The similarities between Harry and Voldemort’s childhood are uncanny, so how did one become the hero for the good and one become the greatest symbol for evil in the series?

 

Similarities

-both orphans

-both grow up not knowing they are wizards

-both are parseltongues

-both have noticeable talent as wizards and especially in the Dark Arts

-both spent many years of their lives without love or a sense of family

-both seen as outsiders at one point or another

-both find a home at Hogwarts, a place they each love almost immediately

 

From all of these similarities it seems rather interesting that they both ended up on separate paths.

 

It would appear that this change in path occurred shortly after they both arrived at Hogwarts. For Voldemort Hogwarts offered him a home and a place to cultivate his skills, and it did this for Harry too, but for Harry the appeal of Hogwarts differed from Voldemort in that it offered Harry a home full of friends and family and that was what Harry wanted most of all. It was a place where Harry no longer was considered odd, and was actually considered special.

 

But of course their paths did not start at the same time and since Voldemort had come before, many of Voldemort’s choices affected the path that Harry would carry on.

 

Voldemort’s choices that affected Harry

-him choosing Harry as the boy in the prophecy

-him murdering Harry’s parents

-him being sorted into Slytherin house

-his inadvertent creation of Harry as his 8th Horcrux

 

All of these choices shape the choices of the other and affect each others paths. For Harry especially it is important for him to notice these differences considering as Heilman says:

 

"Even it if it is clear that Lord Voldemort is the villian of the story, it is important for Harry to know how his nemesis became so evil" (Heilman, 42). 

 

In many ways the choices that Voldemort makes, encourage Harry to do whatever he can to not become like Voldemort. But not without some struggling.

 

Job 19:8

He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; he has shrouded my paths in darkness (biblegateway).

 

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Harry struggles with this darkness that seems to live within him and is something that he struggles to overcome. The choices that Voldemort has made for him, has in a way blocked Harry’s path to goodness. In this book too, he has a distant relationship with Dumbledore, who is his father figure and his God figure. This only amplifies his struggle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The connection between these two characters--the two characters that represent the good and the bad--is so important, especially when it comes to Christian learning. As Sirius says in the clip below that we have both good and bad inside us, but what matters is the part we choose to act on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What separates Harry and Voldemort is that even with such similar childhoods, Harry chooses to follow a good path and Voldemort chooses to follow a bad one. In many ways their lives could have each taken different paths and looked much like the other.

 

 

[Much of this page was inspired by Maria Capobianco article "Harry Potter and Tom Potter: The Hero, the Nemesis and the Connection Between Them." The full citation can be found in the source page on the top left of this page.] 

 

[Full citations for both videos may be found on the source page as well]