Week 1: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling

    Welcome back to feelingsonbooks.com! For this first week, I have been reading the first half of the book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. There were many feelings and thoughts that came up during the reading as I have never read the Harry Potter books. I have seen all of the Harry Potter movies, as they are some of my mom’s favorites and have been played multiple times over the years since they were released.  

    There are differences between the books and the movies, but the constant is that Harry was orphaned as an infant and is made to endure many hardships as he grew up in the home of his mother’s sister and her family, the Dursley’s.  I feel Harry’s aunt treated him differently than her own son because she was jealous of her sister being a witch and she didn’t have any powers of her own. Harry was made to do all the chores and was not allowed to know that his parents were wizards. I felt sad for Harry that he always seemed to not be a part of his family. He always seemed like they kept him at arm's length like they were always better than him. They were scared that he also would have powers like his mother, and they were trying to hide them from him. I was surprised that after all the neglect and ill treatment for his entire young life, Harry did not grow into an angry child. 

    Next, I noticed how different the wizarding world treated Harry after he found out about his true identity. It was totally different than his aunt and uncle had made him believe. Everyone knew his name and was surprised to see he was alive. This must have been so confusing to Harry because he said, “I’m just Harry”. He was never told the true story of his parents, or of how he got his scar or of the person who gave him the scar, so he was stepping into a whole new world that knew of him, but he knew nothing about that world. I feel like I would have been curious but scared too to enter that new world. I bet Harry finally felt seen as a person, excited to be out of the oppression of the Dursley’s and probably overwhelmed by all the people knowing his name.  How would you feel if you were in Harry Potter’s shoes? Going from thinking of your life as that of an insignificant orphan that no one cares about to someone who is famous in a world you were told didn’t exist. What an adventure would that be!