Improved Response Paper: Harry Potter vs. The Rules of Attraction

Brittani Crawford

Response Paper:
Harry Potter vs. The Rules of Attraction

Throughout Bret Easton Ellis’ The Rules of Attraction, ideas of moral values (or lack thereof), obsession and lack of identity are ever present. Though the characters of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series are generally much more morally balanced, the main characters of the novels struggle with many similar difficulties in life. While the characters of The Rules of Attraction are raw and unadulterated in their lack of ethics and self responsibility, the characters of the Harry Potter novels seem to be drowning in an overflowing pool of responsibility that they have been attempting to stay afloat in all their lives.
Every character throughout The Rules of Attraction has a deep obsession, as does Harry Potter throughout the novels. Due to the fact that each of them live in a world of instant gratification and endless surplus, Ellis’ characters view others as disposable commodities rather than people, which makes it easier to objectify, obsess over, or move on from them as soon as they lose interest. On the contrary, Harry Potter has obsessed all his life over the loss of his parents and many other lost loved ones. However, this obsession is not caused by an excess, but rather by deep sadness and regret due to the lack of love and compassion he has suffered. Ellis’ characters bring to mind the film “10” by Blake Edwards. The main character of the film, George Webber, goes through a midlife crisis and eventually focuses his life on Jenny Hanley, a newlywed and apparently morally depraved young woman. Webber obsesses intensely over Jenny, only to end up realizing that she is not at all what he truly wants in a woman. As in the film “10”, Ellis’ characters slowly come to realize, to their own chagrin, that the objects of their obsession are not at all what they had imagined them to be. In any situation, objectification and deep obsession for others causes pain for all involved, and leads to naught but emptiness.

In the essay “The Second Sex”, by Simone de Beauvoire, the author poses the question “[w]hy is it that women do not dispute male sovereignty?...women are not a minority.” She goes on to say that women allow themselves to be objectified and subjugated because “the women’s effort has never been anything more than a symbolic agitation. They have gained only what men have been willing to grant; they have taken nothing, they have only received.” Through the entirety of Ellis’ work, women are objectified, and consumed, as commodities. They seem to be viewed as nothing more than objects of entertainment rather than people, but they allow themselves to be conquered throughout the novel. Similarly, in the Harry Potter novels, intelligent (but subservient) creatures called ‘house elves’ have been slaves to wizards for centuries. “Would Harry Potter like a cup of tea?” he squeaked loudly, over Winky’s sobs. “Er—year, okay,” said Harry. Instantly, about six house-elves came trotting up behind him, bearing a large silver tray laden with a teapot, cups for Harry, Ron, and Hermione, a milk jug, and a large plate of biscuits. “Good service!” Ron said, in an impressed voice. Hermione frowned at him, but the elves all looked delighted; they bowed very low and retreated.” (Page 377, Book 4, Rowling). As this quote emphasizes, they do nothing to gain respect or equality, but instead contribute to their own state of inequality by offering themselves so willingly to the oppressors of the story, similar to the females of Ellis’ novel. Though some female characters in The Rules of Attraction view the males in much the same way—as sexual objects—they still contribute to the lacking equality between the sexes, due to their inability to behave sensibly.

The characters of The Rules of Attraction build their lives and relationships on nothing but lies, or mendacity. As stated by the character ‘Big Daddy’ in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, “Think of all the lies I got to put up with!—Pretenses! Ain’t that mendacity? Having to pretend stuff you don’t think or feel or have any idea of?…I’ve lived with mendacity!—Why can’t you live with it? Hell, you got to live with it, there’s nothing else to live with except mendacity, is there?” (pages 110-111) Ellis portrays this constant deception through his writing style by showing how differently each character views the other characters—and how much differently they believe they are viewed by one another. These perceptions make up their realities, and they thrive on the constant deceit, the permanent emotional walls built up around them that never let anyone in, so that no one can ever really know anyone else. Similarly, the antagonistic characters of J.K. Rowling’s novels, such as Voldemort, Draco Malfoy and Rita Skeeter, are never truly honest with their closest friends or even themselves. They thrive through mendacity because they never have to get too close to another person, which allows them to use and abuse others for selfish pleasure.

A prominent theme in both Harry Potter and The Rules of Attraction is a lack of self identity. Harry Potter seems perpetually unsure of who he truly is, unsure of what will become of his life and whether or not he is truly good or evil. “Was this why Dumbledore would no longer meet Harry’s eyes? Did he expect to see Voldemort staring out of them, afraid, perhaps, that their vivid green might turn suddenly to scarlet, with catlike slits for pupils?...He felt dirty, contaminated, as though he were carrying some deadly germ, unworthy to sit on the underground train back from the hospital with innocent, clean people whose minds and bodies were free of the taint of Voldemort” (Page 492, Book 5, Rowling). Likewise, characters in “The Rules of Attraction” live their lives day to day, but not one has any true individual thoughts, values, or goals. They live the same lives as those around them, and seem to have no ambition other than to have sex and be constantly inebriated. Ellis’ writing style is meant to reflect the varying subjectivity of each character: each of them experiences themselves in a manner that does not coincide with how others experience them. As in Cultural Studies Theory & Practice, by Chris Barker, the characters of The Rules of Attraction conform to their social identity, ‘the expectations and opinions that others have’ of them. Contrasting sharply with the characters of Harry Potter (who have deep rooted beliefs and values, but worry over being wholesome enough to deserve companionship), the characters of Ellis’ work lack of ‘taste, beliefs, attitudes, and lifestyles, which leads the reader to conclude that they are devoid of any true identity.

To conclude, Ellis’ work, which reflect a society whose animalistic instincts are constantly met, who expect instant gratification on a daily basis, and a society where diplomacy seems to reign (though perverse instincts are secretly indulged behind the closed doors of each member of this quasi-perfect society), contrasts sharply with J.K. Rowling’s works that emphasize personal accountability, responsibility, companionship and moral values. Both works stress the importance of having an individual identity by emphasizing the flaws of characters that lack security in their knowledge of self. By contrasting with Rowling’s Harry Potter series, readers can easily see that Ellis’ work is a critique of human nature that can help us all to see that we are, sadly but inevitably, flawed.




Works Cited:

10. Dir. Blake Edwards. Prod. Tony Adams. Perf. Dudley Moore, Julie Andrews and Bo Derek. Warner Bros. Entertainment, 1979. DVD.

American Psycho. Dir. Mary Harron. By Bret Easton Ellis. Perf. Christian Bale. Columbia TriStar Egmont Film Distributors, 2000. DVD.

Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies Theory and Practice. Minneapolis: Sage Publications Ltd, 2008. Print.

Beauvoir, Simone De. "The Second Sex." The Second Sex. New York: Vintage, 1989. Print.

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Tennessee, Williams. Cat on a hot tin roof. New York: New Directions, 2004. Print.