March 7, 2005
Writing Assignment: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (completed)
Note: If you are my Professor and you have found this paper please be assured that I did not copy it from someone else. This paper was written for Prof. Tim McLaughlin at BHCC for his Children's Lit 2 class for the Spring of 2005.
Writing Assignment: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (completed)
Today it’s hard to even get a child to pick up a book let alone read it. Children want to be stimulated visually but not words on a page, they want flashy visual effects to flicker across a screen. With the growing success of turning movies into loosely based versions of books a child sees no reason to read the book when they can flip open their laptop, open up their favorite internet browser, and add the movie to their online rental queue. With all these other sources of entertainment it’s no wonder that when a parent stops reading to a child because of their age the child feels no need to keep reading on their own. J.K. Rowling has given children a reason to pause in between clicking the send button on their instant messaging system and made them reconnect with the written world and have given them a chance to rediscover reading.
Part of the reason that Rowling has enjoyed so much success is because of her characters. We are able to connect with them, feel for them, and even hate them when we are supposed to. Harry becomes endearing to us and we are able to watch him grow and over come obstacles that he faces in his live that still parallel what any child goes through. When the book starts Harry’s concerns are that of a normal teenage boy. He is a little low on self confidence even though, and probably because everyone seems to expect great things from him. Despite his fame he does not really know how to handle himself which we can see when he encounters the girl he has a crush on, Cho Chang. “She waved and smiled at Harry, who slopped quite a lot of water down his front as he waved back” (84). Even though we can laugh at this we still manage to feel embarrassed for Harry and that quality is so much a part of the appeal of this series.
The series of events that happened though caused Harry to grow in unexpected ways. While he still doubted his abilities and compares himself to others around him he becomes more able to handle traumatic situations that his peers are not able to deal with. Which we see when Harry is one of two students who make to through to the end of the Tri-Wizard Tournament but the only one to make it back alive. Even though he had to deal with the trauma of watching someone else die Harry was able to bring back his dead classmates body to his family. Still for Harry “The worst, perhaps, was meeting with the Diggorys that took place the following morning” (716). Despite everything that he has been through Harry is still able to make reflections that a child his age would and does not become over mature instead he just adapts as the situation calls for.
Laney broke down at March 7, 2005 6:31 PM
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