Wednesday, January 23, 2013

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.

1 comment:

  1. I'm really curious at what age you started reading the books. I think that if I started reading the books at this age, with the experiences in literature that I've had now, I would completely agree with you that I wouldn't have thought Snape was the one after the Sorcerer's Stone because he's such an obvious choice. However, when I read the first book at age 5 (so young and naive ;) ), it was my first "big book" I had ever read, and I was thoroughly shocked that it was p-poor st-stuttering Professor Quirell. I'm interested if the experience you had with that is because you were older when you read the novel or you were just a little wiser than I was!

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