Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Themes

Harry Potter’s second year at the wizarding school of Hogwarts is dominated by attacks on Muggle-born students by an unknown attacker. When students are attacked, they become completely petrified (literally, frozen like statues and almost impossible to revive), and thus are unable to provide information on who or what might have attacked them. This lack of information causes fear and doubt to fly throughout the castle. As a result, theories and rumors begin to spread…

The wizarding world, though certainly magical, is not flawless. Just as in the Muggle world, prejudice is rampant throughout the wizarding community. Many wizards exhibit prejudice against a variety of groups for two main reasons: they do not like those who are different from themselves, and they feel that people within those other groups are inferior. Rowling thus demonstrates that prejudice is based on unfounded and often dangerous assumptions about groups of people, whereas the…

As Harry grows up, both he and his peers struggle to understand his true identity: is Harry a real hero, destined to defeat Voldemort and the forces of evil? Is he the long-awaited Heir of Slytherin, fated to become a dark wizard? Or is he just a normal boy who was thrust into an extraordinary situation? In this book, Harry’s identity is primarily shaped through two aspects of his experience: his growing fame at school…

In The Chamber of Secrets, Harry is subject not only to the rules at Hogwarts, but also the rules of the wizarding world as a whole. Just like in his first year, Harry has no hesitation breaking rules when he believes that following them is in conflict with doing what is right. In his second year, Harry understands further that some of the rules at Hogwarts, as well as some of those laid down…