back with Harry (part 4)

If The Prisoner of Azkaban is a portrayal of grief, The Goblet of Fire is a book about togetherness. How groups of people overlap, how they can enchant or frighten one another, and how they can fall into conflict--variations on the theme of community is the understructure for the fourth and most adventuresome Harry Potter book.

The opening chapters repeatedly show the wizard and Muggle worlds colliding. An old gardener stumbles into Voldemort's lair, where Wormtail promptly kills him; the Weasley and Dursely families have a very awkward, and very British, visit when Harry gets picked up; and at the Quidditch World Cup, the Muggles are by turns imitated, mocked, brainwashed, and tortured.

Rowling explores the frictions and interdependencies among wizard communities in still greater detail. The Quidditch World Cup is naturally an international event. At Hogwarts, characters from all four houses are prominently featured for the first time in the series--besides Harry & co. from Griffindor, and Draco et al. from Slytherin, we now have Cedric from Hufflepuff and Cho from Ravenclaw. The Goblet of Fire also introduces racism/speciesism, or the sub-theme of prejudice among communities, both through Hagrid's shame of being half-giant, and through Hermoine's efforts to free the house elves.

Communities may clash, but they also unite in unexpected ways. For the Yule Ball numerous couples cross house and school lines. In the Triwizard Tournament, more significantly, the representatives of different schools at first compete mercilessly, and then begin to help one another. This culminates after the third task, when Harry and Cedric both refuse to take the winner's cup individually, but agree to grab it together.

The symbolism here is not subtle, but Dumbledore spells it out all the same: "Differences of habit and language are nothing [...] if our aims are identical and our hearts are open." I don't fault Rowling here for announcing her message so loudly. Clarity is one of her great strengths, and besides--if you don't think the world needs to be reminded of the dangers of animosity between and intolerance within communities, open a newspaper.