Sample Blog Post #1: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

             Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling is the third instalment to a 7-part fantasy series, following the life of young boy named Harry Potter and his shenanigans with his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. This book resonates with me for several reasons, because I too was a misfit teenager with what seemed like mountains of issues to deal with while also juggling the everyday routines of adolescence. So much so that over a decade later I still believe this was the best of the 7 books. I know, I know. It wasn't nearly as exciting as the others, but, I connected with Harry's feelings of loneliness, angst and a need for belonging. Today, as a mother, a wife and a teacher, I find that this book was an echo of myself that I can still hear reverberating today.

             First of all, in this book, Harry faces more stress than usual from his "foster" family, i.e., his aunt Petunia, uncle Vernon and cousin Dudley, than he has been facing since book one, The Sorcerer's Stone, when another aunt, Vernon's sister, comes to visit. Essentially, because Harry is a wizard and they are not (therefore they're muggles) they despise him and treat him as a "waste of space" (Rowling 33). The family has hidden this from everyone outside of their home on Privet Drive, and have therefore created an image of Harry as a troubled child with behavioural issues who has to attend a special boarding school for "his sort". Thus upon this aunt Marge's visit, Harry's mistreatment increases tenfold. His teenage angst is also mixed into his dilemma, as he is separated from his magical friends every summer from his actual boarding school, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, is also woven into his despair, as he bemoans this reality more than ever in the beginning of the story. Similarly, I found that at the cusp of my adolescence, I was filled with angst and a drive for rebellion against never seeming to meet my parents' expectations (which unlike Harry turned out to be driven by my own insecurities more than ever, but that's a story for another time) when it seemed like they would always tell other relatives generic stories about me instead of who I actually was.

             As the novel progresses, Harry's rage is unleashed in magical fury when Aunt Marge, after treating him like a servant all summer, which Harry only endures under threat of having a special privilege of visiting a village in his magical world revoked if he misbehaved, decides to criticize Harry's dead parents. She states that Harry's uncle must never trouble himself about how Harry has turned out because "if there's something wrong with the bitch, there's something wrong with the pup" (Rowling 57).


This excited me more than ever as I felt like I had vicariously rebelled too against everyone who had ever made me feel less than. In a sense, as Harry's anger cause aunt Marge to swell up like a balloon and float away, I felt my own anger float away. I'm a very immersive reader, so much so that when a story ends I feel like a part of me died with it, so at that time, Harry and I were one. We had both defeated the villain of belittlement, but it was only the beginning of Harry's rebellious journey. Overall, the first half of the novel takes Harry on a journey to finding out an escaped convict is out for his head;

Sirius Black, a man who actually was a friend of his parents and ended up being the reason they were killed by the story's true villain, Lord Voldemort. Harry's rebellion takes on the form of ignoring the command to not chase after this killer, because at this point he's tired of being told what to do and tired of being seen as incapable. Later on, I'll discuss how this unfolds! I just have one question, is it exciting enough for you yet?