Harry Potter Prisoner Of Azkaban Analysis

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, there are a few characters that cannot quite take care of themselves. These characters then must be protected by others. This point is superbly exemplified by the actions towards the protection of Buckbeak the hippogriff by Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. He was wrongly accused and sentenced to death because of misunderstandings.
In the introduction scene of Buckbeak, most students show immediate fear of the creature. Hagrid, of course, is very excited and affectionate towards him and attempts to alleviate the concerns the students have towards safety. The distance between all characters show how weary everyone is of the bird/horse. The scene occasionally cuts to wide shots showing the students

very many yards away from Buckbeak, practically hiding in the very corner of the field. Hagrid is much closer to the hippogriff, showing his ease with him. The colors and lighting in the scene convey a tone of lightness and fun. It’s very bright and green, giving a sense that nothing horribly bad is going to happen. However, after the short flight of Harry and Buckbeak, Draco Malfoy decides that everything is too relaxed, and ends up paying the price. Because of Draco’s passivity and disregard of respect towards the creature, Buckbeak ends up hurting him. There is absolutely no reason not to expect an animal to lash out when it feels threatened; however because of Draco’s superiority complex, he fails to see how his injury is his fault and ends up actually bringing the animal to court, where it is sentenced to death.
The fate of Buckbeak was left entirely to a court of people who did not take into account the ways of the animal, and there was nobody to defend him. The hippogriff could never have been able to stand up for himself, obviously, because of the language barrier between animal and human. Therefore, Harry and Hermione take it upon themselves to save the creature from his undeserved punishment. As stated by Mary Douglas, in her book Purity and Danger, “it seems that if a person [or in this place, animal] has no place in the social system and is therefore a marginal being, all precaution against danger must come from others,” (Douglas 121). This means that when one cannot help themselves, others, usually stronger or more powerful others, must take a stand and protect them.
Douglas goes on to explain an example of a person with mental health problems, and the placement of them as “outside” society’s circle only after having spent time in an institution.

Throughout their lives, as long as they were just living at home, supposedly normal, they were perfectly fine and nobody cared that they were mentally ill. They are accepted, even if they have their quirks. Once spending any time in an institution for the mentally ill, however, things are different. People talk, saying there must be some dark reason they were put in there. There is literally absolutely no difference in these people except for the fact that they were in an institution. Therefore they get labeled as harmful or problematic. The same happened with Buckbeak. There was nothing at all against him as he just existed, but once he got involved even the smallest bit with the law, he was labelled “dangerous” and a “threat to society”, despite doing nothing wrong, nothing but protecting himself from a perceived threat. One argument against him, one scratch on a boy from a family of powerful, albeit slightly evil, wizards high up in the government, and Buckbeak is sentenced to die. And of course there is no way anyone would be able to argue with them. Hagrid himself is an outsider, half human and half giant, he is an anomaly, and people tend not to take him seriously because of prejudices against beings that are not human, treating them as monsters. Therefore, the corrupted Ministry would never take his side over the side of the powerful family with much political

influence.
Harry and Hermione then take it upon themselves to protect the creature that can do nothing for himself. They themselves are kids, however, and why would the government ever listen to two thirteen year olds who have a great bias towards the defendant in this matter? In that regards, they cannot protect Buckbeak in the legal way, so they end up smuggling him away right under the Minister and Executioner’s noses. The two heroes know that Buckbeak cannot protect himself from this terrible fate, and so they do everything they can to help, including actually going back in time.
In conclusion, Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban is very strong in the theme of stronger characters taking care of those who are unable to protect themselves. The protagonists of the story believe very strongly that people should help others in any way they can, which is what Harry and Hermione do when they save Buckbeak from his unfair and undeserved sentence of death.