Is Harry Potter the greatest hero in literary history?

We have a lot of ‘heroes’ in our literature and technically, Harry Potter is one of them. But is he the greatest one out there?

Short answer? No, Harry Potter isn’t the greatest hero. But he’s not supposed to be. When we look at the series as a whole, it is very clear that we’re not supposed to care as much about Harry and what he’s doing but rather those around him.

Or at least that’s what I got out of reading these books. Harry’s friends and his family he makes himself are much more important to the overall destruction of Voldemort than Harry ever was. Yes, he’s the boy who lived and the one who, ultimately, kills Voldemort but he couldn’t have done it on his own.

Most ‘heroes’ are lonely and isolated and use that to their advantage. Harry tried to be isolated for all of five seconds before Hermione shut that idea down. She wasn’t having him be sad and upset about being alone and she wasn’t going to let her best friend try and kill the Dark Lord on his own.

If that happened, Harry would have just died (or the horcrux inside him would have died and then he would have died right after).

It isn’t that Harry Potter isn’t a great wizard or that he needs help to get things done. It’s just that he’s better when he has said help. Look at Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. He didn’t have Ginny’s help talking to his son and what does he do?

He tells his son that sometimes he wishes he wasn’t his son. While I love Harry Potter very much, he may not be the smartest wizard in the world. That’s what Hermione is for. She is, after all, the brightest witch of her age.

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So while we love him and love this series, maybe Harry James Potter isn’t the best hero around. But that doesn’t change how much we care about him.