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"The Chamber of Secrets": The Choices of Harry Potter
By Amanda Caldwell | I love Harry Potter. I entered the world of the books when the first three were out and didn't come up for breath until I had finished, then panted for the fourth installment. As long as the movies based on them are adequate and don't betray the memory of the books, I'll happily enjoy them. I looked forward to the opening of this newest film in the series, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," wearing to the showing my Hogwarts robe and dark-rimmed glasses, carrying a Nimbus 2000, and sneaking in a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans for a movie munchie. OK, none of that's true except for the glasses, but just because that's what mine look like and otherwise I couldn't see the screen. I did wear a black flowy shirt and silver eyeshadow to feel suitably magical.
And, so, I enjoyed the movie. It was fun to enter the dark halls of Hogwarts once again, to exclaim over how Harry and Ron and Hermione look so much more grown-up, to bite my fingers during the credible CGI action sequences, and to follow again the second book's plot. Unfortunately, that's pretty much all there is to the movie. Chris Columbus' reverence for J.K. Rowling and her material seems to have paralyzed him from trying to rework the novels to really shine as movies. The novels are long (indeed, they get longer with every volume), whimsical, and meandering, full of silly scenes like Dumbledore solemnly announcing in the first book that he would like to say a few words at the opening banquet: "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" or the Hogwarts song, which is sung to the tune and pace of one's choosing:
Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,
Despite a lot of laughs in the movie (for instance, Hermione's look of indignant dismay when exams are canceled is priceless), sets full of quirky background details like magical clocks that show where members of the family are, and oddball hairstyles on minor witch and wizard characters, "Chamber of Secrets" remains almost too faithful to the books — intent on including every important detail while neccessarily, due to time constraints, having to jettison most of the unimportant silliness and everyday life that fills the novels. By doing this, it loses much of the mystery and pacing of the books. You get no sense that a schoolyear has passed by the end of the movie except by having the characters remind you that such is the case and by seeing, every once in awhile, a change in weather that indicates a new season has arrived.
Columbus has given up directorial duties for the third film, and is urging the young actors to depart after that one, suggesting that three years of filming is more than enough in their young lives. At first, I was apprehensive and disappointed, because I enjoy the continuity of characters from the first to the second, and I think the casting of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and many of the professors and staff was spot on. But, at least as far as Columbus' leaving is concerned, I don't think it's a bad thing to bring in some new blood. I love that Columbus is so partial to the books that he's protective of staying true to the story, but maybe a new director could find a way also to say true to the spirit, even if that means changing certain aspects. There's a difference between breaking faith with the books (say, the Demi Moore version of The Scarlet Letter where Hester absconds merrily with Dimmesdale) and taking liberties to make a good movie. For instance, the 1994 "Little Women" film introduces rants about corsets and women's right to vote that aren't present in the novel yet that Louisa May Alcott would have loved, and the director deliberately cast a more romantic figure for the elderly Professor Baehr character of the novel who becomes Jo's love interest, because she thought that would be truer to Alcott's intentions. As endearing as the novel is to me, a movie needs to be its own work of art, even if it means changing facts of the novel to fit the spirit.
Despite these misgivings with "Chamber of Secrets" and hopes for a different future (maybe even a more leisurely paced mini-series — a girl can dream), the story itself is a good one. People have criticized Harry for riding on his fame as the child nemesis of the evil Voldemort, his abilities at the sport of Quidditch, and his charming of sympathetic professors instead of actively working to become a better person. He continually breaks the rules and has a real roadblock against trusting adults, even the wise Dumbledore. He doesn't seem to learn the lesson from his experiences that he should go to Dumbledore in the first place, since his mentor's going to learn about it eventually and his help will be necessary.
And, yet, the fact that Harry doesn't have it all together yet seems to be the point of this story. In a scene toward the end, Harry discusses his similarities in terms of determination and independence to the occupants of Slytherin, including Voldemort himself, and laments to Dumbledore that the Sorting Hat put him in Gryffindor only because he asked to be placed there.
"Exactly," is Dumbledore's response. This is what makes Harry different from Voldemort, the headmaster says: "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."
As Alan Jacobs points out in his review of the books for First Things, the novels take us through the progression of Harry's character. Jacobs writes: "[Harry] has been asking the question 'Who am I at heart?' when he needed to be asking the question 'What must I do in order to become what I should be?' His character is not a fixed preexistent thing, but something that he has the responsibility for making: thatŐs why the Greeks called it character, 'that which is engraved.'"
It's too soon to say how Harry will mold his character, or even if he will choose to be passive instead. There are three books left and five movies, and each successive volume seems to become darker and more insistent on Harry's action, more foreboding of the terrible, universal consequences if he does not act.
Regardless of Harry's ultimate decisions, it's a good lesson for all of us. School was easy for me not because, like Hermione, I spent every vacation in the deepest stacks of the library, but simply because I was good at it. I was smart through no effort of my own, and I learned early how to play the game expected of me from the schools I attended. It wasn't until late in my senior year of college that I realized that education had to mean more than a GPA or what was the point? No one in my church community cared what my SAT scores were; no one in my chosen career even asked whether I had a diploma. I used to long distantly after a master's degree, mostly, it seemed, for the prestige of getting to wear a Hogwarts-like black robe — now I realize that the only reason to get another degree or to take another class is because I honestly want to know what's being taught, and that I'm going to change my life in some way because of it. To that end, I've started taking more alternative classes: hat making and dance. Those are skills I can use; more importantly, they're skills I've chosen to learn, and I appreciate each class. They're not even skills I'm naturally good at, but they're helping me in my quest "to become what I should be."
In spiritual matters, too, it's not enough that I continue my childhood propensity for impressing Sunday school teachers by spouting memorized Bible verses. A group I know has recently been involved in a Bible-memorization program, and I purposely avoided it after halfheartedly going through the motions at first. It's just not enough anymore. There has to be a purpose behind my approach to God's Word and to prayer besides peer pressure and a pat on the back for doing well. I'm still trying to engrave my character, and that requires making tough, everyday decisions to act, even if they're at odds with my natural abilities. Harry chooses not to align himself with Slytherin, but it's not a one-time thing. He must constantly choose good over evil, and choose to leave behind a lesser good, such as mindless obedience to school rules, in favor of a better good, loyalty to those he loves and a determination to do what's best for them.
Amy Struxness
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Teach us something please,
Whether we be old and bald
Or young with scabby knees,
Our heads could do with filling
With some interesting stuff,
For now they're bare and full of air,
Dead flies and bits of fluff,
So teach us things worth knowing,
Bring us back what we've forgot,
Just do your best, we'll do the rest,
And learn until our brains rot!
READER RESPONSES
VERY well said. I like Harry Potter too, but I also know what to get
from it, and what I know isn't something I should "try at home"!