The Beginning

Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter has become more than a story, more than a book or movie, it has become a pop-culture phenomenon. Never before had I heard of stores opening their doors at midnight to release a book. Never before had a child of age eleven wanted to read a 400 page book, let alone thousands of young children. Not only have the books rocked the nations, but the movies are hugely popular. Over 6 Billion dollars grossed in the theaters worldwide for the first 7 movies. And of course the books have sold millions of copies in many different languages.

Besides the world loving Harry Potter, I, Charity Knighten, love Harry Potter. He’s just a wonderful character. He’s not someone that the reader will fall in love with, or someone that will give you obsessive thoughts. He’s almost like a best friend. The audience meets Harry (of course we’re on a first name basis) when he is ten years old and knows as much about magic as the audience does. He receives his letter to Hogwarts: School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, much to his aunt and uncle’s chagrin, and his world is changed in such a huge way that in seven years it will be hard for him to recall a life without magic.

I’m not going to recap the book, this blog is more for the Harry Potter lover’s, not someone looking to see if they should read it or not, you just should read it. Consider this your spoiler alert as well, you have been warned.

While reading this book for the third time (yes, you read that correctly, the third time) I came across 3ideas that I wanted to discuss in this blog. First, Rowling drops these tiny hints that you would not be able to pick up the first time you read the book. In chapter seven, Harry is at the start-of-term banquet and he is looking around the Great Hall with great wonder. His eyes land on Professor Snape, their eyes meet and suddenly there is a searing hot pain in Harry’s scar. Because of the way Rowling tells us what happened, we have no other reason to believe that it was anybody else causing him pain besides Snape. We have already forgotten that he’s speaking with Professor Quirrell.

Next, I love the way Rowling brings ideas back to our memory. At the train station back in London, we hear a joke between the Weasley twins and their mother about blowing up a toilet and sending her the toilet seat. During the last chapter the Dumbledore tells Harry that the twins had tried to give him a toilet seat as a get well soon present. I think its genius how she interweaves jokes, relationships, and ideas throughout the book so the audience looks back and think, “Wow, really? I should have seen that coming, but I didn’t.”

Lastly, Rowling introduces what seems to be an insignificant idea into the story and later it becomes one of the most important parts of the book. One example of this is when Harry and Ron are stuffing themselves with sweets on the train ride to Hogwarts and Harry is introduced to his first Chocolate Frog with trading card. This card just happens to be the card that solves the mystery of the Sorcerer’s Stone. I know the first time I read this I had no idea that this card was going to be so important. This is just a treat in Rowling’s writing.

Well that is all for right now. I don’t want to dive too deep in the series, I just wanted to talk about The Sorcerer’s Stone. Stay tuned, I’m going to complete the entire series, it may take me some time, but I’m looking forward to it.