Make-up Post: Femininity

During the fifth book, “The Order of the Phoenix”, J.K. Rowling portrays femininity in a different way than she did in her previous books.  When I looked at previous books I saw the female characters as more of sidekicks and under the power of a male figure.  When looking at the fifth book, I saw the strong male figures sort of stepping down and the female characters more shown into light.

In the first book, “The Sorcerer’s Stone”, I saw Hermione as just the girl who had all the brains and more of a spoken intelligence. She seemed more of Harry’s book of knowledge.  Harry needed help, and Hermione always had the trick to do it.  Harry just performed the ability.  It’s not until the fifth book when you really see her true magical ability and intelligence. Hermione came up with Dumbledore’s Army, which was the first time she ever suggested breaking school rules, and suggested that going to find Sirius Black was a bad idea.  She also showed her true magical abilities.

Professor McGonnagall would be another female to look at in the fifth book.  The books before the fifth book just showed her as a teacher who was under on of the greatest wizards alive, Professor Dumbledore, in the fifth book we see Dumbledore starting to lose control over Hogwarts due to Professor Umbridge, and McGonnagall is using her own will to fight back against Umbridge.  The students see McGonnagall before as this inflexible person, but when Umbridge is around it’s like the students can’t wait to see what McGonnagall will do.

It’s not until the fifth book that these female characters especially a couple of biggest roles start having more power.  In the first couple of books, it shows the Rowling gave these female characters more of a stereotypical role where they were under a male figure, but it seems that the fifth book brought into light the true potentials of our female characters.

Blog Prompt #2

                Throughout the Harry Potter series, we see drastic changes in many of the characters. One of the most profound examples of this is the change we see in Neville Longbottom. From the moment of his introduction in The Sorcerer’s Stone, Neville is a bumbling, forgetful  character, the butt of many of his schoolmates’ jokes. Neville is a character who feels great pain, living with the knowledge that inside what looks like an abandoned department store are the hollow shells of his parents, tortured into insanity. The first departure from this image is in the end of The Sorcerer’s Stone, when we see Neville stand up to Harry, Ron, and Hermione as they try to leave the Gryffindor common room. At this moment, the reader gets their first glimmer of hope for Neville, hope that he might eventually outshine his forgetfulness with bravery. In the Prisoner of Azkaban, we see the first incidence of his magical skills proving existent. With the slaying of the boggart, Neville finds success in magic, and shows us that he isn’t “basically a squib.” His development in the magical arena continues in The Order of The Phoenix when Neville joins Dumbledore’s army.  In DA he shows that he can be a wizard of great power, and that he really just needs good teachers.  This development reaches its pinnacle in The Deathly Hallows, when Neville reaches into Gryffindor’s hat and pulls out his sword, showing himself to be a wizard of great bravery. By slaying Nagini, Neville slays the final memories of his fumbling, forgetful self, and shows the world the power of bravery.

Make-up Blog: Femininity in Order of the Phoenix

Not to step on anyone’s toes, but when I was reading the Harry Potter series for the first time, I was not a fan of how Rowling portrayed femininity. It always seemed like in order to be considered a great witch you had to forsake your femininity.  I will not dispute that Rowling is great at making witches just as good, or better, than wizards; Hermione is constantly described as the brightest witch of her age, and one of the best aurors in the Order of Phoenix is Tonks.  What I found to be lacking in the books, though, is a strong (good) witch that doesn’t forsake her femininity in order to be great.  In the fifth book, we are introduced to Umbridge who is probably the most feminine of all the witches we’ve met so far, but Umbridge is not a good person – she is not to be looked at as a model for someone girls should wish to be.  It would be very easy for a reader to associate her femininity with her lack of goodness.

The female character that I do remember wishing to be like, Tonks, is never described as being very feminine.  Tonks is a witchy tomboy, and she discusses how she’s not very good at “housekeeping spells” – if being good at housekeeping spells was the definition of being feminine in the wizarding world, then as a reader I did not want to be feminine.  There is the case that Mrs. Weasley is really good at housekeeping spells, and she does some great things in the later books, but I never really viewed Mrs. Weasley as being feminine (unless you consider being good at household tasks the same as being feminine.  Which I don’t.)

Blog Prompt #2

          Of the many themes that the Harry Potter series encompasses, one of the most prevalent and interesting is “bildungsroman,” or, the “coming of age” story of Harry himself. Harry has overcome many obstacles and events in his lifetime that shape how he ultimately is, and how he develops throughout his life. Through tragedy, Harry becomes an adult and matures rather quickly for someone of his age.
           From the very beginning, there is the major traumatic event of the death of his parents. While some may seem this as a burden, or a crippling event, Harry embraces this and uses it as motivation to fight against not only Voldemort, but also evil in general. We see him transform from a somewhat timid and abused child in the beginning of the series, to a confident young man towards the end. All of the experiences that he has had has shaped him and made him grow stronger. Although the death of Cedric affects Harry in a very large way (mostly negatively) I think it makes him appreciate and grasp the seriousness of the situation that he has been put in. Instead of giving up, Harry overcomes the odds and rises to the occasion of stopping the return of Lord Voldemort. He uses the anger and hurt experienced during his lifetime as motivation for doing good in the wizarding world and putting an end to evil. Finally, the fact that he can be angry with his friends and superiors is a sign of confidence in his position, which is something that he didn’t possess in the earlier books.
           Overall, Harry has been greatly affected by the traumatic events in his life but he has used these events as motivation for defeating evil, rather than let the events defeat him.

Blog Prompt #2

Character development highly influences the experience we have, whenever we read a story or watch a film. With the Harry Potter series, we see many characters shed light onto a few themes (coming of age, for example) due to their developments throughout the story. One character’s development seems more tragic and realistic: the main subject of the series, Harry Potter.

     When we first see Harry, he is a small and quiet boy who lives with his unloving (to him, at least) aunt and uncle. He has a realization that his parents are dead, but for the wrong reason. Upon hearing about their true fates from Hagrid, prior to his first year in Hogwarts, Harry tries to cope with this realization by obsessively standing at the Mirror of Erised. He finds comfort in seeing his parents again, even though Dumbledore explains to Harry that the mirror only shows what the viewer longs for.

     As the series goes along, Harry starts to show signs of his emotional distress, especially during the Order of the Phoenix. The death of his parents, the death of Cedric, and the return of Lord Voldemort (not to mention the emotional roller coaster that is adolescence) take a big toll on Harry. He appears to be rather hotheaded more in this book than he was in the previous four, mostly because he doesn’t want any other person to die for him.

     These moments of character development for Harry have made me rethink about the theme of traumatic experience. Like Harry, I have been through a traumatic experience that has pushed me to my limits in the years later on. Whenever a character is going through a specific theme that we’ve been through ourselves, we connect with that character.

Blog #2

As the series progresses, all of the characters change. This of course is inevitable, they're all growing up and going through puberty. Change is to be expected, even in the wizarding world. But there is one character in particular that really stands out to me in her development.

For this, I'd like to mention Ginny Weasley. When we first encounter her, she's shy, quiet, and fairly childish. Then again, she's only 10 and she has to watch all of her older brothers ship off to Hogwarts. Through the first couple instances of her appearance, Ginny remains fairly quiet and definitely in the background of the story. Then, she's shunted to the foreground as the posessee of Tom Riddle's diary. She still remains shy and quiet, but you can tell that this traumatic event changes her. She's only a little girl of 11 at this point, and the enormity of being posessed and her experiencing this was kind of brushed over... for the time being.

 As the series progresses, Ginny becomes more outspoken, direct, and definitely less shy. She becomes a master at the Bat-bogey Hex, becomes a "hot babe" to many of the male student populace, and is recognized as a great quiddich player. She develops into a strong female role, mostly in the background, as Ginny has basically been portrayed as a minor character. But, in book five, she really hits her stride. She, as it's been read, accompanies Harry to the Department of Mysteries and kicks some serious butt. However, she does something else remarkably important. When Harry believes he was posessed by lord Voldemort, it's Ginny's confession of what she felt when she was possessed in the past that truly comforts him. Ginny, it's shown, really went through a painful and terrifying experience, and Harry, who has also done this, can connect with only her in this way. Suddenly, Ginny is more than another Weasley. She’s an integral part of Harry accepting what has happened to him.

As the series progresses, Ginny’s firey personality becomes more important to the story, and she becomes more of a major character. I like the think that a major cause in the shift of her development is caused by her possession by Tom Riddle, as well as her maturing. 

Death - post 2

         Death, Harry Potter, and Luna Lovegood

         Death plays a major role as a theme in the Harry Potter series and throughout the books we encounter different preceptions and ways that characters have dealt with it. Immediately we are introduced to the concept of those trying to conquer death in Sorcerer's Stone, Nicolas Flamel inventing the Philosopher's Stone and using the Elixir of Life and Voldemort trying desperately to attain this object. Harry's life is marred by death immediately - a violent murder of his parents which he remembers in bits and pieces, and has to cope with the fact that his fame comes from surviving death at the hands of Lord Voldemort.

         As the series continues we arrive at Order of the Phoenix. A monumental tome in the series that emphasizes this theme even more with the death of Sirius Black in "the Death room" in the Department of Mysteries. After his death, Harry experiences extreme guilt and sorrow. No death in the series is perhaps as dramatic and unfair in the eyes of the reader - finally an adult whom Harry loves and trusts and sees as both a "father and a brother" (OotP 831) has died in front of Harry. Throughtout Order of the Phoenix, we expect Harry's rage and his angst and his overwhelming feelings, so the fact that he destroys Dumbledore's office is not surprising.

         His interaction with Luna Lovegood at the end of Order of the Phoenix does affect how we perceive death in Harry Potter. According to Voldemort "There is nothing worse than death" (814), and Harry seems inclined to agree as he experiences the pain associated with it, but Luna Lovegood first a quiet, odd sort of character ends up having the greatest impact on Harry's grief by the end of Order of the Phoenix. Meeting her in the corridor and realizing that she has lost all of her possessions causes pity to swell in Harry, erasing momentarily "the anger and grief that had filled him since Sirius's death." (862) Luna goes on to explain that she lost her mother, but almost brushes it off by telling Harry, "And anyway, it's not as though I'll never see Mum again, is it?"

         Luna Lovegood transforms from a slightly odd character for comic relief, to one who fits in well with Harry's larger group of friends and accompanies him to the Department of Mysteries. Luna is brave and kind, and her role becomes more important in Order of the Phoenix and beyond, which gives Harry a different perspective on many issues because she does believe such extraordinary things. Instead of fearing death, like Nearly Headless Nick did, Luna embraces it as one of the things that we don't quite understand, but is futile to worry over. "The terrible weight in his (Harry's) stomach seemed to have lessened slightly." (864)

Blog 2- Neville Longbottom

Though he is not too major of a character throughout the books, he is consistently present and constantly changing. Neville Longbottom definitely plays an important role in the development of the plot and the themes throughout the series. Neville is a great example of a coming of age story. He is introduced to us in the beginning of the series as a pathetic character in frantic search of his missing toad. We quickly learn that he is not any good in his classes (except for herbology), he is forgetful, he is clumsy, and he is awkward. He comes off as a coward but for some reason is placed in Gryffindor. Looking back on the series, this is very clear foreshadowing for who Neville is going to become.

            Even in just the first book we see a huge change happening in Neville. He has the courage to stand up to his friends which, as Dumbledore points out, is even harder than standing up to your enemies. This is just the beginning for Neville.

            There is even a time when Neville gets in to a fight with Crabbe and Goyle during a Quidditch match. He gets beaten up pretty bad but he at least had the courage to stand up to them. There are also a couple of other times throughout the series when Neville gets harassed and tries to stand up for himself. More often then not though, there are people there to hold him back.

            This change in Neville is a drastic one compared to the Neville we see at the beginning of the series and is just one small example of the character development throughout the series.

Blog 2: Snape and James

This is my first time reading the entire series, and surprisingly I haven't even seen all the movies.  One character that continually troubles me is Professor Snape.  In the first three books is was easy to hate Snape.  He treated Harry, his friends and other Gryffindors so poorly, and worst of all he favored Malfoy.  Snape from the start seems like such a shady character, with his long greasy black hair always in his face, his black clothes, dark decor in office and classroom, and the most concerning; his previous allegiance to The Dark Lord.

In the fifth book we finally can start to understand why Snape hates Harry so much.  When Harry sees Snape's worst memory he too feels that he can better understand Snape but also gets confused by another very important character, his father.  Harry had up until this point only heard wonderful and admirable stories about his parents except from Snape.  Harry was under the impression that his father was only a hero and had good morals, he was finally able to see one of his father's flaws.  This also changed my impression of James.  The way he was treating Snape just because Sirius was bored was appalling to me.  Bullying is one of my biggest pet peeves and having to go through that experience and feel that embarrassment with Snape was horrible.  I no longer saw James as only a hero but I also saw him as arrogant, cocky, and naive.  Snape changed to me at this moment too, I suddenly felt sorry for him but at the same time hated him just as much as ever for calling Lily a mudblood after she was trying to defend him.

The fifth book really changed my view of Snape.  I thought up until this book that the whole time Snape was really reformed and no longer a death eater or a Voldemort supporter.  When I had seen Snape undermining Umbridge for Harry's protection I truly believed that he was protecting him from Voldemort and his possible death.  This belief however was short lived.  In the beginning of the sixth book when Snape was visited by Mrs. Malfoy and her sister Bellatrix I was thrown through a loop.  At this point I still can't decide who I think Snape is a spy for but I am more leaning towards Voldemort.  I think that because Voldemort can read minds and get into peoples' heads so easily that he would figure out if Snape was plotting against him but some of Snape's actions especially after how he reacted to the fiasco at The Ministry do not support my theory so I am anxiously awaiting to see how Snape's role plays out!

Blog Post #2: Snivellus Snape

The concept of time is manipulated and used in unconventional ways throughout the Harry Potter series.  This is reflected in the use of the Time-Turner in The Prisoner of Azkaban, which allowed for time to loop itself and remain impressionable, the Pensieve, which could play back inflexible memories, the blips in the Occlumency lessons, which impede upon private memories, and plainly represented in the ghosts, which seem to defy the existence of time. J.K. Rowling employs a structure of narrative that allows for the reader to gain insight to the previous lives of the already developed adult characters through such avenues. 

Snape is portrayed as a beacon of intimidation during the early years of Hogwarts.  From the demeaning sneer to the billowing black cloak, J.K. Rowling designates Snape as the most tangible antagonist.  He appears steadily involved in Harry’s life, yet his disgust for “the Chosen One” remains resolute.  We are given an idea in the earlier novels that Snape is indebted to James, but otherwise we had no other reason to believe his hatred towards Harry is warranted or that his story has much weight in the plot.  The reader accepts Snape as a static character -- one that represents an obstacle for Harry, but nothing beyond that.  When we are finally exposed to a scene from Professor Snape’s childhood during the Occlumency lessons, we are introduced to a student named Severus.  Severus is not intimidating, but rejected.  He is portrayed as a loner.  Severus is bullied and is vulnerable.  This scene melodically shifts from the pity the viewer feels towards young Severus to familiar loathing towards Snivellus as he insults Lily.  This short memory perfectly epitomized the character development of Snape.  We will always have trouble discovering where his loyalties lie because, due to his past experiences with abuse and bloodline pressures, he is forced to be loyal only to himself.                                           

  Kelly Duff

Post two: Neville Longbottom

JK Rowling has explored character development in some interesting ways. We see characters like Neville whom are affected by their experiences and Harry whom is affected by his. But I always pause to think, “is this how they would have really turned out in real life?” but it is, after all, a children’s story. Both characters took different turns in life, influenced by their circumstances. There is an interesting principle in sociology that describes life is like a race, and we all start on different places of the track and therefore achieving success at different rates, it is easier to those whom start first or closer to the finish line and harder for those at a further starting point. Where do you think Neville started on this track versus Harry? Neville blooms as the fourth friend, he’s sometimes included in the trios escapades in the first book, but as the trio- made of Ron, Harry, and Hermione, is more firmly established. He becomes the background character that never quite disappears and always shows up at important moment which never allows you to write him off. Neville is the interesting lesson that sometimes people do better in practice and in common sense situations than they do in a classroom setting, that as students of the world, we all learn differently and perform our best in different settings. Honestly, the first time I read the series as a child, I didn’t see Neville’s importance until I was approaching the seventh book, and even then, it was something that I had to look back on and revaluate when the entire series was done. But, as I’ve reread the series, I’ve come back, excited to greet Neville as an old friend and wishing I could see more of him. Neville has achieved the great status that he deserved, however, people often forget of his homely beginnings and disregard them as a fluke or, they use his first years at Hogwarts to tinge his reputation as “Harry Potter’s sidekick.” However, Neville is a strong character, he is not infallible, we openly see his flaws and his pain and we see him behave braver than we would have imagined the Neville from book one to be. Neville is the realistic representation of bravery in spite of his flaws, which, should build the strength of the character, not hold him back, and are by no means something to forget.