Comparison Of Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone

In J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the protagonist, Harry, is today's modern hero. The film of Harry Potter is the common tale of good vs. evil, with the good and evil in the story being completely obvious. Voldemort, Harry's adversary, intends to kill Harry because, as their prophecy, another element of mythology, foretold, "neither can live while the other survives." However, when good meets evil (Harry meets Voldemort) in the novel, good prevails both times; which is a very cliché concept.

The need to find acceptance and a place where he belongs is a driving force for Harry. He has come to the realization that he is different, and that there's a possibility that there are people like him somewhere else in the world.
However, he doesn't know just yet that he really doesn't belong in the "muggle" world; let alone that there are even other worlds beyond his own. The world of magic, a world that is filled with mythological archetypes, creatures, and the oddest of people will finally be the place that Harry feels at home (because at once, it was his home). This essay will asses the claim that the Harry Potter novels, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in particular, have archetypes that are common to Greek Mythology, exclusively Odysseus' tale, along with the use of other literary devices to prove that modern literature surely has not become obsolete over the years. It will do so firstly by following the use of "the Hero's Journey" in both novels, and secondly by making a comparative analysis, based on these observations, in order to be able to give an answer to the research question.

The fictional character, Harry Potter, from J. K. Rowling's novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, follows one of the common archetypes found in Mythology, The Hero's Journey. This archetype was discovered and sorted out by Joseph Campbell in his novel, The Hero With A Thousand Faces. The Journey consists of three major parts and seventeen sub-sections within the three major ones. The three major ones are, The Departure, The Initiation, and The Return.
In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry's "journey" starts with the major point, The Departure with his call to adventure; when he gets his letter of acceptance to Hogwarts School of Wizardry.
He then refuses this call when he tells Hagrid, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard." He receives supernatural aid from Hagrid, who is really just an extension of Dumbledore, the predetermined caretaker of Harry Potter when Harry's parents died. The death of Harry's parents actually becomes a symbol and extended metaphor. His mother's love becomes a form of protection for him, because she sacrificed herself for Harry, out of love; the same love that continues to protect Harry throughout the novel. Harry crosses the first threshold when he enters Diagon Alley for the first time. Diagon Alley is considered the root of the wizardry world, this is where every wizard keeps their money, buys the necessities for wizarding, and where everything that is associated with wizards is found. The Belly of the Whale stage is often seen as the "initiation" into the new world. Harry's initiation is when he first enters Hogwarts and is sorted into Gryffindor, one of the four houses at Hogwarts. In Harry's overall Journey, Harry learns the entire prophecy. This new knowledge transforms Harry's identity so that he now sees himself as a "marked man;" he feels separate and apart from the rest of Hogwarts (or the rest of the world, for that matter), and most
importantly, it makes him fully committed to the goal of defeating Voldemort. This is the most important step because it shows that the character is willing to undergo a metamorphosis, to die for the greater cause, so it's expected that Harry's character will evolve in a significant, positive way because of this step.
The next major point, Initiation, starts with Harry's road of trials.
However, Harry's trials aren't in order with the steps of the hero's journey, they're closer to the end of the novel. Harry's trials are the enchantments that are guarding the Philosopher's Stone. These consist of, Fluffy, the three-headed dog (another mythological archetype that will be discussed later in this essay), the "Devil's Snare," deathly vines that constrict like boa constrictors around it's captors, which is symbolic for the hardships that Harry has been and will be going through in the future. Others include enchanted keys intended to kill anything that attempts to disrupt their purpose of guarding a door, and finally a life-size Wizard's Chess board in which Harry and his two friends were to become actual players
in.