Introduction:

We are going to tell you a little bit about the British writer Joanne Katherine Rowling. We are going to tell about her background and a few facts about her and tell you a little something about her most famous work. The novels about a young wizard named Harry Potter.

 

The main reason why we chose her instead of the other British writers is because all of us have read some of her work. And we enjoyed doing so.

 

Joanne Kathleen Rowling
• Born on July 31st 1965
• She had a hard childhood: Foster Parents, the death of her mother, not very good relationship with her father, poor family(reason why she gives away much money to poor, because she understand how it is to be poor),
• Wrote her first book when she was 6 years old(this book was of course not published) 
• In 1990 she moved to Portugal to teach English. She got married in Portugal and got a child (girl), she was divorced after 2 years and because of the divorce she entered a great depression. But now she is married with Dr. Neil Murray

• She has always dreamt about being a writer, but she never thought she would achieve such a success. She is in fact the first writer ever to become billionaire.
• Things in her life have affected her writing in a big manner. For example all the father figures you can find in the Harry Potter books like Hagrid and Dumbledore.
• Now she is done writing the Harry Potter series she don’t wants to stress the writing of the next book since she don’t have any impatient fans waiting for a new book in the series.

 

Harry Potter series:
Now we are going to tell you a about the Harry Potter series and what the main story is. 

The story is about the young wizard Harry potter and his life. In the first book, he’s 11 years old and he is living with his uncle and aunt and they really hate him. And we get the feeling he hates them back. He has some incidents that make strange things happen to other people. One day he gets a letter and he finds out he is a wizard and that he is accepted by a wizard school called Hogwarts. He discovers that an evil wizard killed his parents, Jacob and Lily, and that he tried to kill harry as well. He failed and disappeared, leaving harry alone in the house with his dead parents at an age of 1. Harry can’t remember anything and all he got from the deathcurse was a scar. His parents left him a fortune of wizard money and he is the most famous wizard alive. He is known as “The boy who lived”. The only man who ever lived to survive a Deathcurse.

 

As soon as he arrives at the train which will take him to Hogwarts, he gets a good friend called Ron Weasly and after a while they get to know a know-it-all nerd named Hermione Granger. Along with friends, come enemies. In this case, his biggest rival is Draco Malfoy.

 

The series contain in total of 7 books that takes place in a school year in Harry’s life. Every year he meets a new big challenge and every year his best friends help him out. As the series go on the story and everything just gets darker and scarier, although we all think this is a good thing.

 

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
We chose to analyze the first Harry Potter book, “the Philosopher’s Stone” or “the Sorcerer’s Stone” as it is called in the United States. We chose to analyze this because it’s the first book in the series. If we analyzed for example the last book, we could have spoiled some secrets for you guys that have not read it yet.

Plot
The book starts with a description of the Dursley family, the family where Harry Potter is left at the doorstep. We then get to know the story about how Harry Potter is chosen to go to Hogwarts. The book also tells us how he is introduced to a whole new world, the magic world. Since this is the first book we get a lot of presentations of the characters in the Harry Potter universe. A big part of the book is of course “The Philosopher’s Stone.” I don’t want to say too much, but I can say that the stone takes a really big part in the book. It’s very much appreciated from both the good side and the evil side. The book, and really the whole Harry Potter universe, is a big battle between the good, Harry Potter and his friend and the bad, lord Voldemort.

Setting
The story in the book takes place at many different locations in Great Britain. Harry Potter lives with his uncle and aunt in Number 4, Privet Drive, Little Whinging in Surrey, England. It’s an idyllic little neighborhood where everyone knows each other. 

Of course, most of the book takes place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It looks a lot like a normal English boarding school on the green countryside, but it’s far from normal. It’s a very special school – a school for magicians. The school is like a big castle, and it looks really massive and big. The school has many hidden entrances and exits. You can spend a lifetime exploring the halls and rooms there without even discovering half of the castle.

Characters
There are many characters in the Harry Potter universe, but we will just take a few of them, the most important.

Harry James Potter is the main-character in the story, and the whole book is about him and his life. He is eleven years old in the book, with exception of the very beginning where he is a baby. He lives with a muggle family and knows nothing about the magic world. He notices that something is not normal, though. He can do things like open doors without touching them. Harry Potter is a thin, high boy with messy, dark hair. He has a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. A scar from when Lord Voldemort tried to kill him. Harry Potter is the only wizard who has survived Lord Voldemort’s death spell.

Ronald Bilius “Ron” Weasley is Harry Potters best friend. He, and all of his family, is gingers. He is a kind of clumsy person, but is a great help to Harry.

Hermione Jean Gringer is a muggle-born wizard. She is Harry Potter’s second helper. She is a real school-nerd. School is really important to her and she gets top grades in almost every class.

 

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore is the headmaster at Hogwarts. He is a really great back-up person for Harry and he is his mentor. Albus Dumbledoor helps Harry many times in the book. He also gives Harry the mission about the Philosopher’s Stone. 

 

Tom Marvolo “Lord Voldemort” Riddle is the evil lord that Harry Potter fights. Voldemort is trying to take over the world and kills everyone who tries to stop him. He uses brutal force to make his way in the world. Most wizards don’t dare to say his name. He has many names like “You-know-who” and “The-man-which-name-shall-not-be-named”. In the first book is just a shadowish ghost.

Draco Malfoy is Harry’s enemy at Hogwarts. They are rivals and they don’t really like each other.

Theme
We would say there are four major themes in the book.

 

Friendship is an important theme. In the beginning, when Harry lives with the Dursleys, he has no friends while his cousin, Dudley has lots of friends. But when Harry gets to Hogwarts he makes friends. He and Ron become good friends, but they become inseparable when Harry refuses to be friends with Draco Malfoy.

 

Good vs Evil is also a really major theme. Almost all the book is about good vs. evil. It starts with Harry vs. the Dursleys and goes on with Harry vs. Draco and Harry vs. Voldemort. 

 

Hope is the third theme we would like to mention. We often run into this theme too. For example when Harry and the Dursleys go to the zoo, Harry starts to talk to a snake behind a glass. The snake has a hope of getting away from the imprisonment just as Harry has a hope of getting away from the Dursleys.

 

Magic is perhaps the main-theme in the book. Magic is found through the entire book, whether Harry is in class or fights the evil.