Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone

Over the course of the Women Writers Two course we read and evaluated various texts dealing with feminine issues and literary genres like magical realism, short fiction, poetry, satire and literary theory. The class mainly deals with the idea of fairy tales being fractured or based toward a strong male character leaving the female roles to be minor or “dimmed down” comparatively. We are asked the questions of what makes these fairy tales fractured or feminist and how we can equalize these two fields. Reading different types of literary works including Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone, by J.K Rowling, Transformations by Anne Sexton, The Classic Fairy Tales: A Norton Critical Edition, Don’t Bet on the Prince: Contemporary Feminist Fairy

Tales in North America and England, ed. Jack Zipes, Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future by A.S. King, The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli, and the two honors books, we can see how different others view these ideas to either change or reconstruct fractured fairy tales when comparing them to the original ones. We also see how women writers use this power of changing roles making the females the strong lead roles versus a normal works of literature. Overall the class helped to open up my views on what is a fractured versus feminist tale and showed me how many stories and classic tales were so demeaning and making the female roles so much less to the male counter parts.
While I found each selection or assignment valuable in it's own way the two I found the most valuable was Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone, by J.K Rowling and Transformations by Anne Sexton.

First, when starting the course I found it very beneficial to start with an easier more relatable book like Harry Potter. While the book did not focus on the feminine aspect of the class, but rather the more magical realism of the book. We were still able to make connections to how the characters are portrayed giving the male and female roles equal power in the book. It also helped as an introduction into the more classical fairy tale books bringing up typically fairy tale qualities throughout the book. I also found our second book in the class very helpful, by Anne Sexton as it dove more into the fairy tale and feminist theory in the class. We were able to look at the recreation of some of the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tales look at how they portrayed the different genders and common stereotypes of the characters. One thing seen throughout the book was giving the female characters more of a powerful role and showing how much they were put on a lower level than their male counterparts. Anne Sexton’s Transformations showed me how early fairy tales were not a great influence on little girls and boys showing them typical stereotypes on how they are supposed to act and be a normal society. Anne Sexton breaks the stereotype showing how stories can be both beneficial and have equal

male and female roles helping society grow as an equal.
While I did find every beneficial in it's own way my least favorite selection in the class was our second honors book The Probable Future, by Alice Hoffman.

Even though the book had both aspects of magical realism and feminist theory, I though overall the story was confusing and lacking in any suspense as well as plot. This was also the book I felt that should be taken out of the class as it's the least helpful in overall explaining the values of the class. I feel that there are many other, better books out there that show these values, maybe even The Hunger Games as it has a primary female strong character as well as provides feminist theory and magical realism in the book. The Probable Future besides lacking in showing a true feminist tale, was hard to follow and didn’t have the suspense and plot like the other stores. I felt like it didn’t leave a mark on me as a person and not as effective as the other works in the

class.
Overall I have enjoyed the class as it has opened me up to the problem in many of the stories and classic fairy tales we have today. Even though I was one of four boys in the class I didn’t feel pressured or overwhelmed by any of the material pertaining more to others. I would recommend this class to anyone looking to learn more about or history in literary work as well as dive deeper into conversation about books being role models for kids and how it has affected us as a society. I feel that the class would benefit more taking The Probable Future and replacing it with a different literary work. I fully enjoyed the class and loved learning about the problems and societal genres we have today in our literary works.