Harry Potter and the Trouble with Mentors
By BARCODE 2x
A lucky, or perhaps an especially talented or charming student, will attract the interest of a powerful educator. The mentor-student relationship becomes one of the important and formative experiences one's education. The student gives their time and their ear to their mentor, and in exchange the mentor passes on the knowledge that is not found in books. The student can quickly become too close and put themselves at unnecessary risks, either through their own curiosity or through the mentor's permissiveness. No film this summer better illustrates the pitfalls of mentorship like Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
At the heart of the dark, troubling, and visually striking film is the more mature Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and the relationship with Headmaster Proffessor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon). The situation is precarious from the beginning. London is being terrorized by the unseen Death Eaters, and Harry is anxious to escape the limelight as the public begins to call him 'The Chosen One' in a larger battle against evil forces. Dumbledore snatches Harry from a potential romance with a waitress, and whisks him away to help lure Professor Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent) back to Hogwarts Academy. Harry is more than just the Wizard's disciple; now he is a bargaining chip in a bigger game. The politics among Hogwarts' faculty are heating up, and the students are caught in the middle. The school is the battleground where these powerful adults are waging war.
We see it happen at many schools. When faculty members disagree, camps of students can form powerful armies in these disputes. Hogwarts is under threat from evil, and the vicious and relentless Death Eaters have chosen their own disciple in the young blonde Draco Malfoy. Professor Snape (the creepy Alan Rickman) has been put in charge of defending the school from the Dark Arts, and Dumbledore enlists the help of all students to defend the school from evil. The students at this most prestigious Academy have been put in danger by the very teachers who are expected to protect them.
Slughorn has begun teaching, enjoying the company of his young students, irresponsibly teaching them how to make poisons and love potions, while never really telling them how to use them responsibly. Hogwarts is taken over by another dark force: teenage horniness. The students are surrounded by temptation from one another, and now these powerful drugs have been introduced as well. When Harry's best friend Ron (Rupert Grint) eats a box of bewitched chocolates made for Harry by a female admirer, he behaves as though he were on the cleanest, most powerful ecstasy ever made. Once Ron has been cured of these effects, Slughorn casually offers his young students alcohol, late at night, in his parlor.
Harry has become an irresponsible teacher as well. As coach of his Quidditch team, he lets Ron know that he has doped him before the big game. Though Ron has been faked out by Harry, the vial of "Liquid Luck" is later taken by Harry and aids him in taking on some of Dubledore's most dangerous tasks. The drug, given to him by Slughorn, gives one the luck and confidence to take on many risky behaviors. By film's end, the faculty has manipulated our talented hero beyond what should be expected of a student. Harry is a blank slate where many of the faculty see tremendous power and potential. And they want him for themselves. Through drugs, through powerful influence, Hogwarts' most talented student is at risk of being corrupted.
Meanwhile, the Death Eaters have pushed their young student too far as well. Malfoy is given full access to a mysterious closet that becomes the conduit for evil to enter Hogwarts. The poor young man has lost his father and the evil Death Eaters catch him in this vulnerable state. His life is put at risk by them, and by Harry himself, whose magic powers are becoming more than he knows how to handle. Forbidden knowledge has crept into the hands of these young people. Compare it to African warlords putting weapons in the hands of child soldiers. Compare it to our young men and women fighting wars in the Middle East. Convinced and manipulated into service by their mentors and trusted elders, these young people give up their lives fighting a war that is not really theirs.
Whosoever can inspire greatness in young people, they truly are wizards. Whosoever can empower young people and make them into better adults, they are wizards indeed. I myself have been blessed to have studied with some tremendous mentors throughout my life. I was lucky to have piqued the interest of some very learned and powerful people. But mentors are not always wise with how they dole out their wisdom and power. The secret books of our elders are to be shared judiciously. These young people may have the abilities to achieve big things in this world, but what they often lack is the judgment that must accompany their powers. If a student cannot learn their mentors' ethics along with their secret knowledge and skillset, then that mentor has put a dangerous weapon into a child's hand.
What Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince so beautifully illustrates is the danger of entering into this relationship with a teacher. One comes away from these relationships with a deeper education, sure. But a lot of accidental lessons are learned too, when a student is exposed to certain types of knowledge. And the mentor sometimes dies or leaves right when the student faces their greatest challenges. Often times, though, the student is caught fighting a battle that their mentor began, long before the student had any choice in the matter. These mentorships can leave the students taking on work that is not theirs, assuming responsibilities that their mentors carelessly left in their hands. We all want a capable young person to carry out our work when we are gone. But do we put too much into their hands before their time?
