Week 8: Harry Potters Girl Trouble

Christine Schoefer begins her essay telling about how she has fallen in love with the harry potter books. She says the books contain "nail-biting suspense, compelling language and colorful imagery". Although she is a fan, her thesis and what this whole essay is about is the portrayal of sexism and racism throughout the series. Schoefer states that it's hard to argue against the fact that parents love that these books portray great characteristics such as teaching a tale of courage and companionship as well as stimulating children to read. When we talk about her argument of sexism throughout the book, I strongly disagree. This article was published in January 12, 2000 when only 3 of the 8 books in the series were made. Schoefer didn't get to read the last of the 5 books which included many key plot elements created by female characters themselves. From sparking love interests to killing off main characters the women leads are key elements in the upcoming plot. I personally do not believe Schoefer is slanting her evidence because she wasn't able to read the series as a whole and was only describing her views on the first 3 books. Schoefer also talks about another topic that I can agree with about racism. She describes Harry's first visit to the Leaky Cauldron where the author J.K Rowling tells of "funny looking witches" and "wild looking warlocks." This is maybe slanting a child view that they would not want to be a witch or a warlock. Overall her essay has lot's of evidence to support her statements of Racism and Sexism in the first 3 Harry Potter books.