Effects of Harry Potter

What was going on in J.K. Rowling's head when she wrote the Harry Potter Books? How did the characters in Harry Potter reflect J.K. Rowling's mindset at the time the book was written?

Psychological Criticism is one of many ways to look at literature critically. There is three ways it can be looked at. 1) It looks at the creative process of how the literature was created, 2) A psychological study is done of a particular artist to figure out their motivations for creating their work, and 3) Lastly they observe the fictional characters from a authors literature.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harry Potter the story of an orphan boy who figures out he is a wizard and needs to defeat the dark lord and which was written by J.K. Rowling lends itself to a lot of analysis. J.K. Rowling herself talks about how she wrote the story and some of its characters to be similar to her life and her family. It makes us ask ourselves how did Psychological criticism play a role in the creation of Harry Potter.
The death of Harry Potters Mom is a reflection of the death of her Mother and how close they were.In her bibliography she talks about how the death of her mother made her make the way Harry's mom died more potent then she would have originally. So instead of his mother dieing in a car accident or natural death Harry Potters Mom was killed by the dark lord because she was protecting harry from the dark lord.
Malfoy could be a reflection of the messy divorce that J.K. Rowling went thru. Throughout the books Malfoy is portrayed as a angry, jealous, self centered person who likes to try and be better then Harry and take everything he wants. I think this shows that J.K. Rowling used the events that were happening in her life at that moment to make the characters a certain way and she decided that Malfoy could be her husband after the big divorce they went thru and he kicked her out of the house. I think it also shows us how she used this type of criticism in her writing.
One example that is not from from Harry Potter but from the literature assigned for this class is called A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O'Conner. The characters in the story like the family of people who are on their way to a vacation after hearing about a murderer who has escaped from jail and is dangerous, to the dangerous killer himself makes us begin to wonder if the author wanted to create stories as horrific and gross as this one or if the author just naturally wrote this way.
All seven of the Harry Potter books written by J.K. Rowling and the story of Flannery O'Conner all make us question how psychological criticism plays a big role in the creation of the stories and the characters in their stories. This method of critical literature can be very successful in understanding the world around us and the novels we read. Without it we may not have as great an understanding as we do now.

Freestyle

I am reading through alot of websites this week and the past few weeks to find some information on some authors I am going to use for my 3rd paper and I find it interesting how much what is going on in and authors life and what they believe can affect their stories that they write for us to read.

For example in the first harry potter book the reason that harry's mother and father die the way that they do is because during the time when JK rowling was writing the book her mother died and she was really close to her so the mother dieing in the book was a representation of the pain she felt when her mother died.

Jodi Picculot who is another one of my favorite authors tends to write her books on issues that she feels are important or events that have happened during her life time for example her novel Handle with Care involves a wrongful birth suit and is the story about when a parent who loves there child very much can go to far.

There are alot of other examples of authors and how their lives affect their writing but it just goes to show that everyone has a story to tell its just a matter of how they use that to do their story.

Othello Scene Response

My favorite scene from the Shakespeare play Othello is the scene in which Iago is telling Othello about how his wife is cheating on him and lying to him. My favorite rendition of this scene was done by the cast of the 1995 which had Laurence Fishburne as Othello and Kenneth Branagh as Iago. I think that this is one of the best renditions of this scene because of the acting and how the director goes back and forth between the closeup of whispering in an ear and Iago getting close to Othello and telling him a story that is not true which Othello eventually believes. I then like how the music is changed to an evil music when Desdemona's friend takes the handkerchief Othello has given her.

This is interesting and important to the story because this is the beginning of the climax of the story in which we begin to see that the lie Iago has created is going the way he wants it to and that the end is not going to be a happy one. It is the first glimpse of the story in which we see just how strong Othellos love is for Desdemona and how angry he will be if his friends story is true.

Othello Quote Response Two

"Othello: I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me;
Lend me thy handkerchief
Desdemona: Here, my lord. [She offers him a handkerchief]
Othello: That which I gave you
Desdemona: I have it not about me
Othello: Not?" (Shakespeare, 971)

This part of the play is rather important to the story because this is when we begin to see what the actions and words of one of the characters has done to another. The most important part about this dialouge is when Desdemona says she does not have the handkerchief that Othello has given her, because this begins to make his mind go crazy since he starts to believe what his friend has told him about Desdemona not being faithful. I think it is important to the whole play because this is the first step to realizing that Othello is being mislead and is eventually going to do something terrible because he feels as though Desdemona isn't being true to him. It is interesting to me that Othello is willing to believe someone who he thinks he knows but doesn't know and it ends up in him killing himself out of depression.

Freestyle Blog

The past couple of weeks my reading has been filled with school reading from this class, history and geology. Earlier this week though I was able to go to Powells and get some books that I could read when I wasn't reading school books. Recently, I have been reading the book Rescue by Anita Shreve. I haven't gotten very far in the book yet but its seems to be interesting.
In the second chapter of the book right after they rescue the boy Webster is talking to Burrows about how he needs to go back. "I tossed the keys that were on her belt onto the grass. Find them on your own time. There was a rabbits foot. Burrows laughed. Lucky Girl." This quote is important to the rest of the story because this is the beginning of the relationship between The women and Webster. I also think it is interesting because the women who's keys he threw had been severely drunk and had wrapped her car around a tree but yet she had a rabbits foot and she somehow lived. I just find it ironic that she happened to have a rabbits foot in an accident that should have killed her.

Othello Quote Response

"Desdemona: My noble father
I do perceive here a divided duty
To you I am bound for life and education,
My life and my education both do learn me
How to respect you. You are the lord of duty,
I am hitherto your daughter. But heres my husband
And so much duty as my mother showed
To you preferring you before her father
So much I challenge that I may profess
Due to the to the Moor my lord" (Shakespeare, 925-27)

I think that this set of lines from the play is important to the story itself because it is the part of the play when Desdemona tells her father that she loves him but she also loves the Moor and that she doesn't want to have to chose between the two of them. It is one of the deciding points in this play because this is the point in the play where the plot to get Moor to commit a crime is started. I found this part interesting because this poor girl is asked whether she was forced to do things with the one man she loves but she is afraid to tell her father that this is the man that she loves. She knows that she is bound to her father for a few things but she also knows she doesnt have to love who her father wants her to love.

Trifles Quote Response

"Mrs. Hale: ...Theres something wrapped up in this piece of silk
Mrs. Peters: Why, this isn't her scissors.
Mrs. Hale: (lifting the silk) Oh, Mrs. Peters---It's ----
Mrs Peters: Its the bird
Mrs. Hale: But, Mrs Peters- look at it! Its neck! Look at its neck! Its all--other side up
Mrs. Peters: Somebody--wrung--its---neck" (Glaspell, 816)

I think that this dialogue between the two women is most important to the story because it is at this point towards the end of the play where the women realize that the women accused is actually guilty and the evidence is right there in their hands. I think without this dialogue we wouldnt really know whether or not the women killed her husband but with it we can see that she first practiced it on a bird and then hid the evidence so that no one would know. I guess what interests me most about these lines is that they found the bird where they did. If they hadn't saw her quilts and then the horrible sewing job she had done and started to rip them up they may not have found the bird. I think that this dialogue is the climax of the story.