Book+Project

__ Book Project - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone __ (You can find the web-page if you click here: http://hp-readingproject.wikispaces.com/) __ The Author __ Joanne Kathleen Rowling is one of Britain’s most best-selling authors for writing the Harry Potter-novels. Rowling was born 31 July 1965, in a town called Yate some miles northeast of Bristol. In her childhood she moved a lot around with her family in her home country, which means she got a lot of new experiences, views and ideas in her later years

Actually, Rowling began to write when she was very young and she was a bright reader. The first book she wrote was a book called “Rabbit”, a book about a rabbit who got the measles.

Even though she moved a lot, she got a good education at different schools. That is where she Harry Potter. "Hermione is loosely based on me. She's a caricature of me when I was eleven, which I'm not particularly proud of." Rowling says. When she attended college she met Sean Harris, who is one of Rowling’s best friends. He is the person who was probably the inspiration to one of the main characters; Ron Weasley.

When she had finished her education she began to work. She moved to Paris where she taught in Literature at a university before she moved back to London to work as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International.

It was when she was at the train journey to Manchester she first imagined the main person; Harry Potter. “He just came down the aisle in a full formed way”.

However, the same year Rowling’s mother died from the battle of a long time disease and this affected her writing. Although suddenly it was easier to settle inside Harry’s mind, because now she could feel the loss Harry had experienced too.

As she started to write the first novel, she moved overseas, this time to Portugal, where she actually met her ex-husband, Jorge Arantes. Together they got a child, Jessica Isabel Rowling Arantes. However, after a short marriage she settled down not very far from her sister in Edinburgh. During this time Rowling was diagnosed with clinical depression, and contemplated suicide. Luckily she recovered enough strength to continue with writing the rest of the Harry Potter-story.

When Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published, she again regained new energy to keep writing while she did some other charity work in different places in the world.

Rowling is a close supporter of defeating poverty giving a huge amount of money to those who need it the most, especially in Ethiopia because of poverty, suffering and damages. She is also engaged with supporting “One Parent Families”, probably because she is a single parent herself. In this organisation Rowling is also the President, although she is even busy with being a honourable member of Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain. Here she has contributed money and support for research and treatment of the disease, probably because her mother sadly died of it 20 years ago.

As you can see Rowling has always been one of those people who never gives up. She has always something to do, even if it is writing or supporting charities which she finds helpful.

__ Character Analyzes __

In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, there are many interesting characters, but for this topic I will write about the main person; Harry James Potter.

//__ Physical Harry Potter: __// Harry is apparently a mirror image of his father. He has black and quite untidy hair; however his clear green and almond-shaped eyes are clearly more similar to those of his mother. Harry is also described as “small and skinny”, with a rather thin face and knobble knees, mostly because of his poor rising with the Dursley’s. Not to forget more similarities between Harry and his parents, Harry also wears round glasses which his father did.

Something else (which Harry is actually proud of) is his lightning bolt-shaped scar in his forehead. The scar is only of the failed Killing curse that Lord Voldemort casted when he killed Harry’s parents. Nevertheless, this scar is burning whenever Voldemort is near Harry and when he is feeling particularly strong emotions.

How Harry is characterized is important to catch the sympathy of the reader. It starts from the very beginning where Harry is described as very small, thin and skinny while his cousin, Dudley, on the other hand, is described as big and fat, and needs to use at least to chairs to get enough place. Dudley is also very spoiled and rude, which Harry is not. This makes the reader feel very sad because it’s terrible that Harry who recently has lost his parents has to live in this dysfunctional and cruel family. The sympathy grows more and more, until he gets his life turned upside-down: He starts at Hogwarts and makes friends and for the first time he feels that he’s got a home.

//__ Emotional and Psychological Harry Potter __//// : // During Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Harry’s personality changes a lot throughout the book. The first time we get to know Harry properly is while he’s living with the Dursley’s. As mentioned before, they don’t treat him as well as they should. This reflects back to Harry, who feels worthless, hated and shameful. He doesn’t dare to speak against the Dursley’s because he doesn’t know what’s going to happen to him if he does so.

For 11 years Harry has felt very shy and worthless. The day that he learns that he’s a wizard is also a turning point for his personality. That is actually the same day as he finds out that his parents weren’t killed in a car crash as the Dursley’s been telling him all along, but that they were killed by Voldemort. So possibly for the first time in his life he wants revenge, not only on the horrible Dursleys, but also on Voldemort as Harry doesn’t know so much about yet in person.

At Hogwarts Harry’s personality clears up once more. As he’s going through the Sorting-ceremony at the beginning of the year, he get sorted into Gryffindor where only the brave, loyal and selfless are sorted into, which indicates that m Harry has three of those important characters within his personality.

"//Hmm. Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes - and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting... So where shall I put you?//" – Sorting Hat to Harry from the ceremony.

Hermione also tells Harry that he has a “saving-people-lives”-thing – which means he will go into great lengths and take great risks in order to help others, particularly his loved ones. This probably has a connection to his parents decease.

Rowling is really good at describing people, by telling how people look. Throughout the book new characters are introduced and those descriptions make it easier to imagine all the different situations. Rowling has also used her imagination with her selection of names. As I have written before, a lot of the characters and location are memories from Rowling’s childhood. For the name Harry Potter she has this comment: “I got the name Potter from people who lived down the road from me in Winterbourne.. I liked the surname, and I took it”. Rowling has actually mixed the characters’ name with their personalities by using other languages. The name Voldemort, for instance, has many different meaning which are a bit relieving over his vicious personality. In Polish the word //vwolde//, means representative, and in French, //mort//, means death, so eventually the name Voldemort means probably representative of death. However in Arabic word, //demuhrt//, means dark wizard.

With Rowling’s creative mind, this also makes the story beyond the characters more interesting while knowing their looks in a clear way that also makes the book exciting to read!

__ SUMMARY __ Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is the first book of the most selling book series of Harry Potter. It was published in 1997 and has sold over 120 millions editions worldwide, which means it’s extremely popular. Through 223 pages we get to learn about a wondrous world which has not only encouraged children, but also grownups as well.

However, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” is mainly about Harry Potter and his world. The first time we meet him is when he’s just a parentless infant, after his parents were killed by the darkest wizard in the world called Voldemort or “You-Know-Who”, as people like to call him. For the next 11 years he lived with his nearest relatives, the Dursley’s who doesn’t treat him as they should have done. Luckily after 11 long years with unfair, restrict and deep gloom Harry finally discovers that he’s a wizard, by getting an invitation to attend “Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry”. This is Harry’s first meeting with a quite opposite world, quite different from what he’s used to.

At Hogwarts everything is interesting. Learning magic, wandering around in the castle, flying brooms – everything except Potion (a subject at their school) with a teacher who hates Harry the most. However, he gets two close friends who stand by him through everything, straight to the end of the school year where he meets the “You-Know-Who” again, more dangerous than ever.

The locations in “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s” in the book are typical British and so are the characters. London plays a role in the book and Hogwarts is located between the Scottish hills and lakes.

The characters are also making it quite British. They are polite, helpful and – different, while everyone has different qualities. However, the historic time is not set yet.

Throughout the book we get to know Harry in a proper way, mostly because Rowling has written the book in 3rd person. That signifies that we get to know what is going on through the storyteller like how people look and the surroundings, and not to forget which is probably most important; we get to know Harry’s feelings and thoughts in many and different situations.

“Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” is a classical fantasy novel, a magical mix between reality and fiction. In the beginning it’s extremely equal to our society, but as the number of pages reduces, the more fictitious it gets. Magic, creatures and the wizard’s society is what makes the book steal most of my interests. Rowling has also used the old traditional theme which is the battle between the good and bad.

I think this project was both good and bad in many ways, first I will begin with the positive.
 * __ Evaluation __**

Reading a book in another language is great. However, it was a bit difficult to find a book that catches my interests; luckily I found one of the many James Bond-novels written by Ian Flemming. I found it interesting to read a James Bond Book, instead of just watching the movies and to see if they are at the same level of excitement. Unlucky the book was divided into two parts and I didn’t reach the end, and I didn’t find the last part either, so I actually began reading Harry Potter, which I have read before, but I did it only to catch up again.

Luckily the Harry Potter books are always enjoyable to read, not only one time, but 100 times. Every time I read one of the books there are always something new and undiscovered. In my case, I have not read “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” so much, compared to other Harry Potter-books.

However, the reason why I think I have not read it so many times as the other six Harry Potter- books is probably because I feel “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” is actually more like an introduction to the other books, which I find great, because this book leads into Rowling’s massive universe of magic.

Why I find Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone so fascinating is because how Rowling writes. The first thing I noticed was the language, which in my opinion makes it easy to read. She also has some great descriptions of people and places which almost makes it very realistic. The last thing, which is probably the most important element in reading a book, is that there are always catching moments whether they are thrilled, interesting or hilarious.

Well, all to an end, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is one of the many best-selling books in the world. If you have read all the other books you would probably say the same thing about the first book is more like an introduction to the other 3184 pages of Harry’s life, and of course the introduction gives a clue of what the story contains, which is thrilling and creates excitement, you meet breath-taking and laughter-full situations, which I mean a book should contain to be fulfilled.

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