Imagination In Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone

Imagination is an important part of growing up for children, and books that explore magical lands encourage the reader to use their imagination and create the world he or she is reading about. From a young age, children use their imagination to create worlds or places to play games. According to the Childtime Learning Center, “[c]hildren today desperately need time and space to develop their creative imaginations free from adult agendas,” This article encourages parents to let their child be creative on their own, whether it would be through reading or creating a world on their own. The article also explores the idea that children not using their imagination are “being fed someone else’s story.” A child’s imagination helps shape them and his

or her own story. Fantasy books explore the idea of magic the most, and are the genre of literature that children are most drawn to. Children are intrigued by the new world, the fictional characters, and the battle most fantasies have between good and evil. According to the textbook, Literature for Children: A Short Introduction, by David L. Russell, fantasy fiction books explore the characteristics of escape, excitement, imagination, and thought-provoking ideas. The textbook states, “Imagination- Because it defies the rules and limitations we know and create its own, fantasy invites us to think about things in different ways; it stretches our minds by giving us worlds and beings we may never have dreamed of before” (p. 205) Fantasy fiction books changes the way we view different worlds, and gives readers a chance to experience a world so unlike their own. Throughout the last few centuries, children’s literature authors have created these magical lands and beings that provoke children to imagine a world that is very different than their own. Magic in literature is attractive to a child, because it helps encourage a child’s imagination, it creates a world that has characters that are relatable for children, and a world that is easy to want to be a part of. Using the children’s book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, this paper is going to explore how the magical world affects child readers.
While all of the fantasy fiction characteristics: escape, excitement, imagination, and thought-provoking ideas, are found in the book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, imagination is a key characteristic in the story.

Without imagination, children would not be able to picture Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, or Hogsmeade. These places are similar to our world, but they are located in a world filled with magic. The book starts by following what seems to be a normal family, and follows the husband, Mr. Dursley through his workday, during his day he encounters people dressed in strange clothes, and strange events happen around him. This leads to the introduction of a magical world beneath the surface of our world. The book focuses on a young boy named Harry Potter, and how he survived the attack by the evil wizard, Voldemort. Of course readers do not get the whole story of what happened when Harry’s parents died until the end, but readers are given clues about the magical world from the very beginning of the book. Readers follow Harry’s life throughout the book, and experience magic with him for most of the story. Harry experiences magic for the first time in chapter five on page 85, “Harry took the wand. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers. He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls. Hagrid whooped and clapped…” In the

beginning readers are shown that magic is something to be proud of, and that it is meant for the good. The book also explores Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which is a school for children between the ages of eleven to eighteen, where they are taught how to use and master magic. On page 133, Harry discusses the classes he has to take, “…once you managed to find them there were the classes themselves. There was a lot more to magic, a Harry quickly found out, than waving your wand and saying a few funny words.” Harry continues on to describe the things he has to do for homework in class, or the classes he has to take that he did not know was a part of magical curriculum. In the beginning, magic is described as something that people learn to control and master, and that its purpose was not for evil.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone begins to explore the theme of good versus evil in the later parts of the book.

Of course readers are given small amounts of information about the evil in the world, but as far as the reader knows, the evil has been defeated. Chapter nine of the book is the first time readers are introduced to the trapdoor guarded by the three-headed dog. This leads to a lot of questions about what is being guarded, and why was it important. The storyline of the book is then centered on the trapdoor, and the sorcerer’s stone that is being guarded. When someone tries to break into the trapdoor to get the stone, Harry and his friends believe it to be Professor Snape, as Harry saw him being patched up from what seemed like a dog bite. For the last chapters of the book, readers believe that Snape is bad guy in this story, but when Harry and his friends follow “Snape” down the trap door to protect the stone from being taken, they find out that they were wrong about their suspect. Finding out the Professor Quirrell was the one trying to take the stone, seemed like the biggest reveal of the story, but it was just one of them. When readers’ find out the Voldemort is trying to return, and that he plans to harm Harry when he is back, readers are intrigued by the storyline. Although Quirrell tries to make Harry understand that there was no good and evil in chapter seventeen, “’I met him when I traveled around the world. A foolish young man I was then, full of

ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it…” (p.291). Quirrell tried to fight that he was not evil, because he believed in taking power, and believed it was not evil to do so. For those who know the series, they know that it is just the beginning of the fight between good versus evil. This whole book encourages the imagination of children, as well as encourages the imagination of parents. Readers would not be able to follow along the journey Harry takes, without being able to visualize this place created by the author, J.K. Rowling.
According to the textbook’s fantasy fiction characteristic of escape, “fantasy can take us far away from our everyday world, to times that never were, to places that never existed; it lets us forget our everyday routines, our frustrations, our anxieties”(p. 205). Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, like other fantasy books, help children escape and explore another world, even if that world is not real. Karin Slaughter a mystery novelist said, “ Reading is not just an escape. It is access to a better way of life.” Being able to invest in characters and a story is an escape for a child that does not make it a bad thing. Reading does let children into a world they wish to be a part of, based on the fact that there is magic and characters they wish they could meet. For instance, children invest in the characters of Harry and Ron, because Harry is the brave, courageous friend, while Ron is terrified of everything, but sticks by Harry no matter what happens. J.K. Rowling wrote characters that are relatable to a child. Some parents question whether it is healthy or unhealthy for children to become so invested and involved in a story. To become involved in this particular genre of books, is not something parents should be concerned about. M.O. Grenby from the British Library discusses moral fantasy or fairytale stories. He points out that although the stories may have supernatural elements, there are still morals behind the story. For this particular book, the morals of the story include: strength, family, friendship, and love. These are morals that are encouraged by parents, and these are displayed throughout the first book, as well as throughout the story.
Harry Potter is a child that has been through a lot in his short eleven years on earth. He lost his parents when he was a baby, and he has lived with family members that are ashamed and disgusted with him. Harry Potter is pointed out to be the protagonist of the story from the very beginning, because he has characteristics that make him relatable to children, as well as characteristics that demonstrate his bravery even in the toughest of times. According to Susan Moore from Catholic Culture,
“Harry himself is devoted to the good and uninterested in petty rivalry. For this reason, more than for the obvious one that he is a star athlete, he excites envy in adults and children whose characters are much less stable and attractive than his is. When they can, these villains do their best to make his life miserable. Their unfair actions typically inspire hatred and fear in readers, just as they do in the lives of the protagonists.”
In most stories and even in everyday life, the hero in a child’s eyes is the star athlete, or someone that is an ordinary person. It is in fantasy stories, and especially in the Harry Potter series, that we are given a character that is not only brave, but he is also humble. According to Maria Nikolajeva, “Another genre that allows harry to be superior in a typically carnivalesque manner is mystery…Harry Potter is very much like these popular heroes. In each novel, he must solve a mystery, using his wits, courage, defiance, curiosity, deduction ability, and not least physical dexterity.” These are all true about Harry Potter; he is a protagonist that is willing to fight against the evil, because he knows what it feels like to lose friends and family to this evil. Readers love Harry, because he is someone they can relate to. Harry Potter is a young boy who is attending school. He has the same struggles as normal children with bullies, as well as similar relationships between friends and family. Readers love this book, because it is in relation to struggles they face everyday, but has the magical aspect that just lures readers in more. The only thing that differentiates the reader from Harry, Ron, Hermoine, or Neville is that these characters are witches and wizards, while the readers are just normal humans.