Harry Potter Essay, Research Paper
Quick Review
After being brought up by his horrid Aunt and Uncle, Harry is surprised one day when a letter arrives for him. He never gets post, but for some reason, his uncle doesn’t want him to have it. The next day more appear, and then more and more, until the huge Hagrid arrives. He tells Harry the terrible story of his parent’s death, and the truth about Harry. He is a wizard, and is invited to attend Hogwarts School for wizards.
When he gets to school, he soon makes friends, but there is something vaguely amiss at Hogwarts. What is the sinister Snape doing? And why aren’t the students allowed into a corridor on the third floor? Is it connected to the missing Dark Lord Voldemort?
Review
Until his 11th birthday Harry Potter thinks he is an ordinary if not very lucky boy. His parents were killed when he was just one year old and since then he has lived with his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon Dursley. They only took him in because there were no other relatives to take care of the orphan and have never provided him with a loving home. Almost worse then aunt and uncle is Harry’s cousin Dudley, their spoiled brat who gets everything he wants from his parents. So Harry considers the cupboard under the stairs where they make him sleep his sanctuary.
On his 11th birthday, however, he receives – against all odds and the efforts of the Dursley’s – a letter telling him he was admitted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and has to show up on September 1st at King’s Cross station, platform 9 ?, to get on the Hogwarts train. He also receives a list of things he has to bring to the school, things you will certainly not find in just any store. After that was taken care of Harry goes to the station on the appointed day and is faced with yet another problem: how do you get to platform 9? when every normal person can see that there is nothing between platforms 9 and 10?
Boarding schools have always been a popular setting for juvenile books, and Joanne K. Rowling has given us a new variation of the old theme: a boarding school for wizards and witches. Apart from the usual pranks and rivalries between students Hogwarts is a very special place. Not only are the students and teachers extraordinary, but also the building itself – an old castle with labyrinthine corridors and hidden doors – has secrets you wouldn’t come across in the real world. The inhabitants are aware of that and talk about “ordinary” people in a condescending way, even if they don’t believe all of them to be as bad as Harry Potter’s family. The reader discovers this extraordinary world along with Harry who is a stranger there himself and has to try and make sense of it.
All those remaining young at heart will enjoy this trip into the world of magic where trolls and dragons are as ordinary pets as dogs and cats in the real world. A fun read nobody should feel too “grown-up” for.