Joseph Campbell’s describes the hero’s journey, which Campbell calls the monomyth. This story has been told in just about every culture throughout history and remains a popular and familiar story today. Modern films such as and follow the hero’s journey; their creators have admitted Campbell’s influence in writing the films’ stories. Campbell separates the hero’s [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the 'Themes' Category
Harry Potter and the Departure of the Hero
Joseph Campbell’s describes the hero’s journey, which Campbell calls the monomyth. This story has been told in just about every culture throughout history and remains a popular and familiar story today. Modern films such as and follow the hero’s journey; their creators have admitted Campbell’s influence in writing the films’ stories. Campbell separates the hero’s [...]
Read the rest of this entry »The Elder Wand
JKR recently revealed on her website that the “core of the Elder Wand is the tail hair of a Thestral; a powerful and tricky substance that can be mastered only by a witch or wizard capable of facing death.” The Elder Wand’s first owner was Antioch Peverell, one of the three Peverell brothers described in [...]
Read the rest of this entry »The Prince’s Tale
SPOILER ALERT. DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU HAVEN’T FINISHED DH! Yesterday I posted here that I had finished DH and would wait until the weekend before posting spoilers. I have decided not to wait after checking out TLC and HPL and discovering they are already posting spoilers. They have a point. I think [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Order of the Phoenix Re-Read
I am in the midst of a re-read of OotP in preparation for DH, and I have to say this might be the first time I really stepped back and looked at the book in terms of how skillfully JKR reinforces how out of sorts Harry is during the whole book. His world — and [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Sharing Harry
One of the major themes of the Harry Potter series is the notion that love is one of the most powerful things in the world, and it can give power to those who “wield” it. I think one of the most remarkable things about the series is the fact that it is something families can [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Time Travel in the Harry Potter Novels
Time travel has been a subject of fascination for ages. Who would not want to witness first hand an important historical event or see how our descendants’ lives will differ from ours in the future? We think we know what time is, but it is a squirrely concept. In his interview on time travel Carl [...]
Read the rest of this entry »