Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

"A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair" (pg 46). The previous passage is a wonderful and tasteful description of the first introduction of Hagrid from J. K. Rowling's novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. This book gives intimate detail and overwhelming amounts of vivid description into the characters, settings and conflicts that arise in the book. If there is are aspects to really note about Harry Potter it is the wonderful and imaginative language and the parallels of similarity between situations Harry is involved with in the book to true situations everyday people experience.

All to often, readers get tired of reading books or essays because they lose interest or can not keep the reader's attention. However, Harry Potter is quite different. The main reason why it is delightful and fun for people of all ages to read Harry Potter is because everyone can relate to a character or conflict in the book. Not being accepted, being self-conscious of what others think, dealing with bullies overcoming obstacles and living up to people's standards are all situations that we deal with in our everyday life and all those situations can be found throughout the book. For example Draco Malfoy, plats an insolent, and unpleasant student at Hogwarts who is constantly challenging and bullying Harry. Harry is also somewhat of a celebrity, being the son of two prestigious and intelligent wizards. He is constantly trying his best to prove himself while trying to live up to his teachers and friends. In the book the characters assume that Harry is this perfect and equitable wizard who should know how to do certain things. Well, because Harry grew up with his relatives, the Dursleys, who treat Harry with no respect and are cruel and very distant to him. He feels unwanted and unloved. All to often in our society children are abused or mistreated and we sometimes don't hear about it or are not aware of it because the children may have been forced to silence because of fear of what might happen if they do talk.

In some aspects Harry us easy for me to compare with a man named David Pelzer who was a long time survivor of child abuse and author of the book, A Child Called It. His book is the incredible story of his courage and strength to deal and try to survive his mother's horrendous abuse and hatred toward him. Although, the Dursley's don't treat Harry quite like Mr. Pelzer's mother treated him, I still could see large amounts of similarity between. The Dursleys make Harry sleep in a small cupboard under the stairs and they are constantly telling him how useless, weird and disgusting he is. Parallel to that, David's bed growing up was an old army cot in the basement and his clothes were torn and raunchy. Harry was in some ways the Dursley's slave because he was forced to do anything they demanded from him. David Pelzer's was his mother's slave also he was forced to work all the time and do anything his mother said.

Since, Harry grew up in such a horrible environment with the Dursleys and his confidence and self-dignity was constantly stomped on, he in turn, before going to Hogwarts, was very insecure and unsure about himself. But, as the story progresses and Harry learns about himself and the things he never thought he could fathom, he becomes a stronger and more confident individual. In fact his first game of Quidditch, Harry wins the game for his team and his house. As a result of the positive reinforcement and self gratification of winning the game he becomes stronger and much more confident about what he can do.

Along with his success and triumphs, Harry begins to grow many strong friendships with many different people at Hogwarts. Upon leaving his life with the Dursleys, Harry is put into a whole different world at his new school. He begins to create new relationships with Ron Weasly and Hermione Granger. Everyone knows the feeling of the first day of school when you don't know who is going to be in your classes and the pressures of trying to find people that have things in common with you. Harry first meets his new friends on the Hogwarts Express to the school. He begins to ask questions to Ron about being a wizard and what Hogwarts is all about. " 'Five,' said Ron. For some reason, he was looking gloomy. 'I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have left- Bill was had boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch.'" (p 99).

The new friends that Harry meets at his time at Hogwarts are all very friendly helpful people. Another character that Harry begins to bond with and become friends is the keeper of the keys, Rubeus Hagrid. Hagrid is the person who saves Harry from the Dursleys and introduces him to the world of wizardry. Each character that Harry meets along the way whether it be his friends or his