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.
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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.
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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.
I haven't read the Potter books. It sounds like it touches on some universal themes such as abandonment and loss.
ReplyDeleteI think the best books are those that feel honest which is a subjective judgment based on who I am.
I don't think Flannery O'Connor's intention was to gross us out. A psychological analysis of her writing would surely be based on her own Roman Catholic faith. Due to the strength of her religious convictions she was especially interested in morality and ethics. I think she touched upon these themes throughout the story.
Your summation of the author's objectives are interesting. However, I do believe religion played part in these stories. Perhaps we can also assume that the author's own experience with abdonemnet as well as the otehr issues that come up in this series of books, reflect some of the issues that were experienced in life she lived.
ReplyDeleteI have thought about how the author of Harry Potter developed her characters and story lines before. I completely agree with your theory on Draco's characters and the death of Harry's parents. Many authors use their personal experiences to help develop their stories. With a story line as captivating as Harry Potter, why couldn't it be the same for her?
ReplyDeleteSo glad you wrote about Harry Potter.
@Anna: I agree with you that Flannery O'Conner wasnt trying to gross us out when she talked about how the man killed the characters but once again it does reflect upon the fact that she did use her strong past and background to write her story the way she did and I think essentially that was what I was getting at.
ReplyDelete@Leonel: Religon could have definitely played a role in the authors writing of the stories, but I know for a fact that J.K. Rowling wrote particular characters and events her books the way she did because of the things happening in her life at the time and not religion. Now Flannery O'Conner most likely reflected her stories based on religion in her own personal life but I think that religion plays a much smaller role then personal experience in many authors stories.
@Rachel: I personally wrote about Harry Potter because I knew how many people would be able to relate to it since it is such a popular book and I wanted to make sure people would understand comparisons. If you look at J.K. Rowlings biography she actually talks about the process when she was creating the characters and how her books do reflect very heavily on her background and her life.
Malfoy could easily represent her trifles with the divorce. He betrays everyone just like she could have felt betrayed by someone she use to love. She is very open with how she went about writing the popular series. Those of us who have read the books often spend our time finding out how this amazing series came to be.
ReplyDeleteThe thing I love the most about the Harry Potter books is that they got kids to read. I know quite a few kids who have read every book cover to cover. Rowlings' books do have some very dark themes.
ReplyDeleteThere are two factors I have noticed that seem to grab the interest of young people in reading:
1. Themes that are dark and address subjects like death. I think this is because most adults don't want to discuss this with children, and they are curious.
2. In popular children's books, children have more power over their environment than they do in the real world. Children like the idea that they would have the ability to do something about a situation, and like everyone else, they would love to be heroes.
Hi, MacKenzie. Thanks for posting on the connection between psychology and Harry Potter. I love the series and have read most of the books three times, twice aloud to my daughter. I agree that authors channel their experiences into their writing and would like to know more about Rowling to better understand the origin of her characters.
ReplyDeleteOne element of psychological criticism that might be added is the psychology of the reader. Just as a writer's background is important, so is a reader's. We like and dislike texts because of our own personal experience and interests, and we interpret texts based on them as well. I like Harry Potter because of my own long-standing interest in fantasy, and I think I like fantasy because that kind of literature addresses difficult ethical questions in a simplified form. Another aspect of my personality is that I was very shy as a child, so interactions with people in school all day caused me great anxiety. Fantasy provided a place where I could escape. Although I am no longer that shy, I still enjoy the escape quality of fantasy. I wonder what draws you and other readers to the genre? Nancy
Hi MacKenzie. I have not read the Harry Potter books but I do realize that the books and movies are very popular. You make interesting connections between Psychology and the Harry Potter characters and written by JK Rowling. I think that it is safe to say that writers put their lives, emotions and feelings in to their books and short stories and that is what makes a good book. I agree with Nancy that being able to get lost in fantasy can be a healthy way of escape as long as we dont "stay" there! :)
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