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An Opinionated Analysis of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

By Stephen Rintoul

I very recently finished reading, along with a great number of my peers, a novel by a little-known British author by the name of J.K. Rowling. Her novel is entitled Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. While I thouroughly enjoyed all eight hundred and seventy pages of it, I have some criticisms of Mrs. Rowling's work here.

Before I get to those, however, I must praise her on spectacular artistic decisions in several areas.

• First of all, I found it very interesting the way she had three distinct groups fighting each other, one of which could be considered neither good nor evil. This created a true struggle not only between the Order and the Death Eaters but also between the Order and the Ministry. Great way to add intrigue.
• Second: I like the way Harry is developing into a true teenager. He no longer talks through his problems with people he trusts, instead bottling them up and keeping them to himself. While self-destructive, these habits are very typical of actual teenagers.
• I liked the mystical line between reality and dreamworld in Harry's recurring nightmare about the Department of Mysteries. Even though he'd never been there, he was able to navigate it when he got there. And, we later found out, Voldemort had never been there either, so from where was Harry getting these images? The whole question of this intrigues me.
• If Sirius was raised by a pureblood-crazy family, why did he turn out to be the, well, normal wizard he is? What life-force rose within him to tell himself that his parents were not good people? Generally speaking, unless there was some major outside influence making Sirius decide he did not want anything to do with his family, he would inevitably become echoes of his parents. His own brother joined the Death Eaters, and he remained immune to the seductions of the Dark Lord? I find such an occurence highly unlikely.
• I also liked Ginny Weasley's increased role within the fifth book. Prior to this, we'd only seen her as the possessed chicken-strangler in Chamber of Secrets but now she gained a level of depth. She fostered a friendship with the older Hermione, and I liked her character a lot better. It was also nice to see her talking to Harry.
• Also among the list of characters who have developed immensely in this novel is Neville Longbottom. We gained another peek into his life when we visited the closed ward at St. Mungo's, and found that he is a very sympathetic character. He also develops some of his strengths during D.A. meetings, and in general he's turning out to be a wonderful young man, despite the fact that he has little skill with traditional magic.

However, I do not whole-heartedly agree with the way Mrs. Rowling handled certain other situations within her novel. First of all, and most obviously, Dumbledore seemed less, well, awesome than usual. I mean, come on. Just because he's afraid that Voldemort will possess Harry, he avoids all contact with him until disaster strikes? It seems to me that even if this was a possibility, he might still be able to find a way to make contact with Harry without endangering him. A letter, perhaps, explaining why he couldn't talk directly?

I also feel that Quidditch, so brilliantly featured in the earlier Harry Potter books, was severely neglected in Mrs. Rowling's latest work. Harry only played in one Quidditch game, and not much happened in it. Then he was banned for life (a device to further expose the injustice of dear Professor Umbridge) and we saw no more Quidditch, except for the terrible Keeping of Ron Weasley.

I don't see why it was absolutely necessary for Sirius to be killed in the end. I feel that the death took place more for drama than for actually furthering the plot of the series. I will hold judgment on this until I see how his death fits into the next two books, but my gut tells me she didn't do it for any particularly good reason.

The whole issue with James Potter was handled abhorrently. First, I cannot understand how it could be in James's character to humiliate young Severus in that manner. The tactics he employed were cowardly, those of someone who, for whatever reason, felt threatened by Severus. As a Gryffindor and one of the most popular boys at Hogwarts, he should be neither cowardly nor threatened by anything that unpopular Severus had. As such, I don't think it would be within his character to do that to another person.

Harry's reaction to Snape's memory seems accurate, but Sirius and Remus's explanations do not ring true. Either Mrs. Rowling does not understand the way that teenage minds work, or she has something in mind for the upcoming books that explains these apparent aberrations.

I was also not completely satisfied with Harry's Cho Chang situation. It seems like they lose interest in each other once they finally get to know each other, but it is only a series of misunderstandings that drives them apart, as well as the issue of Cedric. While I agree that Cho and Harry were destined to fall apart as soon as Cedric died, it seems that Mrs. Rowling could have explored their romance further by allowing them to talk things out and decide that Cho would always be comparing Harry to Cedric. Anyway, now that they're over, Harry needs to find himself another nice girl. I was thinking of Luna Lovegood.

It's also about time that Ron and Hermione get together. Both very aware of each other, they already bicker like a married couple. Hermione knows all about who likes who and who's going out with whom, but she doesn't have the sense to pursue the relationship that's right in front of her. Ron, of course, is far too thick to understand any of this, but he will always be. She's going to have to smack him over the head with it anyway, so she might as well do it as soon as possible. This novel would have been an excellent opportunity, but I suppose there are two more years at Hogwarts. (A side note: what exactly is going on between Hermione and Viktor Krum? Does she actually see a future with that accented bozo? The sooner she ditches him the better off she'll be.)

Percy Weasley, too, seemed ridiculously out of character in this novel. While he was always ambitious, he always loved and was loved by his parents. To simply abandon them to be a lapdog to His Highness Minister Cornelius Fudge is simply nonsense. I anticipate how Mrs. Rowling will sort that issue out in the coming novel, now that the Ministry and the Order are back on the same side once more.

Of course, I should temper the above criticisms with the statement that I am not, nor will I ever be, J.K. Rowling. As such, all plot and character decisions eventually fall upon her to make, and I, for one, agree with whatever she decides. Reading is very much a spectator sport: while we are free to make comments as with any spectator sport ("What a bad free throw!" or "That's a lousy plot device!"), we must let it fall upon the professionals, be they athletes or authors, to actually make those decisions. While they may not get it right every time, they're always a whole lot better than you and me.