Imperialism can be seen in many things. In history it has been seen when the British oppressed the American Colonies, when the Spanish oppressed the Cubans, when Lenin oppressed the Russians, and when Hitler oppose the Jews,. It can also be seen prominently in media and film. More often than we realize imperialism is an underlying theme in many movies, two of which are Avatar and Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. Both movies deal with a greater force that oppresses a smaller force.
In Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows the evil villain Lord Voldemort gains control of the Ministry of Magic, the equivalent of our government, and begins to imply absurd rules, which caused the entire wizarding world to fear him. Fear is a tactic that is used by imperialists because they want to intimidate the smaller force so that they can easily manipulate it. Lord Voldemort hates muggles (normal people who do not have magical abilities) and wizards and witches who are not pure bloods and do not come from "purely" magical heritage. One of the rules he makes is that all wizarding families must undergo an investigation to prove whether or not they are pure bloods. If the family does not pass the investigation and do not contain pure blood, then the entire family is incarcerated or killed. This is very similar to the way Hitler made everyone in Germany prove that they are of German decent back to their great grandparents. Hitler also made it mandatory that all of the teachers measure and record each student’s eye color, hair color, and the width of each student’s head. Both Hitler and Lord Voldemort illustrated imperialism with their laws.During one scene that is shot at the Ministry of Magic headquarters, there is a large statue of a chair in the middle of the lobby. This chair is made up of naked muggles that are supporting the evil Lord Voldemort. By illustrating the muggles with faces filled with terror and naked unclothed bodies, it shows how insignificant and worthless he thinks muggles are. In the movie one of the lines that is quoted during this scene with the chair statue talks about how Lord Voldemort thinks that the muggles are dispensable and should be killed and oppressed by, the more superior, pureblooded wizards. In Mein Kampf Hitler discusses how he thinks that there should be only one race on this earth because the rest are imperfect and impure. As you know he later goes on to round up and kill the Jews and those who do not fit the Aryan profile of blonde hair, blue eyes, and light skin. These two parallels relate to imperialism because they are oppressing people by requiring them to all fit into a standard profile for fear of being killed.
As one can see imperialism is seen very prominently through out Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows and the holocaust. Through out the movie and history, strict laws and standards were made to oppress the public. Both leaders were set on trying to make their perfect realty come true by oppressing and eliminating those that did not fit into it.
Image source:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-N0827-318,_KZ_Auschwitz,_Ankunft_ungarischer_Juden.jpg
