Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Written by: J.K. Rowling
Cover and beginning chapter illustrations by: Mary Grandpré
Published by Scholastic Inc. in 1997 in NY
Genre: Fantasy
Age: Grades 4-6
Awards: Winner of the 1997 National Book Award (UK), Winner of the 1997 Gold Metal Smarties Prize, A New York Public Library Book of the Year, Winner of the 1998 Parenting Book of the Year, Publisher's Weekly Best Book of 1998, Booklist Editor's Choice, etc.
Summary: In this work, Harry Potter, a boy who has lived with his aunt and uncle since his parents died, receives the great opportunity to leave a house where he is unloved an unwanted in order to go to school at Hogwarts and follow in his parent's footsteps. At Hogwarts he is finally with others of his kind and is free to explore this new world. He finds out he is naturally talented at the most popular sport Quidditch and that he is finally popular for the first time in his life! Harry even takes part in the extremely dangerous quest to rid the world of the most powerful warlock of dark magic--"You-Know-Who" (Voldemort). This thrilling novel takes readers on a detailed journey with Harry as he experiences things he never thought possible.
Response:
I read this book with my banned books class last Spring and was initially skeptical because of all the controversy surrounding the book and because this genre is not traditionally something I am interested in. However, upon beginning this work, I was amazed at how enthralled I became with it. This book is truly a "page-turner." The details J.K Rowling puts in her novel make readers feel that they truly are experiencing this journey with Harry. For example, her description of the wand shop is very detailed. She says "The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B. C. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window. A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair that Hagrid sat on to wait. Harry felt strangely as though he had entered a very strict library...[Harry] looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling...The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic" (82). In just those few sentences, J. K. Rowling uses the following adjectives: narrow, shabby, peeling, faded, dusty, tinkling, tiny, empty, spindly, strict, narrow, piled, neatly, secret, and a few others to describe the atmosphere in the show. These words really bring the reader into the work. She also uses great adjectives to describe the food at Hogwarts. Of this she says they had "A hundred fat, roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes, platters of chipolatas, tureens of buttered pears, silver boast of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce--and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table" (203). Can you not just see the elaborate table spread and taste the food?
This work of high fantasy embodies a struggle between good and evil. Harry is the good and Voldemort is the evil. There is a constant struggle between these two, particularly at the end of the book, where they each try to retrieve the sorcerer's stone. Voldemort wants it for greedy reasons so that he can become immortal, but Harry just wants this important stone to not get into the wrong hands. Because Harry wants the stone for good, not to use it, he is able to win against Voldemort.
This work reveals truths about our own society in that it does show that relationship between good and evil. Certainly the vast differences between these two aspects of our society are not always as explicitly defined as they are in this novel, but they most certainly exist in our society and although this is a work of fiction, it reveals commonalities between this fictitious world and our own. Harry embodies he qualities traditionally associates with the traditional hero in works of high fantasy. He is like the "everyman," who is initially reluctant to take on dangerous tasks, but his morals win him over to do what is best for society. This work also reveals the truth that sometimes if we try too hard to find an answer for something, we miss the most obvious clues that are right in front of us. for example, the mirror of Erised is the mirror of desire, just spelled backwards. Similarly, the inscription on the mirror, which says "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi" (207), to be decoded only needs to be reversed and the letters spaced differently so that it then says I show not your face, but your heart's desire.
One of the many themes in this work is the power of love. The most obvious example of this is shown in the love Harry’s mother has for him, which allows him to be protected from Voldemort. Another theme is bravery. Harry has to be brave in order to go to Hogwarts in the first pace because he has never even been exposed to that part of his life, so he must take a leap of faith in order to except the invitation. His fighting the troll when they knew they had locked Hermione in the room with him. "It was the last thing [Harry and Ron] wanted to do, but what choice did they have? Wheeling around, they sprinted back to the door and turned the key, fumbling in their panic. Harry pulled the door open and they ran inside" (175). It took much bravery for the boys to do that for their friend, which shows another of the themes of this work--loyalty. Hermione repaid the favor by telling the teacher that it was she who wanted to chase the troll so that Harry and Ron would not get into trouble again. Prejudices are also a large part of this book. Students are prejudiced toward Harry because he is supposed to be so wonderful of a wizard because he survived Voldemort's rath once before, yet he knows nothing of the wizard world. Regarding his aunt and uncle, they are prejudiced against him and make him sleep under the stairs, instead of one of their biological son's two bedrooms, because they want to suppress him. This is why they do not allow him to ask questions. They believe that the less they see or hear from him, that perhaps he will really disappear. Making decisions is yet another theme. Harry has to make the decision whether to disobey the teacher’s rules and fly in order to catch the Remembrall or to just let Malfoy destroy it. He also has to decide how to use his invisibility cloak. "The whole of Hogwarts was open to him in this cloak. Excitement flooded through him as he stood there in the dark silence. He could go anywhere in this, anywhere..." "Where should he go?...The Restricted Section of the library. He'd be able to read as long as he liked..." (205). Determination is yet another theme of this book. Hagrid says that if Harry's determined, he will go to Hogwarts. "If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him...Stop Lily an James Potter's son from goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. His name's been down ever since he was born" (58). Harry also shows his determination in wanting to know about the mirror of Erised, even though he knows he was not supposed to go into the room where the mirror was housed. Rebellion and rule-breaking are also prominent themes in this work. Harry breaks the rules by using his invisibility cloak to go to the library late at night, by going into the forbidden hallway, and by flying on his broom and recovering the Remembrall from Malfoy. Success of the letters finally reaching Harry to let him know he has been excepted into Hogwarts sports the theme of success as does Harry's finding platform 9 3/4 and his winning over Voldemort. Desires are one of the most prominent themes of this work. When Harry looks into the mirror of Erised he sees his real family, which is his deepest desire. However, when Ron looks at the mirror he only sees himself and his wining a trophy. Harry wants to escape the reality of his life and find what can no longer be. Harry's support system is lacking at home, but Ron's is not; thus, Harry needs to have that need for love be met in his life before anything else can be a desire of his heart. Dumbledore says that his greatest desire is for socks, something he never gets. In some ways it is selfish, but it is a practical desire. Voldemort's deepest desire is to know what Harry really saw in the mirror, so when he looks into the mirror, he finds out that Harry lied to him to protect the stone. Voldemort wants to use the stone so that he will be able to reek havoc on the world for eternity and so drinking the unicorn blood preserves his life long enough for him to get to the tone.
Some of my favorite passages in this book:
1) The entire scene with the sorting hat. I just love his song! (Please refer to pages 117-118).
2) "There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them" (179). The humor is this quote is so funny, but the passage is true, certain common experiences do truly bring people closer together.
3) "Hagrid, you live in a wooden house" (233). I love Hermoine's honesty and blatant information given in this statement. I love that the girl is the one in this situation with the most reasoning abilities. She really tries to help Hagrid see that his owning a fire-breathing dragon is just not a good idea in his case.
The elements of fantasy in this work: the cat reading a map, an owl in daylight, mysterious letters, a winking snake, a door opening through brink walls (twice), another world existing, a talking hat, flying broomsticks, "bludgers" that fly and try to knock people off their broomsticks while they play Quidditch, trolls, invisibility cloaks, screaming books, metal turning into gold, the Elixir of immortality, dragons, spells, centaurs, unicorns, flying keys, enchanted chessboards, Voldemort's possession of Quirrel's body, and a mirror that sees one's deepest desires.
When this work was first published, there was much controversy about the witchcraft in the book. This was one of the reasons that I was hesitant to read this work at first, since I do not believe that wizardry and witchcraft are the right ways paths to follow in one's life. However, the since I currently hold regarding this book is that 1) it was not intended to promote witchcraft, 2) good beats evil in the book, 3) if J.K Rowling intended the book to be controversial, placing witchcraft in it was certainly a way to get her name out and for the books to become very famous very quickly (who does not want to read a book that stirs that much controversy?), 4) likely if the author would have been a man, the conflict over the book would have been less, 5) J.K. Rowling just has an amazing imagination and knows what elements will intrigue her audience.
Teaching Connections: The teaching connections I have relate to two of the quotes I mentioned above as my favorite from the book. The first idea I have is to have students look at the few songs in the book, especially the one of the sorting hat and have them talk about what tune they sung that to in their minds when they were reading or if they sung it at all. It might be interesting to keep a tally of this on the board and then do a math lesson with the results. The teacher could also bring in different types of music and have students sing the song(s) to the tunes of popular songs to see how that changes the experience.
Another idea is to have students read the passage I selected as another of my favorites form the book about certain experiences that people share that make them really connect with others. The class could have a discussion about this.
Yet another teaching connection would be to do just as we did and have students write, draw, photograph, etc. what they would see if they looked into the mirror of Erised.
