July 2007

Lessons learned for all ages from Harry Potter

During the build-up to Harry's fate in J.K. Rowling's final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," fans have discussed with friends, co-workers and people online whether the boy wizard survives his expected confrontation with Lord Voldemort. However, people are less likely to talk with each other about how death affects them personally.

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books and movies, especially the soon-to-be-released final book - the author has promised significant characters will die - are great ways for us to open up and make death part of our daily conversations. This is especially important with children. Often, children, and even adults, do not seriously talk about death until they lose someone close to them.

Death is a reality of life, and discussions of death cut to the core of human existence. They are powerful, precious and necessary. They provide us with the chance to think beyond our daily hassles and headaches to face the reality that tomorrow or even today may be our last day on Earth. Reading books and watching TV provide escapes from the real world, but these entertaining storylines can be used as wake-up calls that death is an OK topic to discuss. Although the prospect of death is an often frightening and overwhelming thought, it can truly be empowering and energizing.

The amazing thing about the Harry Potter books and these fictional characters is that they provide a great starting point for people to begin talking about death.

Lessons about grieving can be learned from Harry himself. Fans have watched Harry cope with the death of his parents; grief complicated by the fact that they died before he really had a chance to know them. Thoughts of his parents bring happiness for Harry, but he also expresses feelings of yearning, sadness, guilt, remorse and anger as he grieves. These feelings reinforce that grieving is natural. His grief also unfolds and shifts as he develops just as it does for most grieving children. Harry's experience is real and in line with scholarship on the experience of bereaved children.

Children are curious about birth and aging, and it is only natural that they are also curious about death. Death is a part of life, and adults need to be as open to the topic as they are likely to find their children to be.

Even as adults we frequently do not want to approach people who are grieving because we are uncertain of how to act or what to say. Such worry can be an unnecessary obstacle. Often our mere presence and acknowledgment of the grief of others is in itself quite helpful.

Through Rowling's magic she gave people something else to grieve - the end of a series. The end of the Harry Potter books is a loss. People grieve for things they are attached to, and many children and adults, have become attached to these characters.

Rowling created a wizard world in which millions have immersed themselves. Muggles, Hogwarts and Azkaban are words that many people know well, thanks to the world of Harry Potter. The series has brought a lot of joy and influenced people around the world and will continue to do so after the final pages of book seven are turned.

Harry Potter reminds us that death is a part of life. Just a few months ago, the fate of mobster Tony Soprano in the HBO TV series "The Sopranos" was anxiously awaited. Once again, fans are waiting to learn the destiny of a favorite character. No matter if our wizard hero survives, Rowling has provided society with the opportunity to think more deeply about how grief is portrayed in the series and a bridge to help us begin to talk about death in general.

(Heather Servaty-Seib is a counseling psychologist and associate professor of educational studies at Purdue University, and the first vice president of the Association for Death and Education Counseling.)

To the News Service home page