Blog Post #1 Expectations

I think in the Sorcerer's Stone most people expected Snape to be after the stone. I know I did when I read it the first time. I think JK Rowling set Snape up to see like the bad guy because it wouldn't be as good of a story if we expected the right person right away. I figured Voldemort would have something to do with it in the end but I didn't expect Quirrell at all. All of the clues that Harry, Ron and Hermoine were discovering all pointed to snape. There was the Quidditch game when Snape wouldn't break his concentration on Harry and then he was always bullying Quirrell into giving up something. To me, Quirrell was a much weaker character than Snape so it seemed much more likely that Snape was doing all the planning to get the stone than Quirrell. Harry, Ron, and Hermoine seemed to get it in there minds that Snape was the one after the stone and then any consideration of anyone else didn't happen. All of the signs pointed to Snape for them so they believed it could only be Snape and I think the reader follows them and expects it to be Snape too. In Chamber of Secrets, the same kind of thing happens. Harry, Ron, and Hermoined expect Malfoy to be the heir of Slytherin and so the reader goes along with them and expects Malfoy too. I expected Malfoy that Malfoy had something to do with it or at least his father since they are very in to dark magic and in the beginning of the book when Harry sees the Malfoys in Borgin and Borkes the reader finds that there are all kinds of objects full of dark magic in the Malfoy's house. This really increased my expectation that the Malfoy's had something to do with the chamber of secrets. This along with Harry, Ron, and Hermoine thinking it was Malfoy really increases the expectation. But it's never the person you expect. After they use the polyjuice potion and find out it isn't Malfoy I didn't really know who to expect, and I defintely didn't think it was Tom Riddle and neither did Harry. I think the reader is very heavily influenced by what Harry, Ron, and Hermoine expect. Riddle accused Hagrid of opening the chamber, but I think most people like Hagrid and I don't get the feeling that Hagrid has the ability to open the chamber or scare all those people. I think this is the first sign that Riddle may not be who he seems but it still doesn't raise much expectation of him.

Blog Post #1: What to Expect

I remember my first time reading the Harry Potter series as I was growing up with the books and expecting a lot of things that did not happen. In the first book, I expected Snape to be the ultimate bad guy next to Voldemort. I was really buying into the facts Harry, Ron, and Hermione were seeing when it comes to Snape finding the Sorcerer's Stone. All clues seemed to fall right into place, but as we know now we were all wrong. Snape was not the person going for the Stone. Professor Quirrel was the one going for it which was a shock because he was not mentioned in the book very much at all unless it was through passing. What I REALLY did not expect was Voldemort being a parasite on the other side of Quirrel's head! WHAT A SHOCK! However, I did expect Voldemort to be involved in one way or another. I just had expected it to happen in another way. Also, since the book did have Harry's name in the title, I expected him to be in the story until the end. What kind of a book would it be if the title of the book has nothing to do with the main plot?

The second book was very hard for me to predict. I remember ultimately wanting Malfoy to be the bad guy at the end of the book. I hated him by the end and I just wanted him gone. However, it really would not be a good thing for the series if they killed him off so early. I guess it was a good thing to do to not really have him be involved. I was very surprised at the use of Tom Riddle. Reading how Riddle switched the letters to be come Voldemort was astonishing my opinion, and I definitely did not see that coming! When it seemed like Harry was cornered, I was at the point of not knowing what to expect. Any inkling of what I thought could happen at this point was NOT happening so I just decided to go with the words on the page. I thought the use of Fawkes was very creative and making Harry believe he is a "true Gryffindor" by pulling the sword out of the sorting hat was really cool.

The first book was a little bit more predictable than the second, but both were still not too easy to predict. I really did not see the major twists at the end coming, and that is ultimately what kept me reading the books. I know I can expect more of these to come in the upcoming books, and I can hardly wait.

Blog Post #1 Response: Refusing to Expect the Unexpected

According to Iser when reading a furling narrative, the reader is led to follow the thoughts of the author. In light of the first two Harry Potter books this is quite true. I remember when I first read the books in the fifth grade, I was definitely duped into thinking Snape was the one after the Stone and Malfoy was the one opening the Chamber. I think the reason I followed this authorial trap was due to the fact that I wanted these antagonizing characters to get a bit of what they deserved. Conditioned to think that bad things happen to bad people, I expected Rowling to deliver some type of punishment to these vile characters. These turns of fate never came in the first two novels. I find that these expectations were beneficially denied. Not only did this acclimate me to how reality truly works, but it also provided a good and meaningful story.

The first two novels are very much mystery novels, akin to novels written by the likes of Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Rowling follows Iser’s manipulative techniques. She makes you follow a road of expectation by making you want a certain route to come to fruition, hoping to see your expected end become reality (or un-reality in this case). And that’s all part of the experience: being duped and being surprised. Oddly, now that I realize this, I still find myself blindly following Rowling’s paths of clever trickery. Despite knowing what is to come, and realizing all the hidden truths as I read, I find myself engaging in the author’s train of thought. I subject myself to the deception to be duped and to be surprised at the end. It’s almost as if I’m willingly torturing myself over and over again. But I love it! I love the surprise, and most importantly, I love and respect Rowling’s meticulous work of manipulation for the reader’s behalf.

I realize that some would not find this repetition to be as engaging. But, I truly think that it’s the best option. If you sit down with the attitude of omniscience as you read through these first two novels, you’re not as engaged in the perceptions of the characters. You know that the Polyjuice endeavor is pointless and a waste of time, you know that Snape referring a Quidditch match is not a bad thing, and you never worry about Hagrid’s innocence and whether he truly is guilty. If you diverge from the author’s intended path for the reader, the experience of reading the story is greatly diminished and extraordinarily dulled. And it’s for this very reason that I let Rowling trick me all over again—I get to re-experience the whole ordeal as if it was the first time. That’s why I refuse to expect the unexpected.

Blog Post #1: I AM GRYFFINDOR!!!

When I first read a book, I normally read it for fun. I tend to never over look anything or catch any of the hints the author drops in the beginning of the book for the ending. I read just because it's something I have always loved. The exception to this rule is Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling wrote this series so wonderfully that I become lost in her magical world. The first time I read the Sorcerer's Stone I could not put it down, and I was in third grade. I had never experienced anything like the Wizarding World and I paid attention to every detail. I knew from the very moment Snape and Malfoy were introduced that I was a Gryffindor and I wanted absolutely nothing to do with them. Growing up I had three brothers so I was used to getting picked on and being left out of things. I never had anyone that I could relate to because I was always the youngest and everyone just told me what to do. I was never abused like Harry or anything, but I knew what it felt like to be lonely. Reading Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets provided me with a friend. Someone I could relate to and take an adventure with. A world that allowed me to use my imagination and cast whatever spell I wanted on my oldest brother, theoretically of course. I loved it. To this day, I can sit in a room with all sorts of distractions and not even notice when I read Harry Potter. I'm completely submerged into the Wizarding World rooting for the trio of Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

While reading the Sorcerer's Stone, I wanted Snape to be the villain because I wanted Harry to defeat him. I didn't understand why Snape hated him so much just because of his father. I loved Hermoine and I wanted to be like her, so I took offense every time he would put her down for being an "insufferable know-it-all." In the Chamber of Secrets, I wanted Malfoy to be the heir of Slytherin because he just made me so furious and I wanted Harry to beat him too. I never could relate to either one of those characters because I thought they were just mean to be mean. I didn't ever consider there to be underlying reasons for their cruelty and hatred and that's why I can't relate to them. I can't think of horrible things to say to another person. I'd rather stick up for someone else than put them down. Through the help of my parents and my rather obnoxious brothers, I learned to stick up for myself and that's why I'm a Gryffindor.

Blog Post 1 Response- Expectations

I was one of the few students in the class who had never read Harry Potter. Everyone had always obsessed over these books and I never knew what the big deal about Harry Potter was. Hearing all these people talk about Harry Potter, I knew these books had to be something great. I had a high expectation from these books and hoped that they were as good as people said. From just reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, I was left with a feeling that I needed to read more. J.K Rowling exceeded all of my expectations in this book. Since Harry came from a strong family of wizards, I expected everyone to treat him with the upmost respect and when Professor Snape didn’t it kind of made me question what his true intentions were. He was always bashing Harry and never seemed to care for him. I think Rowling was able to write so most of her followers would turn against Snape, making everyone think he was the one after Harry. What I also didn’t expect was for Voldemort to show up in the books so fast. However, Rowling was able to keep the readers interested in the book with her twists and turns. Quirrel was not who I expected to be the guilty one which kept me wanting to know more.

In the Chamber of Secrets, Rowling was able to meet my expectations once again. Because of what happened in the first book, Harry and his friends make the assumption that Malfoy was the Heir of Slytherin. Of course, I believed what Harry and his friends thought because of course who else could it be? We are then presented with the fact that Hagrid may have been the one who opened the door in the first place, and along with Harry, I didn’t expect him to be the one that did it. Then we are lead to the diary of Tom Riddle and I did not expect Voldemort to appear as Tom and I didn’t think he would be back in the second book at all because it was such a fast progression. Once again, Rowling captivated the reader wanting them to read more. She fulfilled all of my expectations and I think she has to write this way in order to keep people wanting to read her books.

Blog response #1: Being a Gryffindor puts me at a disadvantage

The first quote from Wolfgang Iser basically describes how we get pulled into a story, and start accepting whatever information the author is spoon-feeding us at face value - instead of reading critically and possibly coming to the conclusion "Snape may not be the culprit" before the big reveal. This inability to tell apart fact from fickle speculation becomes exacerbated while I read, because I am a Gryffindor like the majority of the main characters in the series. While I'm reading, I begin cheering Harry on, hoping that he is right, and very confident that he will survive for he is the hero character of a series which appears to be geared toward children. Someone in the Slytherin House, however, may have a very different point of view. They may think that Draco is a reasonable child with slight daddy issues. They may also think that Snape is well within rights to take as many points as he wishes from Gryffindor, because Hermione is a know-it-all. So they may be more likely to look for small details which poke holes in our main characters' assumptions. In the first two books of Harry Potter, certain expectations are fulfilled and some are not. One of the many expectation is the inevitable success of our heroes to prevail over the true evil doers - which is obviously fulfilled in the first book, and is followed in the second. However, we are more interested in the expectations that are raised during the progression of the story, the guiltiness of Snape for example. This helps allow Harry Potter to fall partially in the mystery genre. Snape is a natural red-herring which distracts other Gryffindor readers from the true villains, however cannot be fulfilled because of this device.

Blog Post #1 Response: Failure to fulfill Expectations

In the first book, our expectation is that Professor Snape wants the Sorcerer’s Stone. All the evidence points to Professor Snape for wanting the Sorcerer’s Stone. J.K. Rowling makes it seem that with Snape’s dark presence that he is always the guilty one. You can never picture him as the nice guy because he is the guy that apparently hates Harry Potter. But J.K. Rowling loves to give twisted ends to the story, in reality, Professor Quirrel was partnering with Lord Voldemort where he was using his body as a host since he couldn’t survive on his own. Professor Quirrel was the guilty one the whole time. Who could ever believe it was poor old stuttering Quirrel? J.K. Rowling loves surprises.

In the second book, the question is who is Slytherin’s Heir? Possible people are Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy or someone in Gryffindor. What everybody is led to believe is that the Heir is Harry Potter since he can speak parselmouth and Slytherin is the only person to have that ability. J.K. Rowling misleads the reader again making you believe that the person guilty is actually innocent. How could it be Tom Riddle, he was a hero at Hogwarts back in the day? But you don’t find out until the end like in the first book that Tom Riddle actually stands for Lord Voldemort. Again, J.K. Rowling fools the reader.

It is important to raise the expectation then to fail to fulfill it because it gives the reader a cliff hanger in a way wanting to know what other twists there might be as the reader goes on. Twists usually get more intense and complex as the series goes on and in any series not just Harry Potter. The complexity and connections small or large engage the reader as the story grows and grows.