Analysis Of The Harry Potter Series

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One of the most read series in all literature is Harry Potter. The seven-book succession has sold over 400 million copies and has been translated into over sixty languages. What is it that makes this series so wildly famous? What is it about the boy who lived that makes frenzied readers flock to their local bookstore at midnight on the day of the release to buy the latest installment? How is a story set in a world that doesn’t exist about wizards, witches, magic, and mystical creatures so popular? The series has been able to earn its spot on the New York Times Bestseller list and has granted author J.K. Rowling multiple awards because it is relatable. It is not the setting or the events in the plot of the story that we relate to. We relate to what Harry, his friends, mentors, teachers, caretakers, and even enemies feel. Harry is in a lot of ways exactly like us. He represents some of the good characteristics that all of us have as well as the bad. The series as a whole, is about one thing that is stressed over and over again in the novels, love. The Harry Potter series is one of the most read sequences of novels because the central theme is love and self-sacrifice, and readers are looking for a novel that shows them just that.
Harry eventually learns that he narrowly escaped death because his parents, especially his mother Lily, were prepared to die for him because of their love for him. He was always Voldemort’s intended victim. His father, James, was killed trying to give his mother time to escape with their child. Lily was even given the chance to stand aside and be spared while Voldemort completed the task that he came to Godric’s Hollow, the Potter’s home for. She sacrificed herself to protect her only beloved son, which en...

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...ck and a potential pitfall. Someone full of hate and greed, such as Tom Marvolo Riddle, who has never known it even once in their entire life, cannot understand its full magical power. Love is one of the hardest and strongest kinds of magic and is perhaps the fabric that holds the wizarding world of Harry Potter together. Dumbledore says to Harry “Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all those who live without love” (Harry Potter and the Deathly Halllows 722). The series stresses that it is important to love. It is obvious throughout the series that Harry embraces his history and duty by accepting the soul-purifying act of practicing self-sacrificial love. It is no surprise that the Harry Potter series is so widely in a time of fear, uncertainty, and unrest. Harry defeats evil not by fearing it, but by embracing it and overcoming it with love.

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