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Riya Chinni
Mrs. Stephanie Barnes
Honors ELA 8
28 September 2015
Hierarchies Are Present in All Societies
Everybody feels like an outcast because the world is very large and every fingerprint is
so vastly different from another, and yet we have these standards and beliefs, and dogmatic
systems of judgement and ranking, in almost all the societies in the world. This was Ezra Miller,
an actor. Miller truly captured the theme of both The Book Thief and Harry Potter and the
Chamber of Secrets, how society will always form hierarchies and how some people will exploit
the system of social ranking when he said this. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak tells a
memorable tale of Liesel Meminger, a young bibliophile in Nazi Germany. The book highlights
her experiences growing up and facing various problems, such as stealing books and hiding a
Jew throughout the course of her stay on Himmel Street with her foster parents. Liesel is exposed
to the hierarchy of Jews not being considered normal people when her family keeps Max, a Jew,
hidden from the Nazi Party by letting him reside in their basement. The other text, Harry Potter
and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling is the second installment in the Harry Potter series.
This book follows Harry Potter and all of his witch and wizard friends as they try to figure out
the reason behind the attacks of certain students and investigate the mystery behind who had
opened the cryptic Chamber of Secrets for the second time. The certain students that were being
attacked all happened to be Muggleborn, a derogatory term used to categorize people with
both parents being non-magical. Both texts display the common theme of individuals exploiting

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their societies hierarchies through the authors use of similar conflict, distinct setting, and
astringent dialogue.
Both authors use conflict to develop the theme in the books. The conflict between the
Heir of Slytherin, the person who opened the Chamber of Secrets for the second time, and the
Muggleborns in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is parallel to the conflict of Hitler and
Nazi Party against the Jews in The Book Thief. The antagonists, Adolf Hitler and Tom Riddle,
both use the same method of ordering people around to abase the lower class in the social
hierarchy. This use of conflict develops the theme of people exploiting the system. The heir
alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to
purge to school of all who were unworthy to study magic (Rowling 151). This shows the
conflict between the Muggleborns and the Heir of Slytherin. The heir wanted to harm the
unworthy students, ones without pure or half magical blood, by controlling the monster that
protected the Chamber and making it attack all the Muggleborns. There was no reason for the
heir to want to do this, besides the fact that they just did not like that the caste that were not
deemed worthy went to the same school to study magic as they did. Another example is when
Draco Malfoy taunts the Muggleborns and their dire situation in Potions class, Im quite
surprised the Mudbloods havent all packed their bags by now, (Rowling 267). Draco laughs at
the Muggleborns simply because he is a Pureblood and is ranked higher than them in society as a
Pureblood, which means that he would be guaranteed safety from the attacks. These quotes are
examples of how the hierarchy and the exploitation of it is extremely evident in Harry Potter
and the Chamber of Secrets. Similarly, in The Book Thief, the Jews are the lowest in the social
hierarchy. Their eyes were enormous in their starving skulls Their legs staggered as they were
pushed by soldiers hands The suffering faces of depleted men and women reached across to

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them, pleading not so much for help but for an explanation (Zusak 398). This quote shows
how poorly the Jews were being treated by the Nazi Party. They were being tortured due to a
difference in religion, and had to deal with an entire nation that determined freedom and
treatment based on a religious hierarchy. Both texts have antagonists and superior groups who
exploit the ranking system and torture groups below them, which is the main aspect of the
conflict. The conflict helps to develop the theme by showing the readers how the characters
interact with each other to form this conflict between higher and lower castes in Harry Potter
and the Chamber of Secrets.
Another literary element that both authors utilize to develop the theme in their text is
setting. The setting was a crucial part of developing the theme in both Harry Potter and the
Chamber of Secrets and The Book Thief. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the story
takes place in a wizarding society. This community, like all others, has a social hierarchy which
ranks the students of Hogwarts as well as the rest of the people in the magical community. An
example is, Mr. Malfoy, his pale eyes straying to Mr. and Mrs. Granger The company you
keep, Weasley and I thought your family could sink no lower (Rowling 62). This quote
shows how Mr. Malfoy, who was on the top of the hierarchy as a Pureblood, regards the
Weasleys, blood traitors, and Mr. and Mrs. Granger, Muggles, with distaste just because of their
position on the social hierarchy. The Malfoys are only one of the many Pureblood families who
thought that that anyone below them were not decent people to associate themselves with.
Likewise, in The Book Thief, the setting is Nazi Germany, so the presence of a hierarchy is
extremely evident. Those who were not Jews showed extreme prejudice toward the Jews, and
many times the Jews are publicly shamed for their religion; Between October and December,
there had been one more parade of Jews, with one to follow, (Zusak 439). The Jews were forced

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to parade the streets in shame by the Nazi Party, who ranked significantly higher in social
standing. The setting of The Book Thief, Nazi Germany, could be the reason that Zusak
developed the theme of using hierarchies to gain power because it helps the reader thoroughly
understand the theme. The reader sees how the social circumstances based off of setting show
examples of the hierarchy, and how some groups. such as Muggleborns and Jews, are deemed of
less value to the masses as a whole. Rowling and Zusak use the setting to get the theme across
and help build on it so the readers understand the message that they are trying to convey, that
social hierarchies are used so that higher groups consistently gain power by belittling the lower
groups.
The authors use of dialogue help to develop the theme in both texts. There are many
instances in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in which the reader reads the dialogue
spoken that leads them to the theme. One of these instances is, The smug look on Malfoys face
flickered. No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood, he spat (Rowling 112).
Draco called Hermione a Mudblood, an offensive term to any Muggleborn wizard or witch ,
because he believes that she is below him in social status. He feels the need to insult her to make
himself feel better and joy in degrading someone of lesser social rank. He insults a member in
the group below him in the hierarchy to make himself appear better in comparison. Rowling uses
this to develop the personality and nature of Draco, and the readers now understand that he is
bitter and hurts Muggleborns due to ranking. This dialogue supports the theme because it shows
how someone of higher standing would abase a person with a comparatively lower standing. In
addition, in The Book Thief, the two soldiers spoke of the Jews in such a derogatory manner and
referred to them as rats. When was the last time we took these rats for some fresh air? (Zusak
390). Zusaks use of dialogue develops the characteristics of a typical Nazi soldier or member of

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the Nazi Party. The dialogue shows how they had completely dehumanized them and spoke of
them like rodents, all due to social standing of the Jews. By doing this, the Jews seemed weaker
and worth less, and the Nazis felt that they needed to make them feel this way because of the
religious hierarchy that influenced their character for both their dialogue and their actions. Both
Rowling and Zusak effectively used dialogue to express the theme to the readers. The readers
can understand or infer what the authors are commenting on society by using literary elements
such as dialogue.
While some may argue that the hierarchy in both texts is a natural human instinct and not
a wrongdoing, they fail to realize that certain groups use these hierarchies to abase the lower
groups and both physically and verbally abuse them. Furthermore, these hierarchies set the lower
groups in a low social standing, even if ranking is human instinct. Not only do they ruin social
standing, but certain individuals choose to take this ranking to an unreasonable extent in which it
is extremely clear that they look down on the lower groups. An example of this in Harry Potter
and the Chamber of Secrets is, It was Colin Creevey. His eyes were wide and his hands were
stuck up in front of him, holding his camera (Rowling 180). The Heir of Slytherin, who had the
strong belief that Muggleborn students should not deserve to go to Hogwarts, had begun the
series of attacks on the Muggleborns. The hierarchy, though a natural human instinct, was
endangering Muggleborns to the point to where they were being attacked and petrified. Markus
Zusak also makes the point clear that the hierarchy was a wrongdoing through the quote, The
Fuhrer pounded away at the punching-bag Jew. Jewish blood was everywhere (Zusak 253).
Though this scene was imagined by Max, it symbolizes Jews as a whole and how they are being
impacted by this ranking system. Hitler, in the scene, was abusing Max, who represented the
Jews. Hitler and the Nazi Party were abusing Jews because of their religion, and their low rank in

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the religious ranking system that they themselves had determined for the Jews. Both Rowling
and Zusak provide details that truly show that the social ranking was negatively impacting the
inferior groups in both texts and was not simply a human instinct.
Ezra Miller stated that almost all societies would have systems of ranking, and Zusak and
Rowling also have this same idea about society, which is clear throughout both The Book Thief
and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The conflict between the higher and lower ranks
in both texts helps to develop this theme about hierarchies in societies. Setting for The Book
Thief and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was a major factor because it was the certain
circumstances that influenced the systems of ranking used by society, such as the Holocaust and
the wizard blood hierarchy. The dialogue used in the text also provides extra support to the theme
and is easier for the readers to understand through conversation. The authors use conflict, setting,
and dialogue to develop and state their theme in a clear and straightforward way.

Works Cited:

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. New York: Arthur A. Levine , an
Imprint of Scholastic, 1999. Print.
Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Print.