Monday, June 19, 2017

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Chapter 5: Diagon Alley

Welcome to the next Specialis Revelio chapter analysis! If this is your first time on the blog, please check out this introductory post, where I explain the purpose of this blog, as well as the different sections you'll see in each post. You can also click here to go to the page where all of my posts are listed in chronological order.

~I solemnly swear that I am up to no good~

Specialis Revelio: a spell that reveals an object's hidden secrets.


Summary
OK, this one's a doozy. Harry and Hagrid wake the next morning and travel back to the mainland and take a train into London. As they travel, Hagrid explains some of the intricacies of the wizard world to Harry. In London, they find a pub called the Leaky Cauldron. They enter and the wizards inside all recognize Harry and go bonkers over him. They come across Professor Quirrell, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. They then pass through into Diagon Alley. Here, they go to Gringotts, the wizard bank. Harry gets money out of the vault his parents left to him, and Hagrid gets a mysterious package out of vault 213.

Harry goes to get his school robes. At the show, he meets a snobby boy who's also starting at Hogwarts. Harry meets back up with Hagrid and the pair get his books, Hagrid buys him an owl for his birthday, and they finally head to get Harry a wand. The mysterious wand-maker, Ollivander, has Harry try several wands, eventually landing on the "brother" wand to Voldemort's. After this shopping trip, Hagrid puts Harry on a train back home to the Dursleys.


Timeline
Given what we discussed in the last post, we know that this takes place on Harry's 11th birthday: July 31, 1991.


Personal Thoughts
This was an emotional chapter for me. I read from the illustrated edition for this chapter. There are two sets of pages with the Diagon Alley scenery running across the bottom and I was immediately taken back to the first time I set foot in Diagon Alley at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando. I was 21 at the time, but it was still this overwhelming sense of wonder and pure joy, and that came floating back to me while reading this chapter and it was just truly magical. I forgot how much I love this chapter. Also, that illustration of "the boy in the robe shop" is one of my faves.


Also, side note: Dedalus Diggle! He popped up in chapter 1 and I knew the name sounded familiar and suggested that he showed back up at the Leaky Cauldron, and I was right! I was legitimately not very confident in that assertion. Since writing that post, I feel like I had a bit of a DUH moment because he definitely pops up more in the series but I won't talk about that now because that could get into spoiler territory. Let's just say that I 100% should've been aware of why his name seemed so familiar in the first chapter.


WWP Analysis
- Both the bank's name and the goblin temperament suggest that the goblins will be very stingy with money.
- Hogwarts is considered even safer than Gringotts, which seems to have incredibly secure vaults? What exactly is awaiting us at this school?!
- Seemingly, long fingers = powerful magic.
- The apothecary smells of bad eggs and rotted cabbages. Interesting...
- Toad = the nerd pet.
- Harry's scar seems to prickle a lot when weird stuff is going on.
- James Potter's wand was particularly good for transfiguration, while Lily Potter's was well suited to charms.
- They suggest something about a linked phoenix core. Plus, an interesting note is that his wand shoots out gold and red sparks.


Notes for First Years
- Seems like you'd have to be really desperate to try breaking into Gringotts.
- Poor Quirrell must've been traumatized by those vampires and hag. Poor guy!
- Hermione kindly requests that you try to remember the name Bathilda Bagshot so that she doesn't have to yell at you later. But then again, if you're reading the series for the first time, you might not even know who Hermione is. All in good time, children.

Controversial Moments
Several small things stood out to me, some of which are spoilery and will have to wait until the restricted section.
- If the wand chooses the wizard, can someone kindly explain why/how the boy in the shop's mum was going wand shopping without him??
- Ollivander did all those measurements... and then gave Harry everything ranging from 7-11 inches? What was the point of the measurements then?!
- You'd think that wizards could blend in better with muggles after all of these years of practice, but they seem to be completely miserably horrible at it.


My Remembrall is Glowing!
As I mentioned in the last post. I totally forgot that they stayed at the hut overnight, but they also took the Dursleys' boat back! I wonder how the Dursleys got home? I also forgot that entire discussion on the boat even happened.



Got Peeves'd
(Remember, this section is spoilery if you haven't seen the movie!)
The thing that stands out to me is that I remember the movie going straight from shopping in Diagon Alley to Harry going through King's Cross Station. Maybe there was some assumption to make there, but the way the movie was put together always seemed to imply that one immediately followed the other, due to the fact that we never saw the Dursleys again between the two events. This is obviously not the case, given that there is an entire month between Harry's birthday (July 31) and the Hogwarts Express (Sept. 1). I kinda wish the movie would've made that time difference obvious.

Apart from that, the scene on the boat got cut out of the movie, as did the scene in the robe shop.



No first years past this point!
From here forward, spoilers from all 7 books are fair game!

Divination Class
The red and gold showers of sparks seem to foreshadow Harry's Gryffindor house placement. Also, the link between Harry's wand and Voldemort's wand will prove to be an important point throughout the series. It's also mentioned that James' wand was particularly good for transfiguration, which is curious, given that he eventually becomes an animagus. It's also mentioned that Dumbledore refuses to become Minister of Magic, which is also very intriguing. This foreshadows his avoidance of power that is revealed much later in the series.


Miscellaneous
The WWP analysis asks first years to question Quirrell a lot. I don't want to lead to spoilers, so I tried to be subtle, but the analysis did make an interesting note: Why is Quirrell reading up on vampires? Perhaps it's because there's a rumor spreading suggesting that he'd come in contact with one and he needed to be informed enough to confirm those rumors?

Also, given the curse placed upon the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor job (by Voldy himself), this is either Quirrell's first/only year teaching at Hogwarts, or just his first year as the DADA professor. The conversation suggests that he's already familiar with Hagrid, so either he already was teaching another topic or J.K.R. hadn't thought of creating the curse yet. OR, better yet, what if he was already in the position the year before, but circumvented the curse for this school year due to the fact that the person who placed it was literally on the back of his head?! It's a really interesting thing to wonder about once you know the full story.


So, first years are not allowed brooms... but then McGonagall eventually sends Harry one not long into the school year?? Huh? My theory is that it's because first years are never on the team, but that shouldn't constitute a hard and fast rule. Also, Draco is convinced he'll make the Slytherin team despite the fact that first years never get on the team. Harry is literally the youngest seeker in a century and Malfoy is convinced that he can get on the Slytherin team in his first year. Uh, OK, Malfoy.

OK, (hopefully) last point, which I already touched really briefly on. You'd think the wizarding folk would be better at blending into the muggle world at this point. I mean, Hagrid makes a spectacle of parking meters and wizards never can seem to understand muggle attire (in the books, at least). They've had hundreds of years to master this, and given how stringently they try to hide their world, you'd think they would put a bit more effort into helping wizards blend into the muggle world. Or maybe no one except Hermione invested their time into muggle studies... despite the fact that she was raised completely in the muggle world.



So, that's it for this chapter analysis! I'm so excited about re-reading this series and looking at each chapter through a different lens than I normally do. Let me know in the comments what you thought of this post and if you have any ideas for other things that I can look at in the chapter. Thanks so much for reading and don't forget to check out my links below!

Check out my links below!


~Mischief Managed~

Monday, October 17, 2016

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Chapter 4: The Keeper of the Keys

Welcome to the next Specialis Revelio chapter analysis! If this is your first time on the blog, please check out this introductory post, where I explain the purpose of this blog, as well as the different sections you'll see in each post. You can also click here to go to the page where all of my posts are listed in chronological order.

~I solemnly swear that I am up to no good~

Specialis Revelio: a spell that reveals an object's hidden secrets.


Summary
At the stroke of midnight, a giant man bangs down the door and wakes everyone up. He greets Harry and wishes him a happy birthday. He introduces himself as Rubeus Hagrid, the keeper of keys at Hogwarts, and Harry doesn't know what he's talking about. Hagrid realizes that Harry isn't familiar with the magical world and gets angry at the Dursleys, yelling at them for their lies.

Hagrid informs Harry that he's a wizard. His parents did not die in a car crash, but rather at the hands of an evil wizard named Voldemort. Harry finally receives his letter from Hogwarts, which includes a school supply list. The Dursleys attempt to keep him from attending Hogwarts, but Hagrid jinxes a pig tail onto Dudley, which causes him and his parents to freak out. Hagrid and Harry settle in for the night.

Timeline
This takes place just after the stroke of midnight on Harry's birthday: July 31, 1991.
We also get official confirmation that Harry's parents were killed on Halloween (1980).

Personal Thoughts
I feel like everything I want to say here is better suited for a different section. Nonetheless, for now I'll say that I actually think the movie handled some of this better. That being said, I do LOVE the 2 page illustration of the island cottage in the illustrated edition.


WWP Analysis
- In French, vol de mort means flight from death, so Hagrid's assessment that Voldemort isn't dead is a definite possibility.
- Some questions are raised about Lily (Harry's mom) and Aunt Petunia. What's the background there? Might Petunia have secret powers? Where does all of this anger come from?
- The book notes that emotions are Hagrid's weakness. I never realized how true this is, but I'll keep it in mind moving forward.


Notes for First Years
- Just in general, soak in this info. This background is important through the whole series.
- Hmm. I wonder how Hagrid managed to get himself expelled?


Controversial Moments
1- so Harry meets this dude and just decides to go along with him? I don't care how much you hate the Dursleys- this guy is a rando stranger. Have you never heard of the phrase STRANGER DANGER?! Not that I don't love Hagrid, but seriously, this dude followed them all the way to this secluded island. Is that not at least a little creepy? Does that not make you pause to think about things for a second?
2- Also, why are the Dursleys so vehemently against Harry going to Hogwarts? Sure, they hate magic, but they get him out of their hair for the entire school year. Sounds like a win for them, given that they seem to hate Harry just as much as they hate magic.



My Remembrall is Glowing!
I completely forgot that Hagrid essentially laid out the whole story to Harry here. I obviously remembered "yer a wizard, Harry," but I forgot that he shared all the Voldemort information here. Also, I always forget that he and Harry stay at the hut overnight. In the movie, they leave in the middle of the night, so I always think it happened the same way in the book, but it didn't.

Got Peeves'd
(Remember, this section is spoilery if you haven't seen the movie!)
Going off of what I was just talking about, the movie doesn't have Hagrid tell Harry all of the Voldemort stuff until later, and I actually kinda like it that way. It feels like more of an info-dump here.



No first years past this point!
From here forward, spoilers from all 7 books are fair game!

Divination Class
Hagrid clearly doesn't know about the prophecy, because he doesn't know why Voldemort went after Harry and his family. Which makes sense given that barely anyone knows about the prophecy, but it's interesting to go back and be reminded that most people really had no idea why Voldemort went after Harry and why he couldn't kill him. We also get a little hint about Hagrid's expulsion here too.


Miscellaneous
Hagrid's umbrella clearly has magical powers and it's been widely speculated that it contains the fragments of his wand. This is probably the case, though we've seen that broken wands are exactly that- broken. His umbrella seems to function fairly well. I'd assume that Hagrid probably didn't have the ability to bewitch it himself so maybe our dear Dumbledore did it.



So, that's it for this chapter analysis! I'm already so excited about re-reading this series and looking at each chapter through a different lens than I normally do. Let me know in the comments what you thought of this post and if you have any ideas for other things that I can look at in the chapter. Thanks so much for reading and don't forget to check out my links below!

Check out my links below!


~Mischief Managed~

Monday, October 10, 2016

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Chapter 3: The Letters From No One

Welcome to the next Specialis Revelio chapter analysis! If this is your first time on the blog, please check out this introductory post, where I explain the purpose of this blog, as well as the different sections you'll see in each post. You can also click here to go to the page where all of my posts are listed in chronological order.

~I solemnly swear that I am up to no good~

Specialis Revelio: a spell that reveals an object's hidden secrets.


Summary
Harry receives a harsh punishment for the snake incident that lasts well into summer vacation. Dudley prepares to begin school at Smeltings Academy, while Harry will be going to public school. One day, Harry discovers a letter in the post with his name on it. His uncle takes it away, refusing to let him see it. Over the next several days, Harry begins to receive more & more letters, sometimes coming in odd ways such as inside eggs. This garners more & more extreme reactions from his uncle, eventually leading to mass amounts of letters shooting out of the fireplace. Much to Dudley's distress, Vernon decides that the family is going to be leaving the house to take a trip in hopes of avoiding the letters. The next day, they receive numerous letters at their hotel, so Vernon takes them all the way to an island shack. As the clock strikes midnight on Harry's 11th birthday, there's a loud knock at the door.



Timeline
So, there's something a bit wonky here with the dates. Given that J.K. Rowling is known for really detailed foreshadowing, it's often assumed that everything is meticulously done, but that's not incredibly accurate with some of the dates in this first book.

So. Chapter 3 spans an entire week, starting as Harry gets the mail on a Tuesday, and ending right at the beginning of Harry's birthday, which (given this timeline) is a Tuesday. The quick explanation here is that we are explicitly told days of the week for several of these days. The day that the Dursleys go to the island is explicitly mentioned as a Monday, because Dudley complains that he's missing his Monday programs. We also know that this is not an accident because we get a clear "On Friday... On Saturday... On Sunday... The next morning" succession, so Rowling clearly set it up so the day before Harry's birthday was a Monday, thus making Harry's birthday (July 31!) a Tuesday.
So, pretty clear timeline, right? Except. We already established that this is taking place in the summer of 1991. Harry and Dudley were both born in 1980 and they're both turning 11, plus tons of other out-of-story confirmation that this year is 1991. However, July 31 was on a Wednesday in 1991. So clearly, Rowling made an oopsie here. Because Harry's birthday & the year this takes place are both solid facts, but the timeline that she very purposefully lays out in this chapter contradicts these facts. Clearly, she just didn't have her dates right, but I had a lot of fun laying all of this out and proving that I was right and J.K. Rowling was wrong ;)

Personal Thoughts
I love the humor surrounding the Smelting stick! Also, I love the moment where Harry makes that clever quip back to Dudley and Dudley is too slow to figure out that he was insulted. It's our first brief glimpse into Harry's single distinct personality trait- DAT. SASS. Also, there's a point where Vernon is humming "Tiptoe Through the Tulips," which is fitting because that song gives me the creeps.


WWP Analysis
-More references to the number 12, including a dozen eggs, midnight, and the number 36.
-There's an interesting note that Mrs. Figg seems to get around quite a bit. She's apparently hobbling around near the Dursleys' house, despite living a few streets away.


Notes for First Years
Not much here today, kids. This chapter is rather heavy on plot elements that are specifically for this book. Remember that Aunt Marge tho.


Controversial Moments
Again, nada. This chapter is just here to move dat plot along. The only potential one is the whole messed up date thing.



My Remembrall is Glowing!
I totally forgot about Harry sneaking downstairs in the morning to beat the Dursleys to the mail! Young Harry was super proactive when trying to get these letters. I also forgot they stopped at a hotel before the island.

Got Peeves'd
(Remember, this section is spoilery if you haven't seen the movie!)
The movie leaves out everything relating to the school Harry was supposed to go to. Also, it left out the fact that he got a real bedroom. Also, the night spent at the hotel. Honestly, a large chunk of this chapter was left out. It was basically boiled down to letters, letters, and more letters, followed by the trip to the island. And TBH, that makes a lot of sense because none of those things are really very important to the overall plot, so it makes sense to condense a bit in order to not bog down the movie. Having every single day play out wouldn't have translated well into movie form, despite being good within this chapter.



No first years past this point!
From here forward, spoilers from all 7 books are fair game!

Divination Class
Again, not much here. Sure, we'll continue to see Dudley and crew beating up Harry, but that's not "foreshadowing," per se. I guess the closest thing is just how kooky Dumbledore is portrayed in this book. Sending letters via egg and addressing them specifically to the cupboard under the stairs or the smallest bedroom makes total sense with quirky Dumbledore. We also get a glimpse into the persistence on both Dumbledore's and the Dursleys' sides-- the Dursleys will avoid 5ever and Dumbledore will just keep on truckin'.


Miscellaneous
Not a spoiler, but this seems like the best place to talk about it, since I already harped on it in the non-spoiler section. Seriously, though, I can't believe all these day of the week inaccuracies! After some searching and some back and forth, I think that all of this section was based on the year that this was written. If my memory serves me correctly, this was written in 1990, and the days of the week mentioned line up correctly for the dates when using the 1990 calendar. Given that we already noted that we know this takes place in 1991, this is clearly some sort of editing error. How did no one catch this?! My only guess is that maybe she wasn't sure what year this was supposed to take place or didn't mention the year to the editor or something but there was some sort of slip up here.

Also, fun fact that I read a long time ago on JKR's website-- apparently, the original plan (or at least, one of the earlier plans) was for the boat guy to be Hermione's dad (and for the family to own the island, I think). As you can tell, this is a vague memory so I don't remember all the details, but that just really stands out in my mind.



So, that's it for this chapter analysis! I'm already so excited about re-reading this series and looking at each chapter through a different lens than I normally do. Let me know in the comments what you thought of this post and if you have any ideas for other things that I can look at in the chapter. Thanks so much for reading and don't forget to check out my links below!

Check out my links below!


~Mischief Managed~