Monday, September 13, 2010

Harry Potter's first internal conflict

This review will be, I grant you, rather short as I do not have a particularly large amount of things to say about the Prisoner of Azkaban. Like the first two books, it was imaginative to the tee and I think, on the whole, it was slightly better writing quality than the previous novels. The heartbreaks were just as heartbreaking, the triumphs just as triumphant. On a tangential note, I have discovered that Quidditch is probably my second favorite sport (sorry, baseball still comes first).

Basically the only thing I wanted to make note of is that the Prisoner of Azkaban is the first novel in which Harry's absolute hero status is shaken. In the first Quidditch match, he doesn't catch the Snitch after falling from his broomstick (through no fault of his own, I must add). It's the first game he has ever lost. In addition, he finds himself struggling with something he has never really felt before: hate. His rivalry with Draco pales in comparison to his absolute hatred of Sirius Black, a hatred so great he would be willing to kill. And though Harry rises to the occasion and doesn't kill Black in the end, the reader is now forced to consider a question. Harry has so far resisted the evil Lord Voldemort's attempts to cause problems in the world, but can he resist blackness in his own soul that will play into Voldemort's hands?

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