"Will we die, just a little?"

The Paradox of Acceptance and What Fantastic Beasts Can Teach Us About Being Human

Image from harrypotter.wikia.com

At the end of 2016’s film "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," the antagonist Gellert Grindelwald delivers a line that seems inconsistent with the action. The gathering of Aurors has just rid the city of an uncontrollable, extremely dangerous being and as Grindelwald is being taken away under arrest, he passes Newt Scamander, a sympathetic albeit awkward researcher who just happened to be in the right place at the wrong time, and says to him: “Will we die, just a little?”

This line seems out of place: the danger is over and the beast that killed many has been (supposedly) exterminated. Why does Grindelwald ask now if we’ll die? And what does it mean to die just a little? When examined, this single line holds the key to a deeper message of the film: we die just a little, or we don’t live as fully, when we try to hide ourselves. We must invite our full selves – even that which we fear – to live with us in order to experience the complete and true magic of this life.

For the Greater Good

Anyone familiar with Harry Potter will remember that wizards are legally bound via the Statute of Secrecy to keep their existence hidden. Most wizards accept this fate. They live their lives, the Muggles live theirs, and hardly any issues arise. However, some wizards, Grindelwald included, find this secrecy a disgrace: Why should wondrous beings be forced to hide?

Knowing this, consider another interpretation of Grindelwald’s ultimate line. Perhaps he meant: will we die just a little if we must be kept underground? He delivers this line – literally – underground in the New York subway, the bowels of one of the greatest cities on earth. Grindelwald views the Wizarding World to be in a similar position: these extraordinary people must hide in the shadows and erase any proof of their existence. To remediate this, he wants to revolutionize the way wizards live and allow them to be in the open, without fear of persecution. But Grindelwald would flip the script: he would persecute the Muggles.

Wizards are not always treated with kindness when a Muggle finds out they are different. Muggles and Wizards alike have been known to abuse their counterparts, simply because they were different or because they could. When a young Tom Riddle experimented with magical horrors on two young Muggle children in the cave, it’s said that after that, they were never right. When Muggle boys tortured Ariana Dumbledore for her displays of magic, she too, wasn’t quite right afterward.

“Where there is light there is shadow”

Something interesting happens to a young witch or wizard when they are shamed for their magic: they suppress their abilities and develop a Dark force that lives inside of them – the insidious Obscurus. An Obscurus is considered a beast, while the young child serves as its host and is referred to as an Obscurial. Obscurial children rarely live beyond ten years of age, such is the horrible power of the Obscurus and the shame they suffer.

Credence, our story’s Obscurial, has indeed suffered because of his magic. Credence is beaten by his adoptive Ma, Mary Lou Barebone, often for either showing an inclination for magic or because his mother was a witch. These beatings and Mary Lou’s constant diatribe on the evils of magic have made Credence a shell of a human. He is described as making “mechanical” movements and human contact startles him.[1] Credence is afraid to show his magic and also deeply afraid of his Obscurus. When he loses control of his emotions and body as the Obscurus takes over, he shakes, cries, and cowers. Mary Lou beats him, Graves (whom Credence views as his savior) slaps him after Credence piteously pleads for help four times in one scene. He is tormented at every turn. His suffering is extraordinary.

The Paradox of Acceptance

We tend to want to destroy the things we fear, like Mary Lou beating poor Credence. Ironically, what actually happens is that the fear, starved of the light and feeding on the shadow of its hiding place, begins to fulfill the prophecy laid upon it: it becomes something to be feared. Mary Lou created Credence, whose name means “belief in or acceptance of something as true,” because she did not want to believe magic existed, she could not accept it; but, terribly and to her own demise, she forced the boy Credence to deny his own gifts and created a killing machine.

Unlike the two-dimensional character of Mary Lou, Jacob Kowalski is the only Muggle/No-Maj we ever spend time with in all of the stories of the Wizarding World. When Jacob finds himself accidentally thrown into the world of wizards, he is, at first, frightened (which might happen if you had just been bitten by an unknown creature and told flames may shoot out of your bum). But as Jacob continues to tag along in this adventure, he is overjoyed that this world exists at all. He even laments when he is told he will be Obliviated and his memories of this “bad” experience will be wiped. For Jacob, magic is no longer bad and he has even come to adore these strange creatures. Jacob has also been accepted by Newt, Tina, and especially Queenie, who says he’s “one of us now.” It’s a touching and profound moment: it’s illegal for wizards in America to not Obliviate a No-Maj. Yet Queenie – a powerful witch – has fallen in love with someone her society tells her is forbidden. What Jacob and Queenie prove is that when you accept that which you fear, the fear is turned on its head and enhances life.

But not everyone has come to this realization. At the end of the film, it is still a popular idea to Obliviate the Muggles who have witnessed magic. The “good” side (MACUSA) Obliviates an entire city because they have seen, to be fair, horrifying magic. But the Muggles are left being described as “blank” and “vacant.” The Shaws are robbed of the truth of how the Senator was killed. Jacob goes back to work in the canning factory, a place he has said is killing him. Are the Muggles actually better off for not having magic in their lives?

This brings us back to Grindelwald and his final question: will we die, just a little? Yes, but it’s not just the wizards who suffer under the Statute of Secrecy – it’s everyone. Wizards, Muggles, and beasts alike would all benefit if magic were brought into the open. For the Muggles, they may become enchanted with magic like Jacob, who can no longer imagine living without magic or his new friends. For the beasts, they would have a better chance to be understood and appreciated, instead of caged, tortured, and killed. And for wizards, it would be impossible for an Obscurus to be created if wizards were not ashamed of their magic for fear of persecution.

Magic in the Real World

And what about our real world? We have Obscurus, too, though self-doubt and shame manifest under different names. We might call them: Depression, Anger Management Issues, Anxiety, just to name a few. Imagine if Credence were not a wizard, but just a boy who was misunderstood and frightened. His beatings signal to him that he is not good enough to be listened to and not accepted in his world. His shame builds internally, and he may lash out when prodded too far. Normal people, enduring far less abuse than Credence, have been known to destroy other living beings, even whole cities, without the use of magic, using just their own anger, fear, and hurt. The destruction and the consequences are the same in both worlds: catastrophic.

Alternative Ending

Now imagine if Credence had been understood, loved, and listened to. We wouldn’t have a plot conflict for "Fantastic Beasts," but we would have a happy story. We would have the story of a boy who got to be curious about what he was and proclaim proudly to the world, “I am special.” In a world where Muggles and Wizards live together, he would be able to openly share his gifts – and Muggles would be recognized for their individuality too. The track to this world is simple: acceptance.

We are all culpable in the creation of an Obscurial, and as a community when we come together in actions and conversations of acceptance, we heal collectively. When we take time to understand one another and help each other express ourselves, only then can there truly be no Obscurial in the world. Will our world be more wonderful? Will we live, just a little better? The only answer to the question is: yes.

[1] Source: "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" screenplay, pages 53, 88