In the famous
series, Harry Potter, by J.K.
Rowling, Harry, the main character, goes to a witchcraft and wizardry school called
Hogwarts. Harry isn’t just any ordinary
wizard; he defeated the horrible wizard, Voldemort, when he couldn’t even walk
yet. The evil Voldemort disappears and
is assumed to never return. The series
follows Harry, along with his classmates, through their years at Hogwarts where
they learn the art of wizardry while facing many obstacles fighting off
Voldemort’s new quest to become supreme leader over the wizard world. When Voldemort unfortunately returns to the
wizard world, he secretly plots out how to kill Harry because he knows Harry is
the only wizard that has the power to kill him.
However, in the end, when Voldemort comes face to face with Harry,
against all odds and in just a few days, Harry ultimately kills Voldemort and
the wizard and “muggle” world (our world) escape the awful world that would
have been the result if Voldemort had defeated Harry instead.
The last book in the Harry Potter series focuses on
Voldemort’s defeat. This complex and turbulent
story is similar to when Philip II of Spain decided to go war against Queen
Elizabeth I of England to gain power over England. He decides to do this after
years of conflict, similar to the seventeen years of conflict between Harry
Potter and Voldemort. Philip wanted to
marry Elizabeth I after his previous wife and her sister, Mary Tudor, died, but
she refused. Elizabeth I also allowed
English pirates to steal Spanish treasure.
She also signed the death warrant of Mary Queen of Scots, which angered
Philip. In addition, she led separate
revolts, against the Spanish, for the Dutch and the Netherlands. The biggest conflict between these two rulers
was that Philip was Catholic and Elizabeth was Protestant. This resulted in extreme religious turmoil. Philip plotted against Elizabeth I with any
chance he had because he was so angry with her.
Ultimately, after all these years of conflict, Philip ordered the
Spanish Armada and war broke out. This
is similar to the explosive war that took place at Hogwarts between Voldemort
and his followers and Harry along with all the good wizards.
Voldemort
built up an army of hundreds of followers including dementors and giants.
Simultaneously, Hogwarts built up a defense of stone soldiers, a protective
shield protecting the school, and hundreds of wizards. Similar to how these two sides prepared to go
to war; the Spanish and English built up their military, as well. Philip organized an army of 35,000 men and
planned to go to war by land, while Elizabeth built up an army of sailors and
planned to go to war by sea. The war
ended up being fought mostly by sea favoring Elizabeth I and the English army. The Spanish were not nearly prepared to go to
battle by sea as the English, which greatly contributed to their defeat. The English burned their ships multiple
times, causing them to flee, and when the Spanish tried to retreat back to
Spain, they encountered bad weather which was disastrous. So, the English won their intense war, just
like Harry won his war against Voldemort.
I really enjoyed the Harry Potter
series, and was sad when I finished all the books and the movies were over. However, as I look back on the series now, I
am constantly making comparisons with the book’s themes and topics as they
relate to what I am learning about in history class. The war between Harry and Voldemort is
similar to the war between the Spanish and the English. Both Voldemort and the Spanish wanted
complete domination over their worlds, but were defeated quite dramatically in
the end. Both were prepared, but the
unthinkable happened which caused them to lose their respective wars.
Pictography:
Deathly Hallows
Book Covers Revealed! Picture
image. Comingsoon.net.
The Spanish Armada v1.4.
Picture image. Wikipedia. August, 15, 2012.
Elizabeth, this was a very well written blog post and I really enjoyed your comparison between Harry Potter and the Spanish Armada. I had never thought of the connection between the two stories, but now see a very strong correlation. Great job!
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