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J.K. Rowling
Chapter Two - Page 5Hermione/Herself
As Rowling pondered her cast of characters, she decided her young wizard’s inner circle of friends should include at least one girl his own age. Rowling did not have to look outside herself for inspiration for this character, which she named Hermione Granger. “Hermione was very easy to create because she is based almost entirely on myself at the age of 11,” Rowling later told an interviewer. “Like Hermione, I was obsessed with achieving academically, but this masked a huge insecurity. I think it is very common for plain young girls to feel this way.” Hermione is passionate about individual rights, calling for the fair treatment of house elves, just as Rowling was inspired by Jessica Mitford to become a social activist. Rowling insists that at some point the similarities between her and Hermione end and exaggeration takes over. “She really is a caricature of me. I wasn't as clever as she is, nor do I think I was quite such a know-it-all, though former classmates might disagree.”
While Rowling has no trouble identifying the inspiration for Hermione Granger, she is hard-pressed to do the same for the black-haired boy with glasses who appeared in her mind during that fateful train ride from Manchester to London in June 1990. Rowling admits that she borrowed her hero’s surname from her childhood friends Ian and Vicki Potter. “Harry is one of my favorite boy’s names,” Rowling says. “But he had several different surnames before I chose Potter. Potter was the name of a brother and sister who I played with when I was very young. We were part of the same gang and I always liked that surname.” Rowling dismisses the idea that Ian was an inspiration for Harry, however. With his outgoing personality and love of pranks, Ian seems to have more in common with the Weasley twins than he does with Harry.
Harry Potter has a quiet, serious side reminiscent of Rowling herself. Both the character and his creator share the same birthday—July 31. In addition, Harry wears glasses similar to the “very thick…glasses that were like bottle bottoms” that Rowling said she wore as a child.
In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Rowling reveals that Harry Potter’s cousin Dudley had punched Harry in the nose and broken his glasses. Rowling knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of a bully’s abuse. While a student at Wyedean, Rowling was attacked by another girl. To the girl’s surprise, Rowling fought back. Harry Potter also refuses to be pushed around. “I admire bravery above almost every other characteristic,” Rowling once said. “Bravery is a very glamorous virtue, but I’m talking about bravery in all sorts of places. It was brave of Harry to answer back to the Dursleys; they had all the cards, and he was standing up for himself even then. That’s why I love him so much. He’s a fighter.”
Harry Potter is not a clone of Rowling, though. A natural at flying a broomstick, Harry excels at the wizard’s game Quidditch. Rowling, by contrast, broke her arm playing a game called netball. “Sport is such an important part of school life,” Rowling has said. “I am terrible at all sports, but I gave my hero a talent I’d love to have.”
Toward the end of 1990, Rowling had roughed out the plot of her seven-book series and began drafting the first novel. As the story took shape, Rowling remained convinced that the concept was strong. “The idea that we could have a child who escapes from the confines of the adult world and goes somewhere where he has power, both literally and metaphorically, really appealed to me,” she later said. Despite her own excitement, however, Rowling worried that others might not think the concept was that good. As she headed home to Tutshill for Christmas, Rowling decided that she would not yet tell anyone in her family about Harry Potter.
Copyright © 2008 by Bradley Steffens
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