Many people who know me, know that I am obsessed with Harry Potter. I grew up with the characters, I went to a few midnight premiers (when given permission), and I’ve read each book multiple times. I am not alone. There are millions of people worldwide who have been touched by this story. Some, like my younger cousin, are just now old enough to start reading the books, others are just hopping on the wagon a little late, and there are even others who are getting their first taste of the wizarding world though Newt Scamander and his Fantastic Beasts, but every person who is a part of this fan base is touched by the magic of the story. I will try my best to avoid spoilers!

It has been over twenty years since we first met the boy under the stairs, and so the question all of these muggles don’t have an answer for is how? How has this mere children’s book touched the lives of so many, and stayed so relevant? And that’s just it. It is relevant. This book interacts with very adult themes, but JK Rowling managed to write about them in a way that allowed us to grow up along with the books and understand more of the themes as we did. The children who read these books were never afraid, they never had to worry they were being kept in the dark just because they were children, if anything the books showed that keeping them in the dark would ultimately hurt children even more.

There are a lot of reason as to why this series is so enduring, but I am going to touch on three.

The first, these books relate to every time in a person’s life. Again, we get to grow up with the characters. When Harry plays his first Quidditch match, not only are we learning the rules, but we are going to our first match as well. A few books later, the characters are being asked to decide on a career or life plan. Sound a little like the end of high school and college? But this series is not only about children, it is about families that were destroyed and others that were able to stay together and fight for those that could not, it is about love and loss and freedom. It is a reflection of people at every time in their lives.

Another reason Harry Potter has lasted this long, and will continue to for years to come, is because JK Rowling was not afraid of letting children deal with and understand controversial topics. The most overarching topic being war. When the characters find themselves in the middle of a war they never asked to be a part of, one that has spanned generations, so do the readers. It is a war against a dictator and a war against genocide. Do these sound like bedtime stories to you? Of course not, but Harry and all of his friends are learning how to deal with real world problems and in turn helping the readers of the series lean to deal with them as well. Some parallels that are touched on are the obvious good vs. evil. But as Sirius Black said, “We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are.” Another is the connection to Aids. A character is realized to be diagnosed with lycanthropy, or in other words they are a werewolf. This character has difficulty finding work, is ridiculed and thought of to be a monster. In the series lycanthropy is a disease, spread through the bite of a fully transformed werewolf, or in other words another individual who is infected. Instead of attempting to help these people, the government deems them too dangerous to society.

Another parallel is race. Rowling takes it a step farther, and makes the superficial determining factor of status blood. No one can see blood, and scientifically blood is all made up of the same materials no matter what gender, race, or in this case magical ancestry. Some individuals who deem themselves pure came from all magical families, and they believe individuals who do not have strong magical ancestry should not be allowed to practice magic. Again, sound familiar? These are topics that destroy our society every day, and studies have shown that individuals who have ready the Harry Potter series are less likely to stand by and watch as these topics continue to tear people apart.

The third and final reason these books will one day be considered a classic is due to character development. From Ron, to Snape, to Neville, to Hermione, to McGonagall, to Harry, every character is human. They make mistakes, they learn from them, and they grow as people. They each make decisions to protect each other and learn how to work as a unit. Do they always get along? Definitely not, but they can put their differences aside to get their end goal done. They are each guilty of jealousy, pride, fear, and anger. But they are also each seen showing courage, love, loyalty, and strength. No one person is ever perfect, and this series reminds us that it is ok to have flaws because sometimes those flaws find a way to be our biggest strength.