About two weeks ago, I found out that the BBC (Blake Book Club) was having a "Good Bye Harry Potter Party". In third grade I read the first three books, got scared, and decided I was done. Determined once more to read the series, I picked up the 4,000 or so page series.
I have noticed a pattern. Rowling writes in detail about the end of summer and the beginning of the school year, skims over fall, detail about Christmas break, skims right into spring, and the last quarter of the book is devoted to the last month of school. I've noticed that the most important part of the book comes in the last month of the story. I wonder if that is a coincidence. I also wonder whether Harry Potter realizes this.
Another interesting topic I believe, is Hermione's love and devotion to freeing house elves. Everyone keeps telling Hermione that house elves are happy where they are, but Hermione brings up the topic of Dobby. Dobby was the Malfoy's house elf and was treated "like vermin" he said. When Harry freed him, he was incredibly happy. I think this is because he was not treated well enough. It seems that Hogwarts' house elves are very comfortable where they are because they are treated kindly and fairly. Something else I noticed was that house elves are afraid that if they are freed they will not be able to find another family, and it will bring shame upon them. I feel really bad for house elves, but at the same time, if they are happy, to each their own.
I've always thought that the house elf issue was really interesting too! I don't necessarily think, though, that Dobby was unhappy because he wasn't treated well enough. I think that he just was sort of an oddball. He had an affinity for repaying wizards who were good to him, but I think that mostly he didn't like the Malfoys because they were Dark wizards. What do other people think???
ReplyDeleteI never really noticed how she mainly focused on certain parts of the year, except for the late summer, which I thought she spent too much time on. I agree with parts of both of your ideas about Dobby. I think he just was a happy-go-lucky elf that loved Harry for freeing. Before that he was treated poorly by the Malfoys, which contributes to his saving of Harry in book seven.
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