My Journey Of Self-Identification With J. K. Rowling's Boy Who Lived

My Journey of Self-Identification with J.K. Rowling’s “Boy Who Lived”

I always wanted to be like Hermione Granger. At five years old, I “swished-and-flicked” a homemade wand. At seven, I pretended that my parent’s yellowed edition of Moby Dick was a magically-disguised version of A History of Magic. Now, while several years have since passed, I put on my figurative “Hermione-cap” when studying for school exams and mustering up the courage to raise my hand in class by accessing her determined work ethic. As a child, I admired this character’s intelligence and outspoken nature, deeply aspiring to acquire her knack for critical thinking and tendency to speak her mind without a concern for outside judgement. As I have grown as an individual,

Namely, when a fellow Hogwarts student, Draco Malfoy, makes disparaging remarks about Harry’s newfound friend, Hagrid, Harry retorts with the sentence “I think he’s brilliant” (84). This is the first scene in which the author displays Harry’s compassion. Similarly, I am unafraid to defend those who I feel are being unfairly bullied or judged as well as express unpopular opinions. Harry’s empathy is later portrayed when a troll is found in the school dungeon and, knowing that his classmate, Hermione Granger, is in the dungeon, states “I’ve just thought - Hermione… She doesn’t know about the troll,” (186) and then proceeds to the dungeon shortly after in order to warn her. Despite the fact that he does not consider Hermione a friend yet, he feels the urge to save her from incoming danger. As someone who prides myself in thinking of others’ even when I do not necessarily like them, I can relate to this element of Harry’s personality. The depiction of Harry’s consideration for those around him is an attribute that I can identify

Rowling’s introduction to her protagonist, Harry Potter, in Harry Potter in the Philosopher’s Stone to be particularly analogous to my own virtues and limitations. The similarity between our personalities is made evident by instances included in this book that reflect Harry’s humble, anxious, sensitive, and impulsive nature, all of which are characteristics that we have in common. Thus, while I admired Harry’s friend, Hermione Granger, the most as a child reading this narrative, I identified with Harry the most as an adult re-reading his story and reflecting on our homogeneous attributes and thought processes. It is true that Hermione Granger represents elements of myself, particularly in academia. I do not dispute this as a fact. Nevertheless, it also remains true that she is predominantly a character who I have strived to emulate, acting as a reminder of who I could be. In contrast, Harry Potter is a character with whom I relate, acting as a candid reflection of myself as I am/unchanged, strengths and weaknesses