are not allowed to study with boys. Parents require their daughters to do farm work and housework. This phenomenon should be changed and now it is changing slightly too.
　　Thirdly, in different areas, the right of having education is unequal. Like China, some areas where there are full of educational resources and the degree of having education per person is high originally, which takes up more resources.
　　Fourthly, the right of having education in different races is unequal. Maybe this refers to some problems left by history.
　　There are still many other problems, such as the difference of teachers’ attitude between good students and bad students, parents’ attitude, and society’s attitude. All these problems can be found in Harry Potter. Lots of details reflect these phenomena.In the fictional world, people are pided into three parts. One is called Muggle, the common people who do not know witchcraft and do not believe it. One impolite name of it is Mudbloods. Second is a mixed-blood witch, which means one parent of it is Muggle. The third one is purebred witch from which noble families come. In this story, members from noble families are arrogant and impolite. But in fact, they are outwardly strong but inwardly brittle. They have enjoyed more privileges, but are still not content with it. They want to capture more rights, not minding sacrificing other people’s rights. In the aspect of wealth and poverty of nations, a Harvard University
　　professor David S. Landes said, ＂Social problems looks like very complicated, but it
　　has an easy way to say, that is to ask who the beneficiary is.＂ In order to gain the most benefit, they use dirty tricks to deceive others. Draco Malfoy is one of these guys who believe in blood relationship and right. One person without status and parentage is inferior to others. In the story, he hates and looks down upon Hermione Jane Granger though she is one of the wisest, the most intelligent and the finest student in school. Even he used extremely filthy words ＂Mudbloods＂ to abuse her. To noble men, the modest, gentle and refined character and morals are lost from him. But if he meets                                                                                                                                                                                                         some famous persons he will try his best to form alliance with them and does not mind their blood. Harry is a purebred witch, but he was famous because he beat the worst man Voldemort when he was young. Of course Draco would like to get touch with Harry to raise his reputation. So for the first time he met Harry, he said to Harry:   ＂You＂ll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don＂t want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there＂ (J.K.Rowling, 1997). After Harry refused him, his innate nature gradually appeared. Draco Malfoy didn＂t go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks. ＂I＂d be careful if I were you, Potter,＂ he said slowly. ＂Unless you＂re a bit politer you＂ll go the same way as your parents. They didn＂t know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and it＂ll rub off on you＂ (J.K.Rowling, 1997). He hated Harry and regarded Harry as his sworn enemy through his life. He use puerile but vicious means to hurt Harry and his friends and boomeranged on him in the end.
　　B. The Interesting Elements, Grotesque and Gaudy Adventure.
　　The story is so breath-taking and full of suspenseful and tightly-knit plot. The content of the novel is so absurd and incredible, but the process of the story is surely wonderful, bold and unconstrained. In the space of imagination, it makes readers feel fully enlightened. Critic said that Harry Potter wins over the traditional best thriller and never let the scenes become dull. All of the scenes are full of tension, and then terror follows by the delight. You barely escape from one dangerous trap just now but a new and more terrible dangerous situation presses on towards you dimly. Harry Potter is close to children’s psychology and uses children’s words to narrate this story. Compared with it, the authors of Chinese children’s novels have not done this important point. Lacking of children’s words and view, they use the style of preaching to tell the stories. And the leading roles are always animals, such as pig, cat and so on. No changing and no blazing new trails. Chinese children’s literature can not compete with the quick rhythm and unprecedented imaginative power. The culture of China needs to develop with time. In fact, children are same as their parents. They not only need the encouragement coming from life but also need the moves from life itself. Maybe this is connected with mental attitude all over the society. Children are required to have the standard of adult. Once taking up the schoolbag, they are involved in and forced to pursue the fame and wealth through their lives. That’s style of narrating like a fresh wind which blows into the chaos. That’s why both adult and children are indulged in it.
　　C. The Mixture of Culture, Legend and Fairy Tales of the Ancient Europe, the Middle-age’s Europe and Today’s Europe.
　　Besides the wonderful story, the background is very important, too. In the modern times, there are cities over here and there. High-skyscrapers and high-rises can be seen everywhere. But in the fictional world, it seems that a few of fashioned elements mixes into the classic background. This is a big shining point.
　　＂The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers＂ (J.K.Rowling, 1997). This is the first description to the school. Romantic and dreamlike chapter is beginning from this beautiful classical architecture which was fashionable for the middle-age’s Europe. ＂Inside the castle, the stone walls were lit with flaming torches＂ (J.K.Rowling, 1997). Harry had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. ＂It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting＂ (J.K.Rowling, 1997). Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. He heard Hermione whisper, ＂It’s bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History＂ (J.K.Rowling, 1997). From these descriptions we know that there are few modern products in the school. Lights, TVs, computers and any other equipment for teaching all do not exist. All things are charged by magic. The little witches are still using feather pen in stead of ball pen or pen. It feels that all witches’ culture and tradition are handed down. Readers are in the position of a gloom and full of alarmed and frightened atmosphere magic school in middle-ages Europe. They are looking forward to happening something interesting and unbelievable with Harry and his friends.
　　The writer creates a three-dimensional magic world. She mixed many different kinds of cultures, legends and fairy tales of different times. In the story of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, alchemy becomes the main clue of the conspiracy. The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Sorcerer＂s Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal. ＂There have been many reports of the Sorcerer＂s Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera lover. Mr. Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight)＂ (J.K.Rowling, 1997).
　　Alchemy is an ideology and practice of chemical philosophy and the embryonic form of present age. Its aim is to change the basic mental into golden, produce elixir of life and universal medicine. Nowadays, science improves that it is impossible. But until 19th century has alchemy not been denied. Some famous scientists including Newton have done some tests about alchemy. The appearance of modern times’ chemistry makes people doubt the possibility of alchemy. After 17th century, alchemy was criticized. The hope of alchemy was dashed.
　　Alchemy is the biggest temptation of all for the people who pursuing external life. Since people appeared, they have dreamed to gain external life and have done many kinds of attempts. In these attempts, alchemists’ illusion and technology are used more widely than others. Alchemists believe that rectifying and refining the basic mental is a process from death back to life then even to perfection. It symbols those alchemists’ souls from death back to life then even to perfect. So, the medicine they refined can prolong life, refresh man and invigorate the function of brain, can let them get happy life, excellent wisdom, lofty moral, and can change their mental outlook; finally they can communicate with God. But this aim can not be attained. Alchemists also know this; therefore they explain it from every side. They make it subtle intentionally whether the universal medicine exists or not.
　　More than 600 years ago, a pitiful copyist died quietly in Paris. He was the most famous mysterious man in the European history. He left enormous property of unknown origin, and strange dying words written by code. A mysterious relief was carved by his workers before he died on the wall of morgue of Pairs God of son cemetery. The first sentence on the relief is: ＂I saw an astonished miracle…＂ And even it was doubted that his death was also a false phenomenon arranged by him. Among 600 years, the mystery of Nicolas attracted the most excellent and wisest persons in history to do research about it. There were many names that we were familiar with, such as Newton, Hugo, Yeats, Jung and so on, of course, including J.K.Rowling.
　　It was said that Nicolas Flamel found a piece of code on a book which he bought from a stranger occasionally. Among 21 years, he and his wife made a hard research on it. Then they came to other country from across the vast ocean to do the further research. After hundreds of thousands failures, he finally made the ＂Philosopher’s Stone＂ successfully which can change the basic mental into the purest golden in the world.
　　In Harry Potter, philosopher’s stone is the beginning of his legendary life. The medieval legend of alchemy, Nicolas Flamel, and philosopher’s stone, all which attracted children to step into Harry’s story deeply. The rich cultural background, mysterious legend, and the distinctive idea for the legend made the story truer and more mysterious. And there are many other legends, such as the ghosts who have an exciting life and then became a legend, wandering around the school and always talk with students. And lovely owls send letters from home to its master. The naughty owl, the wise owl, and the dazed owl, all of them are loved by crazy children.
　　Ⅱ.The Influences on Children of Harry Potter,
　　His Friends’ Character and Morals
　　Children are the largest group among the readers. So they will be affected by the type of roles’ noble character and morals easily. There are so many vivid characters described in the work. They behaved just as our neighbors did. Children extremely like the young witches on behalf of Harry.
　　A. The Occurrence of the Hero--Harry Arousing all People’s Passion
　　It is always said that hero is born in the turbulent times. Nowadays, peace and development are the main trends for the world. It seems that nobody care the existing of the heroes. In China, children have forgotten the real heroes such as Dong Cunrun, Lei Feng and so on. Instead, they love the popular stars very much. For loving these stars, they even do something crazy. Many children died for them. That is a pitiful
　　thing. For every adult, there is a hero in his inner heart, or there has been. And children are worse than adults. But it is gradually abandoned by him. The period, which never believes hero, is also a time lacking passion. And most people are indifferent. Nowadays, where is the hero in people’s hearts? But people always need hero. They are looking for the hero in their hearts.
　　In children’s hearts, Harry is such a hero they are looking for. His occurrence waters children’s dry hearts.
　　Harry became an orphan since he was one year old. He lived in his auntie’s home. But he never got any love from his relatives. He spent eleven years in suffering from being ill-treated mentally and physically. He struggled like grass and never gave up hope.
　　＂They＂re saying he tried to kill the Potter＂s son, Harry. But -- he couldn＂t. He couldn＂t kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they＂re saying that when he couldn＂t kill Harry Potter, Voldemort＂s power somehow broke -- and that＂s why he＂s gone＂ (J.K.Rowling, 1997). Since then, Harry’s name of hero was established.
　　Harry is a smart, brave, ambitious, diligent, kind man, and he is full of responsibility. He can struggle with the dark power bravely. And also, he has many shortages. He lost his confidence and lacked a sense of security because he had been ill-treated for many years. At the beginning, he didn’t know any sorcery except that he used it occasionally. He was afraid of being ordered to leave school if others found that he hadn’t any talent about learning witchcraft. So he was eager to prove himself. The sorting hat described Harry like that: ＂plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There＂s talent, A my goodness, yes -- and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that＂s interesting....＂ (J.K.Rowlin, 1997).
　　He had few friends before he studied in Hogwarts. He values the friendship very much. He can do everything for his friends. And of course he has quarreled inevitably with his friends when they live together. He loves his parents very much although he does not remember them. When he sees his parents and himself stand in the Mirror of Erised, how delightful and sad he is! ＂It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. You, who have never known your family, see them standing around you. However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge nor truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible＂ (J.K.Rowling, 1997). He has strong will and dauntless spirit, finally he overcomes the difficulty.
　　Through the description of so many sides, it stands as a three-dimensional hero figure. He likes the boy living near us. He will laugh when he is happy. He will cry and needs the comfort from his friends when he is sad. He will hesitate and be afraid when he meets difficulties. And he will buoy up his spirits and fight against evil person when he wants to protect his friends and his home – Hogwarts. The hero in the novel is lifelike. Children feel that is true. Harry is in children’s hearts and arouses children’s passion. Children will find their hearts and will never be empty. They will learn from Harry.
　　B Time of Decaying of Morals.
　　Because of education, household, society and many other aspects, children become selfish, and tend to go to extremes, always become suspicious of others and do not trust others.
　　The moral concept of children and adult has decreased to the lowest point. From life details we can find many examples. In a bus, no one offer his seat to old-aged people and pregnant woman. Even if there is one warm-hearted man who would like to offer his seat, when he stands up, a young man will take his seat quickly. When one is in trouble in the street, no one would like to help him. How indifferent people are! There is such a thing: a lady’s bag is robbed in the downtown, no body would like to help her as if they have not seen this except a man. After he helps the lady take back her bag, a group of rogue which was called on by the thief beat him heavily. No one stops this violence and no one calls police. If things go on like this, who would like to do others a favor? What’s the reason cause this phenomenon?
　　(1) From education:
　　First, teacher’s quality is an important factor.
　　Teacher’s profession is an activity of education. This activity is full of morality from ancient times. Modern times’ reform of education requires the construction of teacher’s moral. But lots of data show us that many children become the sufferers of the teacher without morals. Students respect teachers because democracy and equality are the basic qualities. But due to teacher’s wrong treat, many children lose self-respect, self-confidence and then hate to go to school and communicate with others. Most excellent characters are lost in this process.
　　Second, the imperfect educational system is another factor.
　　In china, the educational slogan is developing moral, wisdom, physical body, and kindness. But under the pressure of the proportion of students entering schools of a higher grade, schools and teachers pay more attention to wisdom. Teachers assign much homework, so children have no time to do other things. And this makes the children’s characters develop unbalancedly and incompletely.
　　If China’s biggest mistake is in education in recent decades, then Chinese education’s biggest mistake is ignoring children’s creativity and the spirit of bringing forth new ideas. Creativity is the product of many factors. It contains the development of character, the ability of thinking about the independent, imagination, pragmatism, democracy, the ability of dealing with problems. All these need to be brought up from children.
　　(2) From household: parents are the first teacher for children.
　　Due to irresponsibility, some children are not cared about so much. Children even can not stay with their parents for a long time. And under the pressure of economy, parents have to leave hometown to earn money. Children are left behind at home. They have no friends; instead they stay with TV and Internet. Violence and pornography are spread widely. Children are affected by them. Nowadays, single-parent families increase quickly. The unhealthy household even can not give children safety. And how about educating them? Others care about children’s final result more than children themselves. If children get high marks, they will praise them and give some encouragement and reward. But if they can not get high mark, then parents’ attitude will change largely.
　　Parents should change the life style of children. Parents should understand that children’s abilities are limited. They should not be angry when they know their children have not got high mark because the mark can not measure the real value and ability of the children. Care about children’s happiness and health more than their marks. And they should make use of more time to communicate with children and discuss problems with them. No matter what happens, they should encourage their children instead of making decisions for children.
　　(3) From society: Although there are not very serious problems, many deep and sharp problems gradually appear. The number of juvenile delinquency cases increases recently. And crimes also increase whose victims are children. Occasionally, education and protection are not enough for children. Children become silent, suspicious and selfish. Lots of them go to extremes. They hurt others to fulfill their psychological needs. Then crime continues. There are still many other factors leading to decaying morals.
　　C. The Influences of People’s Mentality and Thought on Children’s Growth
　　Harry’s situation is the same as children’s. His being more fortunate than children in real life is that he is a famous witch. He has good teachers. Most teachers treat him just as their own children and their friends although they are strict with Harry. They help Harry, give him a warm home. The magic world is full of dangers and unsafe problems, but the concerned departments are trying to change and protect children. Most warm-hearted people do so at the same time.
　　Here, we are enlightened that the educational system should have a reform. School and society should make a warm, safe, equal and happy environment for children. Parents should never seize children tightly or loosely. Spoiling children are bad. But indulging their children is still bad? Where is the standard? It needs communication between parents and children. We should treat them as adults.
　　Harry has a group of friends. They treat with each other royally. When one of them makes mistakes, they remind him and help him. When they are in terrible trouble, they all never give up. The holy friendship is just like that. From this story, children learn to value their friends and friends. And they would like to help strangers from trouble.
　　Sympathy, mercy and compassion are what Harry wants to tell children. Many children think that the most important in life is friendly, sympathetic and appreciating and thankful to life.
　　In the aspect of social moral, they shoulder their responsibilities. And for the ability of their attitude towards life, they are willing to face reality, never avoid obstacles, and never give up. They are also willing to trust others and to cooperate with others.
　　Conclusion
　　As excellent work of the children’s literature, to some degree, Harry Potter can rescue the soul of a generation of children.
　　Harry and his friends’ characters move a generation of children. Their spirits will always be left in children’s hearts and will help them face difficulties in the future life.
　　The negative aspects of the education, household relationship, and society distort the character of the children. So we need to reform this system. But in these fields, it won’t change too mush in a short time. It needs all people’s efforts and a long time. So the most important thing is that children should adjust themselves, experience and train themselves in adverse circumstances and constantly strive to become stronger. With self-respect, self-confidence and trusting in each other, children can advance bravely to reach their destination
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