Playing with your reader’s expectations in a novel is an
interesting thing and is a tough area to navigate. For example, failing to meet an
expectation is okay if the outcome is better than what the readers were led to
believe. However, if it is a disappointment, or if it is so unrealistic it isn’t
even enjoyable then it’s unsuccessful. I believe that there is something
missing in a book or movie, or any story, if the ending is predictable. People
naturally like drama and surprises and any good book is rarely lacking in those
two categories. Stories need to be continually changing and evolving to keep
the interest of the human mind. J.K. Rowling does a brilliant job of this. I
was in elementary school the first time I read the first two Harry Potter books
so I don’t remember what exactly came as a surprise and what didn’t. But,
looking at them now I can think of many things that could be considered twists
in the plot. An obvious expectation that is raised is that Snape is going to be
the bad guy after the Stone. Another
example is Ginny being the one opening the Chamber. Throughout the entire
series Rowling does such a great job of playing with people’s expectations of
characters. There is a great lesson in there about not judging people by your
first impression of them and that it is dangerous to jump to conclusions
without investigating it further. This could be one reason why she made the
choice to raise an expectation and then fail to fulfill it. Another reason
could be to keep people interested in the constantly changing plot and
characters.
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