Thanks to winter break and two well-timed snow days, I have finished the Harry Potter series for the first time. Admittedly, I enjoyed the books a lot more than I thought I would. I thought the 4th and 5th book in the series were kind of long and drawn out; however, once I got to the 6th book, I could not put in them down because I wanted to know how the whole thing ended.
The British vocabulary I found quite intriguing and have decided to incorporate some of these new favorite words into my everyday communications:
- row – fight/argument
- snogging – kissing/making out
- ruddy - having a healthy/reddish face
- git – a person who is stupid/incompetent
- mental - crazy
Another interesting thing that I noticed is that J.K. Rowling really doesn’t like blonds. Think about it, who in these stories is blond, good, and normal? No one! You have the Malfoys and their long blonde hair, Harry’s cousin Dudley, a couple of death eaters, and then Luna Lovegood (who is a great character, but somewhat strange). All the red heads are good, upright people (the Weasleys and Lily Potter). Interesting? I thought so!
The Harry Potter series is an example of a classic coming of age story with themes of good vs. evil. As I was reading these books, particularly #5 on, I kept thinking about the similarities between the treatment of muggle born wizards with the behavior of the Nazis during WWII and discrimination during Apartheid (registering muggle borns, propaganda against them, and people being too afraid to rebel against the dictator) -- no doubt where she got the inspiration for that story line. Clearly this is a series with deep messages about discrimination and prejudice. Another apparent theme is the idea of pride and selfishness vs. love and friendship. My favorite theme, however, is that of the importance of choice. From the beginning of the series, when Harry "chooses" to be in Gryfindor rather than Slytherin to the end when Harry chooses to go back and kill Voldemort, this theme is of great importance. The books show that we choose who we become and how we get there. We are the master of our paths and the choices we make along the way greatly impact the way our "story" proceeds. Harry chose to be in Gryfindor, he chose Ron and Hermione over Malfoy as friends, he chose Horcruxes over Hallows, he chose to return and kill Voldemort, he chose to continue on Dumbledore's quest, he chose to be kind to Kreacher -- just to name of few choices he made that made all the difference. Voldemort also made decisions that impacted his future, he chose to mark Harry and to believe the prophecy. I really liked Dumbledore's chat he had with Harry about his choices and how choosing to believe the prophecy that he was "The Chosen One." The very end of the series closes with Harry telling his son his secret that he chose to be in Gryfindor rather than Slytherin -- we control our future!
I am sad that the books are done, as I have become very fond of the characters in the series: My favorites being Hermione, Snape, Lupin, and Dobby.
Years down the road, high school students will be reading these books for english class and analyzing them to death... to those students, I say, "At least you get to read an interesting book!"
