About
As the reviews started to appear after J.K. Rowling's publication of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on June 21, 2003, they all commented on the same thing: Harry Potter is getting darker. We found these reviews a little surprising before we read the book: after all, Book 4, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, is pretty dark, what with Voldemort's murder of Cedric Diggory at the end. How much darker could Book 5 really be? But Order of the Phoenix is a whole new level of grim: Harry is angry for pretty much the whole book, which is both (a) understandable, given what's happened to him over the past four years, and (b) kind of hard to read. The whole idea behind the Harry Potter series is that the novels are aging along with the characters. And of course, the whole world knows that the teenage years can get pretty angsty, somewhat self-involved, and difficult to be around. In Book 5, Harry Potter has all of those traits: he spends a lot of time hurting his closest friends, flaring up at imagined insults, and generally being brooding and emo. When asked about her inspiration for making Harry so very grouchy in Book 5, Rowling replied: Well, I taught teenagers for a while. They were my favourite age group to teach in fact. So I think I drew a bit on that, and I drew on memories of how grumpy we all were when we were teenagers. [...] My sister's here to watch this and she was very grumpy so I drew a lot on her. (source) So Harry is angry because J.K. Rowling has known a lot of teenagers (and has been one herself) and she knows that teens can get that way. It's a tough time, filled with hormones and confusion and changes - enough to make anyone grouchy. But of course, Harry's anger isn't just aimless brooding. He's got a lot on his plate: much of the plot of Book 5 focuses on an evil government bureaucracy targeting Harry with a coordinated smear campaign that destroys his credibility within wizarding society. You know how it's easy to feel isolated and lonely in high school? Well, add to that the Ministry of Magic forces that are actively trying to separate Harry from his friends and supporters and you'll get a sense of how conflicted and miserable he must feel. What's more, Harry has witnessed the death of a schoolmate and the rise of Voldemort - enough to stress anyone out. Harry's rage is understandable, which is what makes us stick by him even when he's at his most stubborn and difficult. Rowling comments: He's a lot, lot, lot angrier in this book. He really is quite angry a lot of the time and I think justifiably so, look at what he has gone through. It is about time he started feeling a little bit miffed at the hand life has dealt him. (source) Harry's prolonged emotional breakdown in Book 5 is a necessary part of his character development: since he's been systematically targeted by a deranged murderer his whole life, we think we can give Harry a pass for one book full of conflicting emotions. Still, note that we say his breakdown is "prolonged" that's the other thing that nearly every reviewer mentions about Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It's dark. And it's long. The Scholastic edition of the novel is nearly nine hundred pages - pretty intense for a young adult novel!
