Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Maddy Littman
Cuthbertson
COLI 214B
September, 9 2015
The Muggle and the Wizard; We’re Not so Different After All
As I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for the fifth time, I now had a different perspective, and a different end goal in mind.   Rather than just reading for pure pleasure, as I read through each chapter this time, I looked to make connections between my life and Harry’s.   While at first, I was apprehensive to find parallels between my life and the riveting life of a young boy who turned into the heroic face of wizardry, I did in fact find myself in some of Harry’s experiences and ended up relating to many of his mixed emotions.   Some examples of these emotions include, when Harry is apprehensive to adapt to change once he receives his letter to Hogwarts. He also cares deeply for his friends and has a scar that reminds him of who is and where he came from.
As the story of Harry’s journey begins, Hagrid personally delivers his acceptance letter Hogwarts.   I compare his acceptance letter to my parents telling me they were getting divorced.   At the time of his letter arrival, when Hagrid burst in while Harry’s “family” was trying to keep his from him that his parents were wizards, and so is he.   His world was turned upside down and millions of questions filled his head.   Similarly, I was only eight at the time and tried so hard to understand the little information I was given as to why I would now live in two different homes and have to travel to see each parent separately.   When Harry received this letter, Hagrid began to explain that his parents weren’t killed in a car crash, like the Dudley’s had told him, but in fact they were murdered.   Harry’s deception by the Dudley’s after all these years fueled his confusion and frustration.   “…It’s an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowin’ his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!”.   Harry didn’t know who he was, similarly to how I questioned my life up until that very...