Harry Potter: A Modern Day Cinderella Tale

In Disney's classic feature Cinderella, a young girl is held as a slave by family who could care less about her. Finally, one day she is visited by a Fairy Godmother who allows her to go to a Ball that turns her entire life around.

JK Rowling explores a similar "rags-to-riches" situation in her Harry Potter series. 11-year-old Harry is an orphan. His parents were killed when he was still just a baby by the evil Voldemort. After their death, he is taken in by an Uncle and Aunt who severely mistreat him. Like Cinderella before him, Harry's relatives do not approve of him. They think his parents were bad people who dabbled in things they shouldn't. As a result, they treat him like something less then human. He is forced to live in a cramped space beneath the stairs and basically cater to his family's every whim. He slaves away and isn't allowed to have fun and make friends like his cousin. His only purpose is to serve them. You almost get a sense that both he and Cinderella accepted their place in the world and are not likely to challenge it too much out of both fear and a lack of self-worth brought on by years of mistreatment.

However, like the Godmother in Cinderella, Harry's life is forever changed by the arrival of Hagrid. The letters that were being delivered offering him a place at Hogwarts were like the Prince's call for the maiden who fits the glass slipper. In both cases, these rays of hope are dashed until someone (the Godmother, Hagrid) step in to make it a reality. And so, just as Cinderella was thrown into the world of a royality where she is loved and treated well, Harry is brought to Hogwarts. Here, he is almost like royalty. Everyone knows him and most are anxious to get to meet the boy who managed to survive Voldemort's attack. He is thrown into a world where almost anything you want is attainable by a wave of a wand and a couple of words. A place of magic, mystery and friends who become his true family. A place where Harry Potter may finally be able to attain his own "happily ever after".

Is it little wonder why, considering where he came from, Harry is so determined to go back to Hogwarts each year and why he's willing to risk his own safety to make sure the school stays open in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. He knows where he would be without the school and he is not about to lose it now. Besides that, he's finally found people he can trust and rely on. People that care about him as a person and value what he has to offer. There is no way he'd allow anything to happen to them if he can help it. I'm sure that no matter what happens in the final installment of the series, Harry will continue to show the same strength and determination he has demonstrated throughout the rest of the books.