What an ordinary boy. Plain, simple and similar to any other boy in his situation. But, 10-year old Harry Potter isn’t as ordinary as one might think... well, duh, why write about some boy who goes to school every day with his lunch box. He needs a gimmick (in the loosest of senses...). This story-making narrational device (as any English teacher would call it) is the unobtrusive fact that he is a wizard.
And not just ’a wizard’, but one of the most famous wizards. ’’Questions exploded inside Harry’s head like fireworks’’. The only question I was asking by the end of the book, was ’’Could this be real?’’. This is plainly because of Rowling’s expert use of language devices (English teacher time!) such as similes and complex sentences, that are well-written enough to engage a mature audience, but in a language that a child would understand. Perhaps my favourite example of this intelligent, yet simple use of language comparisons is with Harry’s arch-enemy Malfoy, and with great descriptive words like ’smarmy’, having ’bodyguards’ and frequently pulling a ’smirk’.
These books are extremely well written, and when my brother was avidly reading the first three through, I just thought of them as ’childrens literature’ that could be tossed on the pile with the mediocre ’Goosebumps’ series, until one day he had them kicking around, so I picked one up and sat in the bath and read a good fair chunk of it. Since then he has given up on the series, calling it ’kiddie’ books and laughing at references to Quidditch. Since then, I have been hooked. I have stolen all three of the original series, bought the fourth one, and have been consistently reading them. I must of read them at least 3 times each, and whenever they are lent out to friends or family, it’s like losing a child!
The plot itself ’trots’ along, and doesn’t introduce you too quickly, but spreads the discovery and excitement of going to a new school that’s dedicated to learning about potions, spells and other general wizadry over many chapters. Other characters in the book like Ron and Hermione become Harry’s sidekicks, but not in a tacky Batman way. Instead of being like Robin from Batman, or Hans Solo from Star Wars, they are active characters rather than sycophants. They seem to all have their own opinions. And by the fourth book, you can pretty much predict what they are going to think of something. This brings me to how Rowling cleverly builds the characters, by the things that they DO, rather than by having a 5-page long narrative saying: ’’Yes, Hermione is brainy, and loves books.’’. Instead of doing a CV on each character, this is determined by the plot.
If I had to sum up my final thoughts about Harry Potter, I must say, I find it very difficult. In terms of characters, the Dursleys, Harry’s foster parents, have to be my favourite characters, because of their evil ways, but likeness to the general British public. Narrative things, like the first sentence: ’’Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were prefectly normal, thank you very much.’’ Words from that page like ’’nonsense’’ just emphasise what their beliefs are over magic and Harry’s school.
So, if you are just about to start, start at the beggining and work your way through. If like me, your now fed up and bothered that theres quite a long wait until HP5 comes out, console yourself with FanFiction.net, where they have hundreds of Harry stories to keep you interested until the fifth installment comes out... Please, if anybody from the publishing company is reading this: HURRY IT UP! We are getting desperate.