Blog Post 2-A Coming of Age

If there is any relying theme I have seen through the Harry Potter books it is coming of age for many of the characters. Before I talk about the obvious one, I would like to address a character that is less obvious.

Ron definitely goes through stages with his age throughout the books. In the beginning, Ron is the youngest Weasley to date going to Hogwarts while everyone predicts who he is just by how he looks and what types of books he is carrying around. He can be very immature, and Ron is actually the most like an 11 year old boy out of the main characters. He is very much into certain sports and hobbies like card collecting. He even seems to have the persona of "girls are icky" when he is around Hermione and even other girls. After a while, he starts to mature a little bit. He starts to actually notice girls, and like every other man, he makes poor decisions to impress the girl of interest. It is obvious by now that Ron has some type of feelings for Hermione. Throughout the books he goes from just being her friend to having times where Harry walks in on a conversation between Ron and Hermione and things get really awkward really fast. Ron also shows he rising maturity as he supports Harry. Instead of just being with Harry side by side in he quest to defeat whatever evil is lurking in Hogwarts, Ron becomes an emotional rock for Harry as well. This only comes with maturity.

Harry, of course, is the classic coming of age character. Harry does have some characteristics of an eleven year old, but he also seems learn his role in life much faster than his peers. By the 5th book, when he is only 15, he knows a huge part of his life is going to be about his feud with Lord Voldemort. Coming of age has to do with not only growing in maturity but also knowing a lot about what you feel your life contributes to the rest of the world. For Harry, he finds out only he or Lord Voldemort can live which is where we are finally going to see what happens in the final installment of the series. Harry does begin to notice girls, and think about what he wants to do as a career, but his ultimate coming of age scenario is his battle against Voldemort. In the 5th book, when Harry faces Voldemort again we all seem to have the thought of "he is NOT ready" when we are reading. By the time this seventh books comes around, we know Harry has everything he needs in his abilities to face, and even defeat, Lord Voldemort. Something only a coming of age theme can capture.