The Boy Who Lived

I am taking part in a rereading of the Harry Potter series where I will be posting my thoughts on each chapter and I will also be writing essays on various topics from the books. This is yhe forst installment

Rereading this chapter, I remember why I fell in love with the Harry Potter series. I love how tongue-in-cheek the narrator is, even without appearing overtly so. The opening words are especially magical to be, because in two sentences, J.K. Rowling manages to tell you everything you need to know about Vernon and Petunia Dursley, without even revealing any personal details except for their names. I also love how Vernon’s confusion is presented and how he tries to jusitfy everything, despite his justifications becoming weaker and weaker. It shows just how out of his league he really is.

The narrative seemlessly transitions from focusing on Vernon to focusing on Dumbledore on page 8. Even when I was 7 I could tell that the Dursleys would not be a good place for Harry, and now that I’m older, I doubly believe so. I understand that Dumbledore wanted the blood wards to protect Harry, but I don’t think that that protection was worth the emotional and mental damage that was done to Harry there. Even though it isn’t explicity stated, Harry was clearly abused with the Dursleys, and as an educator and the one responsible for Harry’s well-being, Dumbledore should have intervened and taken Harry out of that environment. But, that would have just destroyed his big plan, so of course he couldn’t do that.

In conclusion, this is still the story I remember reading as a young kid. Too often I’ll go back to rewatch or reread something I loved as a kid, and I’ll find that I can’t stand it any more. That is not the case with Harry Potter. Even after all these years I can still see exactly why I fell in love with it, and why I still reread it and watch the movies to this day.

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