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Popular Culture Review
will achieve and how she will achieve it—than attempting to know
herself as she is. Gardner characterized intrapersonal intelligence as:
...having an understanding of yourself, of knowing who you are, what
you can do, how you react to things, which things to avoid, and which
things to gravitate toward. We are drawn to people who have a good un
derstanding of themselves because those people tend not to screw up.
They tend to know what they can do. They tend to know what they can’t
do. And they tend to know where to go if they need help. (Checkley 12)
Hermione’s experience with the time turner in Harry Potter and the Prisoner
o f Azkaban best illustrates her lack of intrapersonal intelligence. She does not lack
self-confidence; she knows that if anyone can attend four classes at once and com
plete the assigned work for all of them, it is she. While clearly she knows what she
is capable of achieving in the most ideal circumstances, Hermione doesn’t take
into account external pressures—an emotionally draining argument with Ron over
Scabbers the Rat; Harry’s seemingly imminent threat from the mysterious Pris
oner of Azkaban; her own conflict with Professor Trelawny over her “lack of aura.”
Hermione assumes that her superior intellect and an impressive amount of perse
verance will be all she needs to use the time turner to its greatest potential. Even
when it becomes clear to her that the workload is overwhelming, she does not turn
for help to the two other people who know what she has been attempting—Profes
sors Dumbledore and McGonnagal. Although she does eventually return the time
turner to Professor McGonnagal, it is only after much self-recrimination and after
nearly destroying her friendship with Ron.
Harry, however, has a different combination of intelligences from Hermione,
an amalgam that at once compliments and surpasses her gifts. His demonstrated
qualities of “friendship and bravery” integrate both inter- and intrapersonal intelli
gences, while his linguistic gift for Parseltongue distinguishes him among Hogwarts’
students. When coupled with his bodily kinesthetic superiority, embodied in his
extraordinary Quiddich abilities, Harry does indeed exhibit a promise of great
ness. As Charles Elster has commented, “Despi