Memories and Harry Potter

It was the year 1999 and hardly anybody (compared to now, at the very least) in Australia knew that there was such a thing as Harry Potter. I’d definitely never heard of the Harry Potter series in our somewhat small neck of the woods.

Yet my teacher had come across the Harry Potter books through someone who she was very close to. This teacher (who has remained a friend to this day) initially spoke to my mum about these new books while I was busy in class (at that time mum did volunteer work at my school). She was telling mum that she thought I would like the Harry Potter series, as it was about a young boy who didn’t fit into the world he grew up in, until he discovered a different kind of world that fully respected his differences.

Despite initially being skeptical about liking this new book, I read the first two and a half chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (or Sorcerer’s Stone in the US) during recess at school one day. I immediately took a liking to the series, and since then Harry Potter has become something that I’m strongly attached to for several reasons.

For this particular blog, I’ll talk about the memory side of it. In 2013 I was identified by the University of California, Irvine as having HSAM (Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory) after two years of tests. My HSAM makes me unable to forget any day of my past, and this has both positive and negative qualities. In her books, JK Rowling writes so many metaphorical and symbolic representations of everyday experiences, including memory.

The first representation of memory that I came across in the Harry Potter series was the moment when Harry meets a dementor. Dementors are cloaked monsters that drain all of a person’s happiness until they’re only left with the memories of all their negative experiences.

In my real life, there aren’t any such things that take away all of my happiness. But Harry’s reaction to the memories he’s made to relive are very similar. When he recalls his mother and father being tortured and killed by Voldemort, he re-experiences all of his past emotions (as vividly as would be the case if he really was back in that time of his life). This is exactly what happens when I relive a painful memory. Though a dementors’ affect can be fought off by a wizard or witch intentionally recalling a positive memory, which then creates a Patronus of happiness, so the dementor can feed on his/her shield of positivity instead of him/her. Similarly, I fight off negative memories by forcing myself to relive positive ones. Also, in both the book and real life chocolate is a perfect pick me up whenever we’re plagued by negative memories.

The next memory related story that came along in the series is of the Hogwarts headmaster’s pensieve. A pensieve enables a person to re-experience their own (or someone else’s) memory, once a copy has been drawn out of the mind with a wand. It works by pouring the memory into a special stone bowl and a person placing their head into it. This reminds me of how vividly I myself recall past events of my own (while still seeing the world in the present time).

Later in the series, I found the story of Professor Slughorn’s memory of unintentionally giving Voldemort instructions to achieve immortality. Poor Slughorn was ashamed of that memory and did all he could to hide it. That was an important story which teaches us that trying to cover up a harsh memory will only make ourselves think more negatively of it.

I’ll wrap this all up by saying that the Harry Potter books are so much more than just a fantasy franchise. They’re also lesson books which teach wizards, witches, and muggles symbolic stories of their own lives.