J.K. Rowling is an expert at projecting expectations onto her readers, and then as soon we’re hooked she surprises us with a completely different resolution than what we had expected. This is, in part, what I believe makes the stories so interesting. The first time I read through the series (as a girl who was about the age as the members of the trio) I was purely interested in hearing the stories, and allowing Rowling to take me on a journey into the magical world. But as I grew older and was continuing to be more invested in the characters, I began to search for answers. I desperately wanted to discover what would happen between Harry and Lord Voldemort, or if Ron and Hermione would ever get together.
Even as I was searching for these answers, however, Rowling was always one step ahead of me, purposely using details that she knew I (and so many others) would believe was foreshadowing. For example; in the first book I completely fell for the idea that mean Professor Snape was trying to get the sorcerer’s stone and that he had been the one to curse Harry’s broomstick. When it turned out that “poor, stuttering Professor Quirrell” was the actual pursuer of the stone I was shocked! However, this shock made the story more interesting because it meant that I hadn’t found out the ending—like I could in so many other, simpler novels.
This technique of unfulfilled expectations is one of the many that makes Rowling’s work so intriguing. Often times the expectations are fulfilled—a professor was sneaking around Hogwarts in order to steal the stone—but the expectations of the characters in the novel and of the readers (especially the trio) always turn out to be much less extravagant Rowling’s actual conclusion.
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