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Sarah Strain
Kathy Rowley
English 201-23
14 May 2012
Rhetorical Analysis: Harry Potter and the Technology of Magic
Harry Potter has found his way into millions of hearts from his birth more than a decade ago. His famous story has brought both discrediting remarks from Christian critics who question
Rowling’s use of magic, to bravos from readers who applaud her clever yet intricately woven story. Harry Potter fan sites, movies, and merchandise have confused other critics and teachers like Elizabeth Teare because Rowling supposedly wrote this to entertain children. Books at this time were merely stories that had merchandise to go with it. Rowling is credited with saving the novel with Harry Potter because kids were consumed with the story, not the toys. Teare joins the massive conversation on this phenomenon in her article, “Harry Potter and the Technology of
Magic” by arguing that the books are following the route of commercialism that most children’s literature in the 21 st
century follow. This first statement sets the tone for Teare’s essay and makes it easy to follow with all the evidence she provides.
Elizabeth Teare is a current instructor at Yale who is fascinated with 18 th century British literature and in general, children’s literature. With this particular subject matter, she gets the best of both worlds. It’s easy to listen to her speak through the writing since she’s a teacher and is a skillful persuader. She starts off her article by clearly leading up to and stating her thesis in the first paragraph. Her claims are valid and backed by solid evidence and counterarguments in the following paragraphs. In her intro, she makes one interesting reference that’s worth noting and understanding. She states, “The classics of children are Luddite…in their attitudes towards

Strain 2 modern commodity culture” (Teare 801). She must think her audience to be knowledgeable in
19 th century history, because the Luddites refers to the rebels in England during the Industrial
Revolution; they hated machines. However, the main audience to appeal to here are the lovers of
Harry Potter and the teachers/critics who are apart of the conversation. Teare makes quick use of this reference to indicate how children’s classics, such as
Lord of the Rings and Narnia were classics because they took you to a different place other than Barbies and Pokemon which have engulfed the modern kid’s culture (803). Like the Luddites, they resisted that pull into the
“modern commodity culture” (801). Teare puts forth her argument in a persuasive tone, promising to show in the upcoming pages that the Harry Potter books take on an air of technology and commerce that is so prevalent in the 21 st
century, though they were first written with keeping a Luddite mind towards our commodity culture.
Most of children’s literature goes beyond the books. The media and toy companies have taken over books series like American Girls and the Babysitters Club by drawing the kids to the accessories that they just “gotta have”.
Harry Potter revisits the old days when books were books.
When the novels came to this scene when children’s literature was commercialized, they offered a new outlook by its huge focus on the characters and the life lessons they presented. Kids wanted to read the books for the sake of the story, and there was hardly any merchandise involved. They kept your mind busy and away from the media. These points Teare make serve as a counterargument to her original argument, which states that Harry Potter is somewhat commercialized. She offers evidence from various authors.
Linton Weeks and Jack Zipes were two authors who questioned the path the Harry Potter books were taking and wondered if they were just an alternative to the “commodity culture” or a cleverly disguised part of it (805). In order for anything to become as grossly popular as these

Strain 3 novels have become, they must have been conformed to conventionality, that is, to the world’s standards (806). Teare points out the proof is in the games we have about Potter, e-books, and full length movies. It didn’t take long for the media to have a share with Harry Potter
’s fame.
Rowling let her publishers advertise the novels to death, and threw in a couple of “gotta have” books that the young hero of the novel loves (Rowling wrote on two subjects Harry likes, and put them out for the public to devour) (809). However, yet another point is made that supports how the Harry Potter books really do not lean towards the world of modern literature. Teare presents her next thesis to the audience, offering a sort of concession arguing that Harry Potter creates a scene where kids can understand the problems of media and book culture (808).
People might find these books appealing mostly because they can relate to them with real world issues, some of which are about the media and commercialization. Teare calls it Rowling’s attempt to address the problems of consumerism (806). One character who’s an empty headed celebrity author is supposed to reflect our modern celebrities, and to teach kids a thing or two about that bad sort of lifestyle. Harry, on the other hand, detests the fame that’s given to him, and shows kids a modest lifestyle. Then Rowling addresses the growing problem of obesity that our world has started to pay more attention to when kids became immersed in technology. Dudley
Dursley is a modern couch potato who receives video games from his parents and his laziness disgusts our hero. Money is also an issue that Rowling feels she must deal with in this fantasy world that similarly resembles ours. Everything student wizards need for school is bought.
Students also have their regular things they invest in such as chocolate frogs or the latest wand.
Wands are important to wizards because they reflect their personality and are a status symbol, much like owning a car or the latest clothes are for us.

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Teare makes an interesting point that really makes her Harry Potter audience think. If
Rowling was trying to draw kids away from the games that are thrown at them and the TV shows that are alluring, then why does she throw in a lot of those same concepts into her books?
Rowling wants everyone to get something out of the books. Kids will enjoy the stories and being able to detect the bad guys because they are so blatantly obvious, and the adults and teens will detect lifestyles in them that seem vaguely connected with the real world.
Teare definitely takes the stance of a fighter in this essay, and is able to explain both sides of the argument to effectively persuade her audience. Since this topic isn’t studied often, there isn’t a response to Teare’s discussion which can be found in the book,
The Ivory Tower and
Harry Potter, Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon, a collection of essays about Harry Potter.
She exhorts both the Potter and critic audiences by explaining howJ.K. Rowling addresses social issues without letting her series get into the wrong hands of the marketing culture. In the end, she adds that kids could learn how to navigate our culture by the stories Rowling presents. Now we come back to her first argument that Harry Potter enacts. “…both our fantasies and our fears of children’s literature and publishing in the context of twenty-first-century commercial and technological culture” (802). By the end you are able to take one side, the other, or even both, because each of her arguments are constantly cited and well supported.

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Works Cited
Teare, Elizabeth. “Harry Potter and the Technology of Magic”.
From Inquiry to Academic
Writing
. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008, pp. 201-214. Print.
Lidinsky, April, Stuart Greene. From Inquiry to Academic Writing.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s,
2008. Print.