Harry Potter Conventions And Conventions Essay
Formula and Convention as Seen in
J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter and The Philosophers Stone
J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone and subsequent novels have received extraordinary amounts of attention and exploded into everyday pop culture. One theory accredits their success to the incorporation of a recurrent mythological theme, or convention, specifically the hero’s adventure narrative that is known to most everyday readers, especially those with a love for the fantasy genre. Harry Potter represents a modern day hero. Although Harry is more of an underdog character who lacks the physical prowess usually attributed to mythological heroes such as Hercules, he excels at every task he takes on. Harry does not need to be the intelligently …show more content…
gifted student or have great physical strengths because he utilizes the skills and knowledge of his companions to help him accomplish his goals (Ahmed, 2012). This stereotypical transformation from underdog to hero almost seamlessly follows Joseph Campbell’s 17 Stages of the Monomyth, or the Hero’s Journey Formula.
According to authors like John Cawelti (1998), all culturally popular works contain two key elements: Conventions, and Inventions.
Conventions are components, which are familiar to both writer and author. These conventions can include popular or expected plots, themes, characters, stereotypes, metaphors and generally recognized ideals (Cawelti, 1998). It is also common for these conventions to test our perceptions as readers, through enhancing more common placed characters identities with twists to enrich them. For example in the Harry Potter series, Professor Snape is originally portrayed as the villain, and a man who holds an unjust hatred towards Harry and his friends; seemingly willing stop at nothing to… in the end SAVE Harry. Snape’s character twist from typical villain to lovable, complicated and misunderstood hero is a convention technique that is gaining popularity in popular culture characters such as Rise of the Guardians-Pitch, The Avengers- Loki or Fanfiction.net’s user exploration of Draco Malfoy as a good guy or even a lover to Harry (Humble, 2012). As of 2009 Fanfiction.net alone had over 430,100 stories involving Harry Potter, each with a new plot twist or addition to fill readers desires to gain more from the books (Humble,
2012).
Campbell’s 17 Stages of the Monomyth, found in his book Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) has been revised and edited multiple times to fit the context of modern day literature. The original 17 plot points still ring true for many Adventure Hero stories today, including Rowling’s Harry Potter. The Hero’s journey is made up of three major sections: Departure, Initiation and finally Return. Each one of these sections is made up of multiple subsections that when combined with strong ideas and a good storyline can become a solid fiction.
J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter and The Philosophers Stone
J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone and subsequent novels have received extraordinary amounts of attention and exploded into everyday pop culture. One theory accredits their success to the incorporation of a recurrent mythological theme, or convention, specifically the hero’s adventure narrative that is known to most everyday readers, especially those with a love for the fantasy genre. Harry Potter represents a modern day hero. Although Harry is more of an underdog character who lacks the physical prowess usually attributed to mythological heroes such as Hercules, he excels at every task he takes on. Harry does not need to be the intelligently …show more content…
gifted student or have great physical strengths because he utilizes the skills and knowledge of his companions to help him accomplish his goals (Ahmed, 2012). This stereotypical transformation from underdog to hero almost seamlessly follows Joseph Campbell’s 17 Stages of the Monomyth, or the Hero’s Journey Formula.
According to authors like John Cawelti (1998), all culturally popular works contain two key elements: Conventions, and Inventions.
Conventions are components, which are familiar to both writer and author. These conventions can include popular or expected plots, themes, characters, stereotypes, metaphors and generally recognized ideals (Cawelti, 1998). It is also common for these conventions to test our perceptions as readers, through enhancing more common placed characters identities with twists to enrich them. For example in the Harry Potter series, Professor Snape is originally portrayed as the villain, and a man who holds an unjust hatred towards Harry and his friends; seemingly willing stop at nothing to… in the end SAVE Harry. Snape’s character twist from typical villain to lovable, complicated and misunderstood hero is a convention technique that is gaining popularity in popular culture characters such as Rise of the Guardians-Pitch, The Avengers- Loki or Fanfiction.net’s user exploration of Draco Malfoy as a good guy or even a lover to Harry (Humble, 2012). As of 2009 Fanfiction.net alone had over 430,100 stories involving Harry Potter, each with a new plot twist or addition to fill readers desires to gain more from the books (Humble,
2012).
Campbell’s 17 Stages of the Monomyth, found in his book Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) has been revised and edited multiple times to fit the context of modern day literature. The original 17 plot points still ring true for many Adventure Hero stories today, including Rowling’s Harry Potter. The Hero’s journey is made up of three major sections: Departure, Initiation and finally Return. Each one of these sections is made up of multiple subsections that when combined with strong ideas and a good storyline can become a solid fiction.