Harry & Me: The Well of Wish Fulfillment

by E. Christopher Clark | Monday, January 19, 2009

promotional photograph for the film HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

The story of Harry Potter is, for me, a story about how bad things can get when wishes really do come true. One of the most basic storytelling questions we must ask when considering the matter of character is “What does this character want more than anything else in the world?” The answer for Harry Potter, at least in the first book of the series, is that he wants to be loved.

Whether kept in a cupboard under the stairs or locked in an upstairs bedroom during an important business meeting, Harry has grown up in the custody of two people who are as ashamed of him as they are proud of their own son. More than anything else in the world, I think Harry wants to feel as loved as his cousin Dudley seems to be loved. He might not wish thirty-seven birthday presents for himself, but he does long for someone to take as much interest in him as Vernon and Petunia take in Dudley.

When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it never happened; the Dursleys were his only family. Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him.

—Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Of course, it turns out that the strangers really do know him. And even love him, in a way. But suddenly discovering that he is the object of adoration for most of the wizarding world is not everything that it’s cracked up to be. In fact, most of the troubles that Harry runs into in the seven-book series are the direct result of how much he is loved.

Just as Dudley is loved by the Dursleys and loathed by Harry, Harry is loved by the many and despised by the few. The hate that the forces of Voldemort feel for Harry is equal to the love that the rest of the world showers upon him. And that’s not even taking into account the many times that Harry falls victim to rumor and bile spewed by the jealous student body of Hogwarts who, like teenagers the world over, are obsessed with knocking down the very celebrities that they work so hard to build up and put on pedestals.

Harry gets what he wants, but in the process discovers that he really should have been careful what he wished for.

So much of the literature I find myself returning to again and again is formed from this idea of wish fulfillment gone awry. I am reminded immediately of Vertigo Comic’s Y: The Last Man, which debuted in 2002, just a year after I began reading Harry Potter. Y was the story of the last man on earth following a holocaust which wiped out every male mammal on the planet, save for the protagonist and his monkey. What guy wouldn’t wish that fate for himself, right? Well, read series and you’ll see why that fate isn’t one you should wish upon any man.

How about you? Do you have any favorite tales of wish fulfillment gone sour? Drop a note in the comments, and share you story with the Geek Force.

To be continued…

Next week: “Everything I Need To Know, I Learned From Fighting a Mountain Troll”.