J.K. Rowling's set of Harry Potter books are some of my favorite reads I have encountered so far. Starting in the first of the series perseverance is a common theme. Harry, who comes from an extremely difficult background does not allow anything to get in his way. Although new to the magical world he meets every challenge with unwavering strength and perseverance. He does not fully understand the capabilities and dangers of magic and his new life but yet he drives on to get to the answers he needs. Harry is a new wizard and able to practice minimal magic at best, yet he drives on with his group of misfits to uncover the evil plans going on within Hogwarts. The group faces seemingly impossible tasks and even with the threat of death or even worse, being expelled they pull through with their combined strengths to uncover things that even fully experienced wizards and witches could not. All of this and not to mention his childhood, he makes it through attempted murder by one of the most powerful and evil wizards and also survives an abusive home situation. In one book this author shows how strong Potter and his sidekicks can be and theme only strengthens throughout the series. It is in many ways a great lesson to those who struggle.
I was so excited when I realized we got to read Harry Potter for this class. The series is so wonderful, it takes you away to a make believe place but yet has many parallels to real life. Harry Potter is an abused child, in no way is his home life acceptable. Regardless of magic or no magic Harry shows impeccable character and faces every struggle with courage and perseverance. Yes, he has a good group of friends to help him but imminently it is on him to do what is necessary. Harry shows that life can knock you down but with friends and family you can persevere to become something great.
Perseverance ... Harry Potter shows us that one individual can endure an awful lot. I think that J.K. Rowling is really showing us how much we can all handle. So many individuals face challenges of all shapes and sizes every day. The Harry Potter stories show us a good example of how many different types of people can endure all kinds of things.
ReplyDeletePerseverance is definitely a predominate theme in the works we have looked at so far. Harry Potter displays a great deal of perseverance as he suffers through his horrible life with the Dursleys. After the things they put him through, many people would just give up hope altogether. This perseverance continues during his time at Hogwarts while he has to deal with many challenges like Malfoy and Snape. He also refuses to give up on his quest to find answers when it came to the mystery surrounding Voldemort and the sorcerer’s stone. Ree Dolly, in Winter’s Bone, also displayed a similar degree of perseverance in her relentless effort to find her father’s whereabouts and protect her family.
ReplyDeleteThis was also the theme that I chose to analyze for the series. I read a little bit about JK Rowling and the different metaphors that she uses in the book. The whole series is meant to kind of be about perseverance and triumph in the face of complete despair. She definitely does a good job at showing this in many different ways with all different characters. In the end we see so many of the characters (both good and bad) overcome so many different obstacles.
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