Harry Potter: A Strikingly Accurate Allegory of World War II

J.K. Rowling uses the Harry Potter series and, more specifically, the last book as an historical allegory for the World War II era. This historical theme allows the later novels to explore and attack racism and fascism more effectively. Although sometimes every aspect of Rowling's characters does not fit correctly with every aspect of its historical counterpart, it is fairy easy to see the striking similarities. These similarities are more easily portrayed in the evil characters, as they are often the hardest to relate.

As the main villain, Voldemort is clearly a representation of Adolf Hitler. He is a worshiped, feared dictator. This is exemplified in all the books; for example, in book seven, Wormtail is asked to do something by Voldemort and, like everyone else, responds in a loyal but afraid way: "'Yes, m-my Lord,' gasped a small man halfway down the table, who had been sitting so low in his chair that it had appeared, at first glance, to be unoccupied. (HPDH 7)" Hitler was worshiped and feared as well; propaganda was constantly spread to the German people showing Hitler helping kids, but at the same time, the German people were not unaware of millions of missing citizens whom Hitler had killed or imprisoned.

Besides both being feared and worshiped, Hitler and Voldemort share similar birth conditions. Tom Riddle-Voldemort's original name-had a muggle father. It is believed that Hitler's father was Jewish, though this is unverified. With Hitler hating Jews and Voldemort hating half-wizards, one can speculate that they both hated a part of themselves. This is further reinforced by the fact that Hitler considered the Aryan race to be the epitome of perfection in humanity while Voldemort considered pure noble wizarding families to be the epitome of magical creatures, yet Hitler did not have blond hair like Aryans were supposed to have, and Voldemort was not a full wizard by his own standards.