Emily Joa Blog Post One

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is a great coming of age fantasy story. Being able to follow Harry Potter’s life through these seven books builds a lasting relationship between the reader and the characters.

The different aspects of fantasy in this novel have a classic and new age spin due to J.K. Rowling’s boundless creativity. Personally, I love that she creates her own version of the different aspects we see in the book. Her take on the relationship between muggle world and wizard world are breathtakingly new and fascinating. In the second book, we learn about Mr. Weasley’s job and his expert fascination in the muggle world and its products. I find his new legislation about bewitching muggle-born products especially interesting. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Ron Weasley says, “It’s all to do with bewitching things that are Muggle-made, you know, in case they end up back in a Muggle shop or house. Like, last year, some old witch died and her tea set was sold to an antiques shop. This Muggle woman bought it, took it home, and tried to serve her friends tea in it. It was a nightmare – Dad was working overtime for weeks” (31. I love that Mr. Weasley loves to take apart objects to see how they work because the wizarding world has no need for such technology, along with the harmful effects that come from making it more accustomed to the magical realm. This is an excellent take on the relationship between the wizarding and muggle world.

This book is a great coming of age story because you see Harry Potter go from an orphaned boy underappreciated and abused by his relatives to being a celebrity in a different realm. His life in Privet Drive is wildly different from his life at Hogwarts, where he has to face his darkest fears. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, there is a great passage that highlights this difference. Harry hadn’t received any letters from his Hogwarts friends that summer, and Dudley knew this. Consequently, he had a falling out with Dudley and was being punished. “Wish they could see famous Harry Potter now, he thought savagely as he spread manure on the flower beds, his back aching, sweat running down his face” (10). The nice thing about how Harry’s life was written is J.K. Rowling didn’t let the fact that this is a children’s story stop her from really making Harry’s hardships as they were written. These hardships are what start to make him such a great Wizard. If Harry had grown up with a wizarding family, he could have been brought up to be more snotty and self-aware. Instead, we see him grow into a brave, friendly boy who is willing to risk anything for his loved ones.