| |
|
The Harry Potter books have been a hugely popular series, I
don't need to tell the reader that. The audience of the series range from
eight-year-olds to adults, but then there those of us, such as myself, born
around 1990, who will always have a special connection and front row fan seats
to J.K. Rowling's books. I like to call us the Harry Potter Generation. We grew
up with Harry; we were the eager readers who made the books famous in the first
place. Quite a lot of us were rather diehard fans, and the movies, though they
were in quality leagues below the books, kept us feeding on the world of wizards
and witches that never ceased to fascinate. I remember, in the months leading up
to my eleventh birthday, hoping passionately, even if consciously in vain, for a
miracle to send me, too, a letter in green ink inviting me to attend Hogwarts.
Albeit I never received such an envelope, but a part of my childhood was lived
between those pages with the three little stars in each of the upper corners.
Loyal readers will know what I'm talking about.
So what was it that made Rowling's fantasy so successful?
Perhaps it was just the right idea at the right time. While her actual writing
is admittedly not the best, her humorous voice told a story that rung true. In
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the pitiable orphan discovers he
is a wizard and is sent to his new home, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and
Wizardry, where he makes friends and takes overcoming evil into his own hands.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets has him returning to his
previous role where he encounters giant spiders and a basilisk, and in Harry
Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Harry finally meets his wrongly accused
and coolly ruffled godfather. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
enters him in a dangerous tournament, brings him to witness murder and hosts the
rebirth of Lord Voldemort; all in all it casts a darker shadow of evil over the
whimsical tales of magic. This edge rises in the fifth, Harry Potter and the
Order of the Phoenix, as Harry copes with sharing visions from Voldemort's
mind, adolescence, and death. In the sixth book, Harry Potter and the
Half-Blood Prince, now aware that he is Voldemort's equal and alone has the
task to thwart him, he learns of Voldemort's past and weaknesses. And finally,
we are given the final installment, the closure. Harry does not return to
Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and instead is set on
finding and destroying the remaining Horcruxes, assisted as always by the dear
and, for the most part, loyal Ron and Hermione. Harry is determined to have
death be his only obstacle, and he indeed is faced with his own sacrifice and
end. And at the close, his survival is much appreciated.
I, like so many others, pondered for years what would happen at the
very end. I had no choice then but to wait for it to come, and now it has. Never
again will the next chapter hang open, never again will we not know. But let us
not grieve; the knowledge of the outcome should not hinder from loving the past,
and for me, this is not the end of Harry Potter. His treasured chronicles will
be a kind of sanctuary for me always, a part of me that I will eventually pass
on, with force if necessary, to my own children. I dearly hope the books will
become classics, and imagine that generations ahead are waiting to discover the
series, but even those future fans cannot compare. Starting now, the full story
will be at the disposal of anyone who should wish to read it, and none will know
the impatient excitement of waiting. We will be set apart in history, we will
know each other in encounters. We are the Harry Potter Generation.
|
|
