The Harry Potter Class System

Throughout my reading of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone I noticed many themes involving loyalty, desire, and rebellion. Most of the character’s actions encompassed these themes. I, however, picked up on a theme that might not be so obvious—class. While the wizarding world sometimes comes off as a utopia, everything in perfect harmony except for that dark wizard who gets into some nasty business, there are issues amongst wizards. Just like ordinary people, muggles, there are conflicts of class.

First, there are classes of ethnicity—not racially, but rather pure blood wizards versus muggle-born wizards versus mixed blood wizards. Muggle-born wizards are considered the bottom of the totem pole, and thought to be less competent wizards. Pure bloods hold themselves up very high, and the attitudes remind of the views from the racially torn America in the 1960’s. You can see this in the way that Draco Malfoy, a pure blood wizard, treats Hermione Granger, muggle-born. Granger proves the ideas of incompetency to be inaccurate when she shows off her knowledge and exemplifies a great wizard with completed spells.

Next, there are class divides with money, just like in the muggle world. Draco Malfoy’s family is rich, and treats Ron Weasley differently even though they are both pure blood families. Weasley is thrown off by how much money Harry Potter’s family has because of how Harry treated Ron during their first meeting. These divides remind me of how segregated we as humans still manage to keep each other. Despite our backgrounds, there are still class separations among us. In the book, and throughout the series, the class system causes underlying conflicts for the characters.