J.K. Rowling deliberately structured the Harry Potter series in the style of the ring cycle, which is significant in making the story a bildungsroman; Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows are the two books in the series that most dramatically contrast from each other—as they are the bookends of the series—thus resulting in their being most appropriate for the analysis of the series structure.
Meetings and Partings Beginnings and endings are a part of life, and the life of a wizard does not have much of an exception to this rule. The Dursleys are prevalent characters in this story from the beginning to the end. In Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry is given to the Dursleys on Tuesday, 1 November 1981, which is …show more content…
Though in the beginning of the first novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry does not yet know how important turning 11 is in the wizarding world (a child’s first year at Hogwarts), he finds his birthday to be meaningful. He is waiting for his birthday to happen and wanting to share it with someone, but he does not have anyone with whom to do so. “[Harry] lay and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all,” (Rowling, Sorcerer’s 45). In contrast to his 11th birthday, Harry’s 17th birthday in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is not one about which he cares much. He does not have any desperate desires to make a big ordeal of his birthday, despite the fact that 17 is the coming of age year in the wizarding world. “‘Well, happy birthday anyway,’ [said Ron]. ‘Wow — that’s right, I forgot! I’m seventeen!’” (Rowling, Deathly 113). The truth of the matter is that Harry’s birthday contains relevance whether he chooses to believe it or not; because Harry first met Hagrid on the 11th birthday of the latter, and Hagrid is a substantial adult in Harry’s life, this gives even more meaning to Harry’s birthday. The night they met is described in Sorcerer’s
Meetings and Partings Beginnings and endings are a part of life, and the life of a wizard does not have much of an exception to this rule. The Dursleys are prevalent characters in this story from the beginning to the end. In Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry is given to the Dursleys on Tuesday, 1 November 1981, which is …show more content…
Though in the beginning of the first novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry does not yet know how important turning 11 is in the wizarding world (a child’s first year at Hogwarts), he finds his birthday to be meaningful. He is waiting for his birthday to happen and wanting to share it with someone, but he does not have anyone with whom to do so. “[Harry] lay and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all,” (Rowling, Sorcerer’s 45). In contrast to his 11th birthday, Harry’s 17th birthday in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is not one about which he cares much. He does not have any desperate desires to make a big ordeal of his birthday, despite the fact that 17 is the coming of age year in the wizarding world. “‘Well, happy birthday anyway,’ [said Ron]. ‘Wow — that’s right, I forgot! I’m seventeen!’” (Rowling, Deathly 113). The truth of the matter is that Harry’s birthday contains relevance whether he chooses to believe it or not; because Harry first met Hagrid on the 11th birthday of the latter, and Hagrid is a substantial adult in Harry’s life, this gives even more meaning to Harry’s birthday. The night they met is described in Sorcerer’s