Post #1 prompt #2 The unexpected within a linear story

A text that leaves you wanting more is a rare thing indeed. I’ve read many good books that I was completely satisfied by and truly enjoyed the story; yet, their rereading value is low to me. I felt their story was finalized and completed and that I wanted nothing else from neither the characters nor their adventures. Many of these novels were not books of a series, and many of them involved internal conflict rather than the clearly external conflict of Harry. Expectations for books are everything. I have a set of standards and tastes that are or are not satisfied while reading. My brain engages in the novel and predicts the next move the of the character. Novels with internal conflict or have finality to their plot have little left to offer; the character has achieved their goal.

Harry Potter is masterfully crafted to keep the reader engaged and stuck by Harry’s side as he experiences the world of magic and unravels the riddles of the world around him. One of my favorite books A Visit from The Goon Squad deals with multiple character’s points of view, and different time frames in which parts of the plot are reviled before they occur at times by altering the linier progression of the novel. While this may be a very engaging style of writing, it certainly removed the storyteller’s mysticism of telling a tail with an unclear ending. J.K Rowling does a wonderful job of holding her cards close until the last 40 pages of the book and unleashing the ending on the reader. Knowing this, readers try to put together the answer as they read and look for clues and hints along the way.

Suspense keeps Harry Potter incredibly interesting for the reader simply by the virtue of promising an adventure with a succinct ending, clear goals, and plenty of rabbit trails and discoveries along the way. The journey too, is as enjoyable as the ending, making the discovery of clues along the way enjoyable. Finding parts and pieces, some of which are not parts to solving the puzzle, or are perceived incorrectly. One may say that Harry Potter is archetypal in that there is a clear evil and a clear good character who prevails over evil every year of his 7 years of schooling, but I advocate that the character development in each and the method of these adventures are unique in their own ways and hold incredible rereading value. 

-Tom Seiple

Post 1, Prompt 2: Respect the Unexpected

           Let me ask this: where is the fun in expecting the unexpected? What I came to love about the Harry Potter series is that you quickly learned to set aside all expectations. While yes there are certain characters with which you could “expect” to act in a certain way within a given situation, the story itself always lent itself well to the mystery genre. I think that that is what is important about raising an expectation and failing to fulfill it. You bring the reader in, wait until they feel as though they have just “figured it all out” and then take the story in another direction. The reader is left disoriented, possibly frustrated, but in all the right ways. It leaves them to rethink the journey they have just experienced and most likely go back for another read-through.

            In the first Harry Potter book, the reader is led to believe that Snape is the one behind all that is going wrong within Hogwarts. As we, the readers, are following the young trio, we are somewhat restricted to following their thought processes. Nonetheless, it could be said the majority of us believed Snape to be the culprit. We come to learn at the end, however, that Professor Quirrell, along with a bodiless Voldemort, were behind the wrongdoings. The end would be all the more shocking to the young readers of the world, as they may have yet to be exposed to such plot-twisting storylines.

            In the second book, the reader is left conflicted as Hagrid’s connection to the Chamber of Secrets comes to light. Many questions are raised within the book: what is the diary? Who is the heir of Slytherin? Was Hagrid ever really at fault? What is lurking in the shadows, ready to prey on unsuspecting students? While reading with such uncertainties, it is almost impossible to form any sort of conclusion as to what is going to happen. Chamber of Secrets is full of the unexpected. As the books progress, their stories become more and more convoluted, making each one more engaging than the last. I believe readers need to let the experience guide them through the pages, instead of trying to figure everything out for themselves. It makes the journey all the more magical and all the more real.

Blog Post #1 Response: Me, Myself, and Harry

Growing up as a kid, I was a bit quiet at the house. In contrast, I would do this and that in school, getting in trouble all the time for petty things just to do so. I loved the attention of being the class clown. My parents could never understand the abnormality of me being such an extrovert in school, where one is with strangers of a sort, all whilst sitting in my room whenever I'm home just doing sudoku puzzles or reading my Harry Potter books. Initially, my parents loved that I enjoyed Harry Potter, as I'm sure any reasonably logistic parents would. It's a difficult read, especially for that of an 8 year old boy. Ironically, as time went on and the second and third and fourth books came out over the years, I would dive more and more into the realm of Harry Potter and they would get more and more annoyed with the amount of time by which I spent in my room, in my own little Harry Potter world. As I'm sure a lot of the students experienced, Harry Potter became a part of my life. I had a group of friends in fifth grade that I would live day to day in the classroom as wizards and witches with. We all wore our own particular jackets every day, all of which corresponding to our houses of course. We all had our own Harry Potter pencils we used as wands (only during recess, of course). We even kept spellbooks that we would write in as we learned more spells.

Anyways, to the point of all this, Harry Potter affected both me and my social life as a child a great deal; both at home and in the real world of elementary school. I certainly related most with Harry in many ways (besides his bogus Gryffindor House). I am a spitting image of my parents, having the green eyes of my mother and the everything else of my father from my smile to my sporting skills. Harry and I were both kids growing up with too much notoriety from their last name. We both appreciate our friends more than anything else in the world. Due to all of these similarities, I would read Harry Potter with a perspective similar to that of being first-person, even though the story was never written in that fashion. From a psychological perspective, one could go to lengths of saying I was living another life whilst reading Harry Potter. I look back on it now and totally understand why I was so into the books. It was an escape from reality; an awake, lucid dream. I even managed to bring the reality to my school, implementing it into everyday life. Just realized this is twice too long. Done son.

Post #1 Prompt #2 Expect the Unexpected

Throughout the first two Harry Potter books (and the entire rest of the series) there are an extraordinary amount of twists and turns that take the reader on an exciting adventure. Twists are nothing new in literature, and they serve many common purposes in a variety of books. J.K. Rowling mastered the ability to keep her readers guessing throughout her novels. The first two books let us know very early on in the series that things are almost never what they seem in the wizarding world.

          In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Rowling develops Snape’s character in a way that convinces most readers that he must be the one after the Sorcerer’s Stone. Not only that, but she makes the real villain, Professor Quirrel, seem like the most unlikely suspect. The same thing happens in Chamber of Secrets when it seems that Draco Malfoy is the clear Heir of Slytherin, and then the focus turns somewhat to Hagrid, until SURPRISE! The true “culprit” is sweet little Ginny Weasley (and a reincarnation of Lord Voldemort, of course). This combination of expectations causes a number of reactions in the reader when these expectations are not fulfilled. For one thing, these twists keep the reader intrigued and excited, which is absolutely essential to the series—who would continue on reading thousands of pages if you could predict the ending every time? Also, it indicates that people and things are much more complex than they may seem at the surface level. Snape is undoubtedly horrible to Harry, which makes us believe him to be a villain in the first novel, which he still is to some degree. There is no denying that he is a difficult character to like or understand. However, the fact that he was the one trying to save Harry’s life and protect the Sorcerer’s Stone throws a small wrench in our original feelings about him. Ginny Weasley is the sweet innocent girl that we originally thought her to be, but that doesn’t mean that she is immune to evil. It emphasizes one of the main themes throughout the series that you cannot “judge a book by its cover,” or anticipate things about people without knowing their true motivations.

These twists not only keep the reader interested, but they also allow for wonderful character development. J.K. Rowling manages to make so many of her characters dynamic and complex, yet keeps them extremely consistent through seven lengthy and complex novels. I think this shows her brilliance as a storyteller, and takes both talent and skill. The only thing that you can truly expect in her novels is that good will battle evil, but sometimes “good” and “evil” are more difficult to identify than they seem.

Blog Post1: Connections and Experiences

             Perception colors everything we experience in our lives. Our past experiences cause us to see our current situations through the filter of our past.  Reading a book is in many ways similar to having an experience. When you become engrossed in a good book you feel as though you know the characters. You root for them, you empathize with them and you go on their emotional ride with them.

            When I started reading the Harry Potter books I was ten years old. I was convinced that I would be getting my Hogwarts letter any day, but beyond that I felt connected to the main characters through our closeness in age. Since it took J.K Rowling time to write each book by the time the last book was released I was the same age as the main three characters were supposed to be. I connected to them because it felt like I was growing up with them, like they were my friends whose adventures just happened to be written down in a book.

            As far as identifying or not identifying with certain characters the first two books are filled with a lot of exposition and introduction of the characters in the books. Through re-reading the books for this class I realized that most of the character traits I identify with are discovered later in the series as these adolescent characters grow into themselves. I imagine that when I first read the early books I connected with the characters because I we were approximately the same age.

            I am the kind of person that tends to be really good at finding something in common with pretty much everyone I meet. If I spent enough time I’m sure I could run through every character in the first two books and find a similar experience or similar personality trait. I think that this personal trait of mine allows me to see the story through the eyes of the characters which allows for a more intimate experience with the story.

            A person’s experiences in life color everything around them.  This extends into things such as the books we read. Without some connection to the story through previous similar life experience or similar perspectives on life its quite hard to connect to the story being told. 

Blog Post #1: The Act of Expecting.

 “Expectations are scarcely ever fulfilled in truly literary texts”

                Integrating Wolfgang Iser’s opinion into the story that makes up Harry Potter, we can see this be true in several different aspects.  J K Rowling does this by bringing multiple genres together in order to complete the epic that is Harry Potter.  As we discussed in class she brings together these genres each already having an expected outcome.  By Rowling raising and limiting our expectations of characters throughout the novels, we start to go against the conventional outcomes, which will lead to some of them being unfulfilled to only build upon one another.

                In Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone, J K Rowling starts the series off by having the main character already being a hero by unintentionally stopping the villain.  Harry Potter, having no idea who he is, being the outcast of his “family”, is expected to do great things just because of his predisposition to fame and our knowledge of Voldemort.  Ron Weasley, the 6^th child of an all magic family, Hermione Granger the Muggle who surprisingly knows more about magic than both put together, team up with Harry, and together kept the Stone from Voldemort.  Throughout the entire book we were lead on to believe that Snape was the one plotting to steal the stone, when in the end it was someone different with different motives, and up until the end we were, for the most part, convinced Voldemort had been defeated.  Rowling does a great job at having half of our expectations filled.  Yes, ultimately they prevented the stone from being stolen, but we meet Voldemort briefly and he then disappears again, only to be found in a completely different way in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.  Again in the Chamber of Secrets Harry defeats Voldemort/Tom Riddle, however I felt as though that was expected seeing as how in The Sorcerer’s Stone, we know that Voldemort is going to be the tell-tale villain.  What wasn’t expected is Ginny, having extraordinary older siblings, again having predetermined expectations being the one to open the Chamber and writing the messages.

J K Rowling doesn’t want certain expectations to be fulfilled along the way to keep the reader engaged, but if none were fulfilled at all, then people would just get tired and quite reading all together.  Instead, she creates small expectations that are brought up and fulfilled with each novel, while still building upon them to fulfill bigger expectations.

Blog Post 1: Prompt 2

With a seven book series, there has got to be some serious character development for it to stand out as a “great series” and Rowling develops her characters flawlessly, starting with The Sorcerer’s Stone. The character development is crucial in raising expectations, pushing and pulling us as readers to unintentionally assume things about these characters.

I have always found Hermione to be a fascinating character. We first see her as an irritating know-it-all, seemingly blind deaf and dumb to her schoolmates’ distaste for her over-the-top show in classes. She seems rather pompous and arrogant, but she is fleshed out when her feelings are hurt by Ron’s comments before the Halloween feast. She quickly evolves from an annoying character in the background to a major player in the series, which for me was pretty unexpected. Our first impression of her is that she wouldn’t set a toe out of line, and certainly wouldn’t go looking for trouble, and yet she is the one who puts together so much of the Nicholas Flamel information in Book 1, pushing the plot forward and leading us to a very unexpected conclusion. In Book 2, it is Hermione who suggests the Polyjuice Potion, which even she admits, would be breaking about 50 school rules. While she is this extremely “brainiac” type, she also has a rebellious side.

Rereading this series, I have taken a particular interest in Professor Snape. From any angle, he seems like “The Bad Guy” in just about any situation he is in. It seems so obvious that he would be the one to be helping Voldemort reclaim his powers. His hatred for Harry, is affinity for the Dark Arts, his clear preferential treatment of his own house, Slytherin, all point to him being a pretty awful guy. And yet, it is Snape who saves Harry during the Quidditch match; it is Snape who figures out what Quirrell is up to; it is Snape who attempts to stop him on Halloween. We expect Professor Snape to be a relatively flat character, cruel and scary and that’s about it. We are proven quite wrong when he proves to be one of “the good guys” protecting the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Ginny Weasley really begins to play a role in the series in The Chamber of Secrets and she definitely played with our expectations. I personally thought she was acting so strange through a majority of the book because 1-she had a crush on Harry, and like any 11 year old, she didn’t have any idea how to interact with a crush, let alone her brother’s best friend (awkward), and 2-she was 11 and a bunch of really awful and terrifying things were happening at Hogwarts, so no wonder she was constantly scared and anxious. SURPRISE! She’d been doing all those terrifying things! Definitely didn’t expect little Ginny Weasley to be the one opening the Chamber of Secrets and terrorizing the school the entire year. Many times we as readers were reminded that the Chamber of Secrets required knowledge of an immense amount of dark magic, so the last thing we would expect would be a first year to pull all that off. All she wanted was a place to release all those awkward preteen feelings, and for a while she found that in Tom Riddle’s diary.

Even Riddle’s diary misdirects our expectations. We think it is a reliable journey into the past, when in reality it was the key to unlock the Chamber of Secrets. We think Tom is an admirable student, and very similar to Harry, (and in many ways he is, setting up more expectations in reference to links between himself and Harry for later in the series). For one thing, I didn’t expect Tom Riddle to be, not simply evil, but the Heir of Slytherin. I also didn’t expect him to be what he hates most, a non-pureblood wizard. From what we have learned through the first book and a half of Voldemort, we unintentionally assume he must be a pureblood, so the revelation that his father was a Muggle takes readers for a loop.

More than anything, we must remember to expect the unexpected in this series. These are some highlights of unexpected twists within the first two books, the largest ones that will continue to evolve through the series. But even smaller characters, like Dobby, twist our expectations, (I couldn’t believe Dobby was the Malfoys’ house elf because he was trying to save Harry, or that he was behind so many strange things like closing the platform and trying to hurt Harry in Quidditch.) Rowling sets us up only to knock us down with twists that in the moment seem unbelievable, but upon looking back seem so clear. She puts pieces together that don’t seem to fit but that create an infinitely more interesting story than the one we would expect. 

Blog Post # 1Prompt # 2: Leaving you wanting more..

In Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets J.K. Rowling does a magnificent job at keeping you on the edge of your book, as I call it. You constantly want more information than given. Which causes you to cook up your own thoughts on the matter at hand. For instance, in Chamber of Secrets the conversations that Harry, Ron and Hermione have about who opened it up makes you think that it was possibly Draco Malfoy due to them believing he is the heir of Slytherin. Since I, like most readers, am on Harry’s side they believe it to have been Draco. But then when Harry and the rest of Hogwarts find out that he is a Parselmouth, the student’s start to second guess him and think that he is the heir of Slytherin who opened up Chamber of Secrets and is out to get certain people.

With all these different events happening with not a lot of details, you begin to be determined to figure out who it is and what all is happening in the book. But J.K. Rowling does so well with not giving too much away. So you believe what you think is true then when you find out the full truth with all the details your jaw drops. Like mine did when I found out that Ginny was the one who opened up Chamber of Secrets. In reality it was Ginny but she was tricked by Tom Riddle, aka Voldemort and his journal into opening it up.

By raising an expectation and then failing to fulfill it you are able to see the beauty in the plot of the story and the writing of the author. For instance, when students at Hogwarts were thinking Harry was the heir of Slytherin you were able to see at the end that things are not always what they may seem. When Dumbledore explains to Harry about him having some of Voldemorts powers from the night he gave him the scar it made you look at the previous readings in such a different way. So, perspective truly is everything.

Blog Post #1, R. 2, A Journey of Expectations

The expectations that were raised and left unfulfilled in the Chamber of Secrets are the most interesting to me. These raised expectations made my reading experience a more exciting one. I believe good authors do this so that the readers can participate in a journey of discovery along with the characters and story-line.

There are large expectations raised in both the Sorcerer’s Stone and the Chamber of Secrets. This includes that Snape tried to steal the sorcerer’s stone, Malfoy was the heir of Slytherin, and Tom Riddle was an honest, good student. The Chamber of Secrets has some of my favorite unexpected plot twists though, because they are less obvious. By less obvious, I mean that the reader often doesn't even realize that she or he was expecting certain events to happen. Some examples of this include something as simple as Harry not being able to make it through platform 9 and ¾ or as complicated as Harry being associated with Slytherin. It seemed as though making it through the platform and having nothing in common with the evil Slytherin house was a given. Another example, I didn't even realize until reading the book again, was that I expected Ron, Hermione, and Harry to fight the final evil together. However, Hermione is petrified many weeks before the final battle against the basilisk. These are just a few of the many examples throughout the book series. Many expectations are raised, throughout the reading, as a natural product of someone actively engaging in the novel. Leaving those expectations unfulfilled and continually raising new expectation is the job of a good author and why readers continue to read. If readers knew exactly what was going to happen to Harry, there would not be a point to go on this amazing journey with him. 

Blog #1 Response #2

In the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, one can find more often than not that expectations are rarely fulfilled. One of the first and the main expectations presented is there being something different about Harry Potter. He is not the average suburban English boy. This knowledge of how Harry Potter is different presents another expectation, which is that Harry is destined for greatness. But the reader can assume that this greatness may just involve succeeding in school or sport, but Harry is the “Boy Who Lived,” and he has no idea why and how this will affect the rest of his life. When Harry Potter defeats Professor Quill/Lord Voldemort in achieved a form of greatness that other first year students could mostly likely not have achieved.

Although Harry Potter being destined for greatness is an expectation that is met in the first book, an expectation that is not met is the assumption that Professor Snape is the one who wants to steal sorcerer’s stone. From the first time the reader meets Professor Snape, J.K. Rowling presents as a shady character. Snape dislikes Harry, even though Harry has no idea why. Snape wants to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, but he does not get the job. Harry learns that Snape also was in Slytherin when he was at Hogwarts. There is not a witch or wizard who did not go bad, who was not in Slytherin. Every aspect of who Snape is presents him as the bad guy. So the reader, along with Harry, assumes that Snape is the one trying to steal the sorcerer’s stone. That expectation is obviously not filled when it turns out that Professor Quill/Lord Voldemort are the ones trying to steal the sorcerer’s stone.

For some reason in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, I did not think that Dobby was being serious when he said that something bad is going to happen at Hogwarts. I was expecting that he was going to be wrong and everything was going to be fine, but that expectation was completely shattered when Harry started hearing voices and I remember being fourteen and thinking, “oh boy…here we go again.” I think it is important to have expectations that are not fulfilled because it keeps readers on the edge of their seats. They want to keep reading and it really moves the action along. 

Blog Post #1 Prompt #2: Through Harry's Eyes

One of the ways J.K. Rowling leaves inquiries unexplained is by telling the story through Harry’s eyes. We really do not learn anything that Harry does not learn; and Harry constantly wants to know more about the mysteries of his past and the past of his fellow characters (Snape, Voldemort, Dumbledore, Hagrid).

There are many expectations begun in the first two Harry Potter books.  Some are fulfilled, some are not.  However, the important ones leave us wanting more.  This is what pulls us to keep on reading the series.  Without expectations being ignored, any literary text would be quite boring. We would find out the answers to what we were wondering and be done with it.  After reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone I had many questions that I yearned to have answered.  These included: Why did/does Voldemort want to kill Harry so badly? What happened to Voldemort after he was thwarted yet again by Harry in the end of book 1? How exactly did Lily Potter’s “love” protect Harry so powerfully? What are Severus Snape’s intentions at Hogwarts? And why does Harry seem so magically advanced for his age? 

There is a tone at the end of book 1 that is teasing.  It suggests there is much more to be revealed.  Harry’s conversation with Dumbledore in the hospital wing is foreshadowing and intriguing.  Dumblesdore leaves Harry wanting more, and therefore I wanted more.  As I reader, I often felt what Harry was feeling, which most of the time was curiosity.  After reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, my questions were: Is the Malfoy family working for the Dark Lord? Who is the heir to Slytherin? Why and how can Harry speak to snakes? Why does Professor Snape loathe Harry so much? And how exactly was Voldemort able to live through an inanimate object? Some of these questions were explained by the end of book two, while others were left open-ended. We were also led to believe that Hagrid’s giant spider Aragog is the monster roaming the corridors and causing havoc.  This assumption, of course, is not true. The vital questions that keep the story alive through all seven books certainly were left unanswered. For example, it seems as though Harry has some unfulfilled destiny; we the readers, have no idea what it is at this point, or why it is so.

                The text does indeed alter our expectations of what is to come.  We expect that Draco Malfoy is the heir to Slytherin and that Harry must find a way to prove it!  Yet, it turns out Draco is innocent in this case.  By the end of book 2 we want more answers than ever. Through Harry’s eyes we are eager, and through Harry’s eyes we have got to get to the bottom of it. 

               

Blog Post 1: What Should we Expect When Reading Harry Potter?

“Expectations are scarcely ever fulfilled in truly literary texts” (Wolfgang, 53). This statement can be considered accurate while reading the Harry Potter series. J.K. Rowling does an excellent job of allowing the reader to make his/her own expectations for what is to come in the story. But because of the series being heavily influenced by the mystery genre, as we discussed in class, these expectations are often turned upside-down by the end of the novels.

In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Rowling’s audience has many expectations for the future of Harry. We expect that Harry will be rescued from the Dursleys, Draco Malfoy is going to be a thorn in Harry’s side, that Harry will accomplish great things, Professor Snape is not to be trusted, that there is a reason Voldemort killed Harry’s parents and many more. Well as a reader we quickly learn that Harry is rescued from the Dursleys, Draco is a constant annoyance to Harry, and Harry does accomplish great things. But some expectations are not met in this story as well. We still are uncertain as to if we should trust Snape, even though he did attempt to save Harry, and we still are uncertain of Voldemorts reasoning for killing Harry’s parents and attempting to kill Harry as well.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets we expect Harry to spend the majority of the summer with Ron’s family (due to the way in which the first book ended), we expect Harry to return to Hogwarts, Malfoy is the heir of Slytherin, Hagrid is the one that opened the chamber of secrets in the first place, that Tom Riddle is a stand up individual, and many more. But as we now know Harry does not spend the entire summer with Ron, harry does return to Hogwarts but not without a multitude of problems, that Malfoy is not the heir of Slytherin, that Hagrid did not open the chamber of secrets, and that Tom Riddle was actually Lord Voldemort.

Throughout Rowling’s novels the reader is given the ability to come up with an infinite amount of expectations about what will or will not happen to Harry and his friends at Hogwarts. Some expectations are met while others are not. Some expectations prove to be completely wrong, such as the audience’s initial perceptions of individuals like Professor Quirrell and Tom Riddle. As to why Rowling chooses to fulfill some expectations and ignore others, one would assume that it makes for a much more interesting story that way. When reading a novels such as the ones in the Harry Potter series it is almost more of a satisfactory reading because expectations are not met and sometimes even turned on their heads. In my opinion, coming to the realization that Professor Quirrell was in league with Lord Voldemort made the novel that much more interesting. Also considering the expectations that are not even addressed by Rowling, such as the reason behind the murder of Harry’s parents, keeps the audience infatuated with the novels. Keeping things from the reader allows for them to retain interest in the story. 

Blog Post #1 - Prompt #2 ; JK Rowling. . . Can we ever believe her character's first impressions?

The Harry Potter series has widely been recognized as being part of several different genres. In class, we have discussed several of these, including fantasy, mystery, and even elements of a gothic sense. In response to this prompt, I will be focusing on the mystery aspect of the first two novels of Rowling’s award winning series: The Sorcerer’s Stone and The Chamber of Secrets respectively.

Contrary to popular belief, the biggest mystery in the first novel is not whether or not Harry is actually a wizard, because, quite frankly, it’s obvious to the reader that he is indeed a wizard even if he himself does not know it. The biggest mystery centers around the many journeys of Harry around the castle, as well as several encounters between Professors Quirrel and Snape. I believe that the largest expectation raised in the first book is the following: Professor Snape is attempting to get past all the professor’s defenses to steal the sorcerer’s stone for himself. Several different occurrences around the castle lead readers to believe this. For example, Snape threatening Quirrel in a corridor Harry stumbled upon when looking in the restricted section of the library for information on Nicholas Flamel, Snape being seen with wounds to his leg, presumably from Fluffy, Snape must have released the troll in the dungeon to occupy the castle’s occupants while he tried to steal the stone, and, finally, Snape once again threatening Quirrel in Harry’s midst.

All of the incidents above turned out to be completely wrong; as the real perpetrator of the crime was Professor Quirrel, who also just happened to have a manifestation of Lord Voldemort implanted on the back of his skull.  

I believe that it is important to raise an expectation in a book because it engages the reader in what they are reading. Without expectations, I believe that there is nothing to look forward to in a book; and, therefore, no real reason to continue reading.

  

Blog #1 Prompt #2

Iser’s evaluation of truly literary texts applies to the first two Harry Potter books because they produce expectations that are not fulfilled which turn into more and more expectations. The expectations that are raised are that Harry Potter is destined for greatness, Dumbledore know more than what he lets on, Snape is the bad guy, the heir of Slytherin, and Voldemort is still trying to kill Harry for whatever reason. The expectations are raised in order to enhance the reader’s understanding of each character and how their personalities and intentions tie in with the other characters and the overall plot.

One of the expectations that is fulfilled  is that Harry Potter is destined for great things. This expectation was first raised by the wand maker in Diagon Alley when Harry first bought his wand. He made the comparison because both Harry’s wand and Voldemort’s wand share the same core. Voldemort did some extremely terrible things but they were great things. They were things that people  never imagined could be done. Harry does prove that he is destined for greatness. He saved the sorcerer’s stone and he saved Ginny Weasley in the Chamber of Secrets. In order to save the stone, he had to fight off Lord Voldemort who was living inside of Professor Quirell’s body. In order to save Ginny in the Chamber of Secrets, Harry had to kill a basilisk and kill Tom Riddle’s diary. Even though he had a lot of help from Dumbledore, Hermione, Ron, and Hagrid, he did some great things in his first two years of school because no matter how much help he received he had to face Lord Voldemort alone. Harry also shows that he is destined for greatness because he has the ability to make some good decisions by surrounding himself with positive people at the age of 11. He sees that Malfoy is not a good person and he distances himself. The next expectation that is fulfilled is that Dumbledore knows more than what he claims to know. In the Sorcerer’s Stone, he was able to tell Harry exactly why Professor Quirell/ Voldemort could not touch his skin. In the Chamber of Secrets, he knew that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were trying to solve the mystery and he told Harry what to do if he needed his help.

One of the unfulfilled expectations in the Sorcerer’s Stone is that Professor Snape is the bad guy and the one trying to steal the Sorcerer’s Stone. However, we find out at the end of the novel that it was Professor Quirell trying to steal it for Voldemort. In the Chamber of Secrets, we are led to believe that one of the students is the heir of Slytherin. We were right that one of the students was opening the Chamber of Secrets but she was not the heir of Slytherin. Tom Riddle aka Lord Voldemort is the heir of Slytherin and he controlled Ginny Weasley through a preserved version of his 16 year old self place in a diary.

It is important to raise an expectation and then fail to fulfill it. It is important in one way because it produces a Red Herring. We are given clues that what the character sees is reality when it is really not. It is similar to real life in that hardly anything is ever what it seems to be. There is always more to the story.

Satisfaction of Unfulfilled Expectations (post1)

There are a few key words in Wolfgana Iser quote that I fill if defined will give a specific meaning or interpretation to saying.  The first is the word expectation.  What is an expectation?  When I first think of this word I have positive associations to it.  It makes me think of synonym such as hope, or something that is good/ great to come.  But then as we briefly touch on class what is “greatness?”  What I think it comes down to is that expectations do not have to be good or bad, it is just something that is anticipated, something that has yet to be resolved.  When reading if the text dictates our expectations then if they are fulfill or not are not necessarily good or bad. 

                In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer Stone, I would have to say that my greatest expectation was that Harry would untimely confront and stop stealer from retrieving the sorcerer stone.  I did not think that Snape was the person trying to take the stone; this is because I thought it was too obvious and he was too easy a guess.  In a way part of my expectations were meet in another they were not.   The reason for the first part of my expectation was that Harry is the main character, who even Ollivander said “we can expect great things from.”  In general I think that people make expectations on past expertness and in previous novels/stories the little guy raises and proves himself.  Harry had grown up his whole life being put down, not given love or any singes of affect, and no less being force to live in a cupboard under the stairs.  It is no surprise when at the end he has all his admirers and friend sending gift while he is recovering from his heroic actions which saved the wizarding world one more time form the one that all fear the most.  So what I expected came true in a sense, but I had no idea that it was Professor Quirrell that was the one attempting to bring the Dark Lord back to power by means of eternal life through the stone. 

                My expectations were not I would have to say not fulfilled. Because in a sense they were partly were.  But I think it is worth pointing out too that expectations are not always raised.  A text can lower someone expectations then at the end rise then proving to be brilliant.  Say a book is not that great and that it has a lot of slow spots and much is expected to happen at the end.  The author then might surprise the readers and come up with a brilliant ending that strikes home even more due to the boring set up.   By the way this is defiantly not how I perceive the Harry Potter series at all.  When expectations are not meet I think that it reminds the audience that they are not in control, that they do not know everything.  When this happens it makes life more exciting, like and adventure, as Bilbo Baggins would say “not knowing where the road may take you.”  It makes reads want more.  By not satisfying the readers expectations authors are satisfying there interest and imagination.