Beth McCafferty
As Wolfgang Iser argues, the novels take place within our own being, and because of that, they take on new meaning and life each time we come to read them. This is why we can continue going back to the same texts because we are never the same two times and as we learn more and evolve, we understand more and different things stand out to us.
Throughout the entire Harry Potter Series we see
countless times where our expectations are not fulfilled. After the first and
second novels, we begin to adopt a “fool me once, shame on you, fool
me twice, shame on me” mentality. After we are led to believe a false lead
after lead in the first two, we keep our hearts guarded as we read on in the
series. We begin to catch on to Rowling’s writing style and learn not to jump
to the obvious conclusion. Although Rowling doesn’t give us any other lead to believe.
She leads us where she wants even though we know it is very likely it will not
be the final outcome- creating a feeling of suspense and excitement that urges us to continue on .
I think this gives us an experience in the first
two novels that we do not receive in the next four or five books. We loose our
innocence when it comes to reading the Harry Potter books. I think this makes
the first two or three novels realy special because we come to them without any
prior knowledge of the wizarding world or what the authors style is. We also never
have the innocence we have when we first read the books. And we certainly never
have the innocence we once had when we read the books as children.
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