Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Themes
Memory and the Past
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, there's a definite interplay between setting the stage for future and coming to terms with past. You have to deal with the past and get it out of the way b...
Fear
FDR would have a field day with this book. As you probably know, FDR (a.k.a. famous American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt) was famous saying "there is nothing to fear but fear itself." Lupin...
Good vs. Evil
The Harry Potter series is a classic tale of good vs. evil, ranking up there with things like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and The Chronicles of Narnia. But Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaba...
Time
The movie version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban really emphasizes time and clocks, which is quite fitting because Book 3 will probably always be remembered as the Harry Potter book wi...
Lies and Deceit
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a partial mystery novel with a series of secrets and inadvertent lies, which may be the most dangerous kind. It seems like nearly everyone has a secret i...
Freedom and Confinement
The Prisoner of Azkaban pays attention to the psychological effects of imprisonment and confinement on its characters. In Book 3, aside from the obvious prisoner in the title, Sirius Black, we also...
Friendship
The Harry Potter series really boils down to the power of friendship more than any other thing. But friendship isn't glossed over or presented with rose-colored glasses here. We see fights, persona...
Family
If Harry Potter is searching for one thing in his life, it's probably family. And in a lot of ways he's found family – through his friends, through the Weasleys, and now through his father's...
Justice and Judgment
Justice isn't something that's set in stone in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It isn't the hardcore justice we see in Justified, the final "dun-dun" judgments we get in Law and Order, or...
Compassion and Forgiveness
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban isn't so much about forgiveness as it is about the difficulty of actually forgiving someone. Forgiveness and compassion are ongoing processes here, and they...
Education
The Harry Potter novels sort of act as their very own The More You Know PSA – the things that Harry and his fellow students learn during the school year always turn out to be very important t...