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~

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