The story opens by
introducing us to Vernon Dursley a fat man who works for a drill company who
goes to work to see a lot of strange people in robes and owls on the
street. I point this out as it allows
author J.K. Rowling to set up the world the story is set in. Rowling makes everything initially seem
normal, but hooks the reader by showing us hints that not everything is what it
seems until the end of Chapter One which sees Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall
and Rubeus Hagrid leaving the newly orphaned Harry Potter on the doorstep of 4
Privet Drive, the home of the Dursleys who are of course Harry’s only surviving
family. This is the first real glimpse
that magic not only exists in this world, but also that it is hidden from
ordinary view and that the Dursleys are connected by blood to a wizarding
family.
Chapter Two however
plants us right back into the normal world as we flash forward ten years to see
that Harry has been abused by the Dursleys and is a social outcast. Now fans will know that Harry is going to
become the Chosen One for the Wizarding World and doing this could have been a
great flaw for Rowling, but as this wasn’t decided until well into writing the
novel, Harry is given a defined character.
He is socially awkward and has his own insecurities. He isn’t flawless as he wants to see his
cousin in pain and even makes little jabs at Dudley as retaliation for the
constant bullying. It doesn’t take long
however for the magic of the world to rear its head as it is Dudley’s birthday
and the entire family and one of Dudley’s friends go to the London Zoo. Harry even gets to have a semi-decent time at
the zoo until they go to the Reptile House where he takes sympathy on a snake
which eventually talks back to him.
Dudley pushes him to the ground and the glass on the exhibit disappears
forcing Dudley and his friend to fall into the tank and the snake escapes.
Chapters Three, Four,
Five and Six work as transitions from the Muggle world into the Wizarding World
as letters start arriving for Harry at Privet Drive. These letters eventually overrun the house
and force the Dursleys to pack up and leave the home. They eventually stop at a rundown hut in the
middle of the sea where in the middle of the night Hagrid reenters the
narrative to tell Harry he’s a wizard.
He gives Dudley a pig tail and takes Harry away to Diagon Alley where we
actually get the backstory to what happened to Harry’s parents, they were
killed by Voldemort and somehow Harry survived making him famous. Harry gets his schoolbooks and equipment in
Chapter Five which is the heaviest on the exposition on how this world works
and we see Harry’s eyes opened to the wonder of this new world. We get to meet Draco Malfoy who utterly
confuses Harry with his knowledge of the wizarding world and once everything is
done at Diagon Alley we actually remember that it’s only July 31st
and Harry has a whole month left at the Dursley’s. This is a slight flaw in the storytelling as
it does stop to a halt to show just how terrified the Dursley’s are of their
nephew. Chapter Six of course is the
final transition as Harry leaves the Muggle world far behind to go on to
Hogwarts. On the way he meets Ron, Fred
and George Weasley and they become close friends almost immediately once they
get over the shock of meeting a celebrity.
Hermione Granger is also introduced in this chapter, but as she is a
complete know-it-all at this point of the story they don’t become friends.
Chapter Seven and Eight
become the final chapters in exposition as we get to know Hogwarts, what Harry
thinks of his professors and an introduction to the supporting characters. The other students outside of Harry, Ron,
Hermione, Fred, George, Neville and Malfoy are where Rowling fails. In this novel they really don’t get to be
extremely fleshed out and while they aren’t forgettable they are reserved to
being one note. Some of the professors
don’t fare much better. That said with
the massive amounts of exposition Rowling’s prose throughout the novel is
incredibly easy to read. She takes Stephen King’s advice of just putting what’s
necessary and letting the reader fill in the gaps which really works. However this causes the back half of the
novel to suffer as the first eight chapters are dedicated to two months,
Chapters Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen take us through the next seven
months in an extremely sped up time period.
Harry gets the position of Seeker for the Gryffindor House Quidditch
team and has his duel with Malfoy that makes them discover Fluffy, have their
encounter with the Mountain Troll developing the main trio’s friendship rather
quickly, has Harry’s broom jinxed, have Snape referee the next match
immediately following, gets the Invisibility Cloak, discovers the Mirror of
Erised and who Nicholas Flamel is in these five rather compacted chapters. As the book is trying to be a mystery it is
going through the rising action extremely quickly to get to the climax which is
a real problem for the novel. These
chapters however do take time to develop Oliver Wood as he explains what
Quidditch is, McGonagall as she gets to show that she does in fact care about
her house, and Dumbledore as he shows just how much of an oxymoron he is as a
character. Harry gets his biggest jump
in character in Chapter Twelve as the Mirror of Erised allows for us to see
just what he wants.
The pace however slows
down to a more manageable speed for Chapters Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen and
Seventeen. This is where we really get
the most development for the characters as Harry, Ron and Hermione work out
what Fluffy is guarding and that it is Voldemort trying to steal the famous Sorcerer’s
Stone to regain his power. It’s how they
try and confront Voldemort that is the highlight of the novel as Rowling closes
their character arcs as they get to have their own trials. Harry shows just how much he has grown, not
allowing Voldemort to intimidate him as he confronts adversity. Ron shows just how loyal he is as he
sacrifices himself in the giant chess game and Hermione actually gets to use
her logical skills as she comes from the Muggle world. The final chapter, Chapter Seventeen, however
almost makes the falling action happen way to fast after a climax of trials and
reveals. The end of the book however
does the right thing and leaves the reader eager for more of the adventures at
Hogwarts.
To summarize, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is
a great example of how a novel should be written even if it does have some
pacing issues. It isn’t the best of the
Harry Potter series by any meas, but that mean that it is bad, just a way to
kick start the franchise. 75/100.
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