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Identity (Gender/Race)

During all movies of Harry Potter, we watch Harry and his friends struggle with some big aspects of their identity, race and gender. When it is  Harry Potter's first time in Diagon Alley, the magic world's wonders capture not only the boy, but the reader. The world of endless possibilities opens for Harry, full of magic and magical creatures. However, there hides a much more disturbing reality in which there is a room for everything, except for equality. The inhabitants of the magic world are constantly faced with issues of identity and race. They have a difficult relationship with those who are different than others. For example the representatives of families like the Malfoys and Blacks obsessed with preserving the purity of blood. Moreover, the magicians remain tense relations with creatures that are not fully human, and finally slavery is traditionally used in this society.

Despite the fact that from the very beginning Rowling shows us how hateful and petty characters  who defend the "purity of blood" are, we see the duality of her relationship to creatures such as house-elves. The characters like Dumbledore does not hold up  the ending of slavery and universal equality. On the contrary, we have repeatedly faced with the monstrous manifestations of racism against inhuman and demihuman species. Because of the consistent discrimination and exclusion of the others, house-elves are still imprisoned, and other creatures are on the verge of extinction.

Reference:

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, 2001. Directed by Chris Columbus. United Kingdom: Warner Bros Pictures.