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.