Is Harry Potter Literature, Essay Example

The Harry Potter series combines imagination, good story structure, and themes to help the readers escape their world while at the same time teaching them about their role in creating the better, real world of tomorrow. These qualities define lasting literature, and so it is no surprise that Harry Potter often becomes a hero as popular as Frodo from The Lord of the Rings– except that this series allows children to relate even more to his struggles. A whole group of young adults grew up with these books.

Good literature knows how to make the readers care. It may use a really good setting, lovable or despicable characters, or a story which captures attention. The Harry Potter series describes magical and fantastic settings through the eyes of the character. The story isn’t about the magic. The magic just happens to be there in these children’s lives. Still, the detail makes it possible to imagine exactly what Rowling writes about, as though it is something that we see every day.

Setting the good vocabulary and descriptions to the side, the Harry Potter series follows not only a beginning-middle-end structure for each book but a larger set of themes and a flow which continues all the way to the end. The roots of some of the final surprises are clear from the very first book, showing a unity and sound bit of planning. The world is not a shallow set of descriptions. It includes magic not as the solution to every problem but as a source of exploration, and the rules exist and are sometimes made to be broken, as with the Order of the Phoenix and the hateful Dolores Umbridge.

Finally, the books highlight deeper themes which echo across all times and all parts of the world. Themes like self-confidence, friendship, sacrifice, and standing up for the weak or downtrodden are themes which develop the very best qualities of society. As the boy at the front of all of these themes, Harry Potter became hope for the new generation that embraced these books instead of video games and TV. Reaching something deeper inside the reader makes the series into literature.