Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Essay
Ophelia Kokafones, op400

After reading the moving fifth book of the Harry Potter series, twice, I decided it would be very entertaining to read it again, and for a project. The Order of the Phoenix was, in my opinion, one of J.K. Rowling’s best works. Of the previous four books none rivaled The Prisoner of Azkaban for my favorite of the septology, but The Order of the Phoenix did.

The novel begins with Harry, who is lonely and totally left out of the loop by his friends, and his loved ones: the people he needed most. Harry had witnessed the rebirth of the dark lord Voldemort, and the death of a fellow student, Cedric Diggory, at the end of the last school year. After that happened, Harry was left alone to wonder if the wizarding world was safe, and wallow in self pity over his abandonment from those who cared about him.

One fateful evening Harry was taking his anger out on his oaf of a cousin, when two dementors appeared in the muggle alley they were in. Harry saved himself and Dudley from the dementors, and later received a letter from the Ministry of Magic expelling him. Also, when the Dursleys demanded he explain what had happened to Dudley, Petunia showed that she knew a lot more about the wizarding world than anyone in her family had ever thought. When Vernon insisted that Harry leave immediately so as not to further endanger his family, Petunia received a mysterious howler, which said “remember my last.” Later in the book Harry discovered that the howler was from Dumbledore.

That same day the Dursleys went out to claim a prize for a non existent contest, while members of the Order of the Phoenix came to take Harry to the headquarters where he would be told what had been happening with Voldemort since before his summer break had begun. At 12 Grimmauld Place, Harry found Hermione and Ron, who he was angry at for not informing him of anything all summer. For the first time ever, we read about a tantrum Harry had. J.K definitely improved Harry’s character by making him more realistic. First of all he was a teenage boy, and he had gone through so much pain and loss in his life, it only made sense that he blew up at people from time to time. Though this made the story much darker than the previous four, it caused me to respect Harry more, because he was acting like a real human!
Harry found out that 12 Grimmauld Place was the house of his godfather Sirius, who was very happy about his company. The house was old and dirty. It also held many dark objects, which caused Harry to learn about his godfather’s dark past, and about the undesirable, but inevitable ties between pureblooded families in the wizarding world. Sirius was related to the Malfoys! This caused his death, in a way. Because of his relations with death eaters, his disloyal house elf Kreacher secretly served the Malfoys as well. When Harry arrived at his godfather’s home, Sirius told him the latest news about Voldemort and the resurrected Order of the Phoenix. Harry also learned that the group had to be hidden from the Ministry, which believed that Dumbledore and Harry were insane, and that it was all a lie that Voldemort was back.

This was the introduction to a main theme of the novel: the corruption of a government. The Minister Fudge was jealous of Dumbledore’s power, and was afraid that he would attempt to seize his high position in society as the Minister. The Daily Prophet symbolized the negative power the media has over real society. Articles were written to promote the Ministry and to defile Harry’s and Dumbledore’s names, because they insisted that Voldemort was back. This was why Harry did not really receive a fair trial over his expulsion from Hogwarts. Despite the fact that there had been an eye witness to the attack against him and his cousin by dementors, Fudge tried to deny that the dementors had been there and were beginning to be controlled by dark forces. Harry was not expelled, but his unfair trial showed that the Ministry was still out to get him. The Order of the Phoenix was the darkest of the Harry Potter books yet. It not only showed that Voldemort and his followers were the evil, but also that there can be two evils. Percy Weasley defied his family’s values, especially support of Dumbledore and Harry, to climb to the top of the government. This represented how power hungry the Ministry was becoming.

When Harry arrived at Hogwarts, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor was one of the women from his trial who had supported Fudge and tried to get him expelled. She had a falsely sweet demeanor, but was really cruel, and served as Fudge’s weapon, as she infiltrated Hogwarts, placing it into the hands of the Ministry. Throughout the novel Dumbedlore and the other Professors lost much authority, and Harry began to dislike his life at Hogwarts, which he had once considered to be his only home, and safe haven. The new Professor Umbridge was a prejudiced woman, who took away pleasant life at Hogwarts for many professors and students, with the exception of the Slytherins. Her DADA lessons were a joke. The students did not learn any practical magic. They instead read a book about defense theory. This was because Umbridge was Fudge’s instrument to control Dumbledore’s actions, and prevent his development of a student army against the Ministry. Dumbledore had no such plans, but this lack of proper education caused a problem. Those who knew that Voldemort was back, needed to learn how to protect themselves, and due to their fear of Dumbledore, the Ministry prevented the students from learning how to defend themselves from the forces of evil. Do to this Hermione suggested that Harry form a group of students who wished to learn how to save their lives when facing Voldemort, and teach them real DADA. Harry finally agreed and through the DADA group, he was brought closer to his crush Cho Chang.

Harry’s development of a non- – platonic relationship with a girl was not a huge part of the story, but it was important to the theme of his emotional maturation. Harry learned the do’s and don’ts of dating someone the hard way. In The Order of the Phoenix JKR wrote about Harry’s adolescent phases more, and one of the novel’s many themes was about Harry growing up.

Umbridge heard about the DADA group, so she banned meeting groups of students larger than three. This did not stop them from meeting, and they decided upon a very symbolic name for the group. They decided to call it the “The D.A” or “Dumbledore’s Army,” which was what the Ministry irrationally feared most. When Cho Chang’s friend Marietta betrayed the D.A. Dumbledore saved Harry from expulsion by declaring that he was the leader of the army and his lie confirmed Fudge’s false belief that Dumbledore was planning an uprising against the Ministry. Dumbledore left the school, and Umbridge replaced him as Headmistress. This caused Fred and George to make her life miserable, as she had seized the position of greatest authority at Hogwarts. She had deprived so many students of too much, especially Harry and the Weasley twins of Quidditch, so they made her life miserable in return.

During the novel Voldemort began to possess Harry in a way. He finally learned about the mental connection they had due to Harry’s scar and he began to practice Legilimency, taking control of one’s mind, upon Harry. This caused Harry to witness the attack a snake had on Arthur Weasley and this dream alerted Dumbledore that Harry needed to study Occlumency to protect himself from this invasion of his mind. Harry was having a recurring dream about the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry that intrigued him, so he refused to practice Occlumency. Snape, his teacher, also refused to continue teaching him it when Harry saw his worst memory, and Harry learned that his father James hadn’t been as good a person as he had always thought. Due to the fact that Harry stopped trying to master Occlumency, while he was taking his O.W.L’s, he had a vision that Voldemort was torturing Sirius in the Department of Mysteries. Voldemort lured him there to retrieve a certain prophecy for him. This prophecy stated that either Harry or Voldemort would have to kill the other in the end. This prophecy had condemned Harry to potential death since his birth. In order not to burden Harry with this knowledge Dumbledore had not told him about the prophecy, and why he must study Occlumency. Throughout the novel, Dumbledore distanced himself from Harry to protect him, but in the end it caused the death of Sirius who had come to rescue Harry from Voldemort’s cunning trap, and ended up dying in the attempt.

The Order of the Phoenix was the darkest and most moving novel in the series. It explored the themes of corruption due to a need for power, adolescence, and introduction to adulthood, as well as the fact that love can be both a weapon and a weakness. Love prevented Voldemort from killing Harry as an infant, but it also caused Dumbledore to keep the truth from Harry, and in effect caused Sirius’ death. For the first time Harry suffered a huge loss. His parents’ death had been painful, and had shaped his character, but Harry never got to know his parents as he had gotten to know Sirius. During this novel Harry really grew up. He dealt with puberty, grief, and loss. Because of the reality of the story, Order of the Phoenix is one of my favorite books in the Harry Potter series. It makes the story mirror real life, and it is not just a fantasy anymore! That is why I loved the story, and why it affected me so much, because it was so real to me. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a wonderful example of modern literature.

Good work Ophelia... Good Analysis...
Very clear and understanding, shows good knowledge of the books and very good analysis...
60 points...