Seven
Things About:
HARRY
POTTER
By
Paul Adams
Works of fiction can often be difficult to get into, and
latecomers to the game can often be confused by the sheer amount of lore and
plot built into something ongoing. So, I’m here to break down what one needs to
know into seven easy-to-understand plot points, followed by what, in my
opinion, are the seven strongest points of the work as well as the seven
weakest. That way, a new reader or viewer has some sense of what they are about
to get themselves into. What are we covering today? The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
1. This is Harry Potter: He is a bright
and kind young boy who has had the misfortune of being raised by an abusively neglectful
aunt and uncle, who even forced him to sleep in a cupboard for the first ten
years of his life. But on the day he turns eleven, he discovers that . . .
2. He lives in a world of magic and wizards:
That’s right. He finds out that a whole other world full of magic and wizards
and witches has been existing in secret right alongside the world of ordinary
people (otherwise known as Muggles). People fly on brooms, cast spells with magic
wands, and all sorts of magical things.
3. He attends a school named Hogwarts: At
age eleven, wizarding children attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,
under the tutelage of the wise old headmaster Albus Dumbledore. While there,
they take classes on transfiguration, potions, divination, care of magical
creatures, defense against the dark arts and so much more. They are also sorted
into one of four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin.
4. Ron and Hermione are his best friends:
Once he arrives at Hogwarts, Harry makes many friends, most notable of whom are
Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger. Ron comes from a wizarding family with lost
of siblings, and he teaches Harry the ins and outs of wizarding society.
Hermione, on the other hand, is a Muggle-born bookworm who taught herself all
the intricate complicated details of magic itself.
5. The wizarding world lives in fear of Lord
Voldemort: We quickly learn that at the time Harry was born, the wizarding
world lived in fear under the tyrannical reign of Lord Voldemort. For unknown
reasons, he attacked and killed Harry’s parents and attempted to kill Harry
only for the spell to backfire, causing Voldemort to disappear, leaving Harry
with only a lightning-shaped scar. Rumors abound that Voldemort is still out
there somewhere.
6. A heavy anti-Muggle sentiment pervades the
Wizarding World: Much of Voldemort’s power came about through the strong
anti-Muggle feelings of many in the Wizarding World, most notably through many
wizards that came from Slytherin house in Hogwarts. This leads to heavy
persecution of many Muggle-borns at the school, including Hermione.
7. There are seven books: A good thing to
know is that this series is made up of seven books in total, centering on each
of Harry’s years at Hogwarts. They generally feature a few chapters of the
summer months leading up to Harry’s return to school, the beginning of his school
year, important events occurring around Halloween and Christmas, and the climax
taking place around the end of the school year. Movies have also been made of
every book.
And now, here’s just a few of the things I like most about
the series:
1. The Characters: If one thing stands out
about the series, it is the enormous number of well-developed, nuanced, and
beloved characters in the series. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are all strong
characters in their own right, as well as many fellow students such as Neville
Longbottom and Luna Lovegood. The teachers and staff of the school, such as
Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape and the gamekeeper Hagrid, are
also strong characters, with a major character being introduced in each book
via the constantly shifting Defense Against the Dark Arts position. Outside of
the school, we meet many other wizards, such as Ron’s family or the Order of
the Phoenix, all of whom make for a complex world of vibrant characters who feel
as real as any person in real life.
2. The World-Building: If you are an
aspiring author and read these books for only one reason, that reason is world-building.
Many consider the series a master class in the subject. The first book does a
solid job of capturing the wonder and fantasy of such a world and school, but
each book builds upon the last, with each installment introducing you to: how a
wizarding family lives (book two), the wider international wizarding world
(book four), the inner workings of the wizarding government (book five), and so
on.
3. The Steady Maturation Level: This
series was first introduced to elementary and junior high students as a fun,
fantastical adventure of wizards and spells and magical creatures, and the
first book maintains a childlike whimsy to it. As the books go on though, they
are carefully matured to grow with the generation who started reading them,
each one becoming more and more adult as they went. The second book was still
whimsical, but also brought in a stronger focus on the anti-Muggle bigotry of
the wizarding world. The third dealt with an escaped murderer, only to find
that things were not quite as clear cut as they seemed. The fourth featured the
return of Lord Voldemort and the first real death in the books (of one of Harry’s
fellow students, no less). The fifth featured a corrupt and unreliable
government, and a cruel, vindictive authority figure in Dolores Umbridge. The
sixth explored the past of Voldemort, previously only seen as a two-dimensional
bad guy, and featured the murder of Dumbledore at the hands of fellow teacher
Professor Snape. Then we have the seventh book, which follows Harry, Ron, and
Hermione as they become fugitives of the law, Voldemort overthrows the
government, enacts discriminatory laws against Muggle-borns, the death toll
reaches into the thousands, including several named and beloved characters, and
the previous assumptions of characters such as Dumbledore and Snape are bucked
entirely.
4. The Creativity and Imagination: One
thing the series is in no short supply of is endless creativity. From sports played
with magic brooms, to jelly beans of every flavor imaginable, to house-elves and
centaurs and mermaids and dragons, J.K. Rowling’s books feature a world full of
magic, magical creatures, and magical institutions that get the mind racing
with all the possibilities and wonders such a world could possibly hold.
5. Depth of Themes and Issues: Related to
the maturation point above, but not entirely, another thing these books excel at
is the depth to which the various themes are explored. Hatred and bigotry of
course are explored, not only through the Slytherins and their anti-Muggle
sentiment, but also through Muggles like Harry’s aunt and uncle in return. We also
explore themes like coming of age, as Harry grows and matures throughout his
years at Hogwarts; learning to see past initial assumptions, as many characters
prove to be far more than they seem as first presented (i.e. Dumbledore, Snape,
Voldemort, Aunt Petunia, Sirius Black, and so many others); and loss, as we see
Harry come to terms with losing friends, parental figures, mentors, and so many
others.
6. Subtle Layers for Re-Reading: One thing
I’ve noticed as I read and re-read these books is that I always pick up
something new with each readthrough. Snape’s actions suddenly take on a whole
new light once the final reveal about his character is given in the last book,
and many of Dumbledore’s actions make you see him differently once you know all
there is to know about the character. You may also pick up on subtle actions by
minor characters throughout the books that you didn’t pick up on the first or
second or even third times. Ron’s mom, for instance, becomes a better and
better character every time you read her.
7. Accessibility: And finally, one of the
greatest strengths of this series is just how accessible it can be to readers
of all ages. While most of the later books are massive, it uses simple, easy
language that doesn’t bog down the reader and always keeps them entertained.
Likewise, the series is kept firmly at seven books, so one can easily pick up
the first and read them through without too much trouble.
Now, even though I don’t really have much negative to
say about the series, for the sake of balance and fairness, here’s seven things
I don’t care for.
1. S.P.E.W.: Toward the fourth book,
Hermione becomes aware of the plight of the house-elves, who are more or less
enslaved by many in the wizarding world. She then takes it upon herself to
found the “Society for the Protection of Elfish Welfare,” using it to bully and
intimidate many of her fellow students and attempt to free the elves, sometimes
against their own wishes. While the sentiment is fine in theory, it tends to be
very poorly executed and often drags down the story.
2. The Romance Department: The Harry Potter series is strong for a
thousand different reasons, but one should not go into it expecting a good
romance. The final couples of Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny (Ron’s little
sister) both tend to leave a little to be desired, even if you supported the
pairings, and many feel Harry/Hermione would have been a better couple. Even
outside of those couples, Harry and Ron’s relationships with their first girlfriends
Cho and Lavender came off as annoying and aggravating at the best of times. The
best romances in the story (such as Lupin and Tonks) mostly happen offscreen
and are only known by Harry when they affect the plot in some way. If that’s what
you’re going in for, you’re going to be disappointed.
3. Character Mood Swings: When your main
characters are teenagers, this is bound to happen, and probably should happen, but
that doesn’t make it any more enjoyable when it does. Throughout the books,
Harry, Ron, and Hermione have their periods when they are emotional, rude to
everyone around them, and liable to fly off the handle at a moment’s notice.
Harry is especially prone to throwing enormous temper tantrums throughout the
fifth book, and Ron has his bouts of being a generally awful person in the
fourth, sixth, and even a bit of the seventh book. Hermione can often be
preachy, judgmental, and condescending to her friends and will occasionally stop
speaking to them for months at a time. Again, part of their character
development, but it can turn you off real quick.
4. The Movie Effect: Movies will always be
a bit better known to the general public than books. It’s a little easier to watch
a two-hour moving picture than it is to read a three-to-seven-hundred page book.
That’s just how it is, and it is probably why live-action blockbuster movies
are sometimes treated as the be-all-end-all of a given work. That said, the
movies made of this series did a relatively decent job adapting the story (at
the very least, the casting was nearly perfection), but not a perfect job, and
the little imperfections here and there built up over time, so that the final
picture was more a shadow of the books than a real representation of the books.
For many who have only seen the movies, this can often tarnish their opinion of
the series as a whole.
5. The Dursleys’ Cartoonish Behavior: Now,
while I said earlier that Harry’s aunt and uncle presented the hatred of
Muggles for the wizarding world, far too often, they are more cartoony stereotypes
than anything. They fit in well with the whimsical world of the first book, as
their over-the-top neglect and obsession with normalcy was just as weird as
anything else in the world, as the books grew and matured, the Dursleys’ behavior
became more and more out of place in the story, to the extent that the movies
tended to ignore them almost entirely in later installments.
6. Occasional Plot Contrivance: These are
mostly the surface-level complaints that you’ve probably all heard once or
twice before. “Why does September 1st fall on a Sunday every year?” “Why
is it that every major thing that happens to Harry doesn’t come to a head until
the end of the school year?” So on, and so forth. To be honest, the books are
so full of nuance, depth, character, and intricately layered detail that I find
it hard to even really care about superficial stuff like this.
7. Popularity Backlash: It happens to the
best of them. When something gets really, really popular really, really fast,
there always crops up that counter-culture element that becomes determined to
hate it on sheer principle of “not following the crowd.” Back when this was
first popular, I was a little kid and I fell into this trap with not only this
but Pokémon too. It didn’t last long though, and as I grew up, that experience
gave me enough self-awareness to try to avoid doing that with anything else. It’s
still an easy trap to fall into, and one always has to take a step back and ask
themselves why they are hating on it. Sometimes, you still do, but it’s for
more substantial reasons than just “I hate it because everyone else likes it.”
Thanks for reading. All images drawn from Google Images. Comment below and follow me for more.
No comments:
Post a Comment