Harry Potter influences and analogues
Writers, journalists and critics have noted that the books also have a number of analogues; a wide range of literature, both classical and modern, which Rowling has not openly cited as influences.
In an August 2007 issue of Newsweek, Lisa Miller commented that Harry dies and then comes back to life to save humankind, like Christ.
"[4] Jeffrey Weiss adds, in the Dallas Morning News, that the biblical quotation "And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (1 Corinthians 15:26), featured on the tombstones of Harry's parents, refers to Christ's resurrection.
"[7] Deathly Hallows begins with a pair of epigraphs, one from Quaker leader William Penn's More Fruits of Solitude and one from Aeschylus' The Libation Bearers.
Rowling has said: "My attitude to Jane Austen is accurately summed up by that wonderful line from Cold Comfort Farm: 'One of the disadvantages of almost universal education was that all kinds of people gained a familiarity with one's favourite books.
Dorothy L. Sayers, who is queen of the genre said – and then broke her own rule, but said – that there is no place for romance in a detective story except that it can be useful to camouflage other people's motives.
"[15] New York Times writer Charles McGrath notes the similarity between Dudley Dursley, the obnoxious son of Harry's neglectful guardians, and Eustace Scrubb, the spoiled brat who torments the main characters until converted by Aslan.
Arthur (called Wart) is a small scruffy-haired orphan, who meets the wizard Merlin (who has an owl, Archimedes, and acts, much like Dumbledore, in the manner of an "absent-minded professor")[19] who takes him to a castle to educate him.
[24] Rowling said that the death of Sydney Carton in Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, and the novel's final line, "It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known", had a profound impact on her.
"[26] In an interview with O: The Oprah Magazine, Rowling described Irish author Roddy Doyle as her favourite living writer, saying, "I love all his books.
Included in her list were Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, Hamlet by William Shakespeare, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Animal Farm by George Orwell, The Tale of Two Bad Mice by Beatrix Potter, The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.
He describes the climax, where Harry descends to the Chamber of Secrets to rescue Ginny Weasley as "the clearest Christian allegory of salvation history since Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
… Using only traditional symbols, from the 'Ancient of Days' figure as God the Father to the satanic serpent and Christ-like phoenix ('the Resurrection Bird'), the drama takes us from the fall to eternal life without a hitch.
"[30] In 2006, Rowling recommended Emily Brontë's Gothic post-Romantic Wuthering Heights as number one of the top ten books every child should read.
[35] Several reviews of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows noted that the locket used as a horcrux by Voldemort bore comparison to Tolkien's One Ring, as it negatively affects the personality of the wearer.
Tolkienian scholar Tom Shippey has maintained that "no modern writer of epic fantasy has managed to escape the mark of Tolkien, no matter how hard many of them have tried".
[42] The Marvel Comics superhero team the X-Men, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963, are similar to Harry Potter in their examination of prejudice and intolerance.
He acknowledged that while the X-Men was for the longest time "a phenomenon that was largely contained in the realm of comic book readers as opposed to the wider public [such as Rowling]", he argued "nothing exists in a vacuum, least of all popular culture.
"[43] Lloyd Alexander's five-volume Prydain Chronicles, begun in 1964 with The Book of Three and concluding in 1968 with "The High King", features a young protagonist, an assistant pig keeper named Taran, who wishes to be a great hero in a world drawn from Welsh mythology.
"[45] Susan Cooper's Dark Is Rising sequence (which commenced with Over Sea, Under Stone in 1965 and now more commonly bound in a single volume) have been compared to the Harry Potter series.
[46] John Hodge, who wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation, entitled The Seeker, made substantial changes to the novel's plot and tone to differentiate it from Harry Potter.
At the beginning of his journey, he is overconfident and arrogant, but after a terrible tragedy caused by his pride, is forced to rethink his ways, and later becomes a very respected wizard and headmaster, much like Albus Dumbledore.
"[53] The Harry Potter series shares many similarities with George Lucas's Star Wars with respect to main characters, especially heroes and villains, as well as story plotlines.
[68] Diana Wynne Jones has stated in answer to a question on her webpage: "I think Ms Rowling did get quite a few of her ideas from my books – though I have never met her, so I have never been able to ask her.
[71] Claims of rivalry were due to a letter he wrote to The Sunday Times, about an article published declaring that fantasy "looks backward to an idealised, romanticised, pseudofeudal world, where knights and ladies morris-dance to Greensleeves".
[73] Science fiction author Orson Scott Card, in a fierce editorial in response to Rowling's copyright lawsuit against the Harry Potter Lexicon, claimed that her assertion that she had had her "words stolen" was rendered moot by the fact that he could draw numerous comparisons between her books and his own 1985 novel Ender's Game; in his words, A young kid growing up in an oppressive family situation suddenly learns that he is one of a special class of children with special abilities, who are to be educated in a remote training facility where student life is dominated by an intense game played by teams flying in midair, at which this kid turns out to be exceptionally talented and a natural leader.
He trains other kids in unauthorised extra sessions, which enrages his enemies, who attack him with the intention of killing him; but he is protected by his loyal, brilliant friends and gains strength from the love of some of his family members.
"That was sort of a predecessor to this movie, in a sense", he told the BBC in 2001, "It was about two young boys and a girl in a British boarding school who had to fight a supernatural force.
Both books feature a teacher who is a ghost, a werewolf character named after the Latin word for "wolf" (Lupin/Leloup[note 1]), and passage to the school via railway train.
These include a dark-haired English boy with glasses, named Timothy Hunter, who discovers his potential as the most powerful wizard of the age upon being approached by magic-wielding individuals, the first of whom makes him a gift of a pet owl.
