20 Years Later, Why I Still Love The First Harry Potter Book
By: Vipula Gupta
Tags: Harry Potter, Fiction, Books, Reading, Book Recommendations

Photo by Rae Tian on Unsplash

I read Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone for the first time in 1999. I was a few years too old for it and very skeptical of the picture of old man in the long beard and pointy hat on the back of the book. I needn’t have worried, for I was hooked from the first sentence.

I joined the fanatic legions of fans who waited for the sequels every other year while rereading the published books over and over again. I remember not wanting to read the last chapter of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows, fearing it meant an end to the presence of Harry, Hermione and Ron in my life.

It’s been a while since I went back to the first book that started it all. I recently picked up my decade-old copy of The Philosopher’s Stone to read to my five-year old at bedtime. He is a few years too young for it and only interested in the picture of the old man in the long beard and pointy hat on the back of the book.

He soon gave up with “not enough pictures, mom!” but I read on immersed from the very first page, just like I was so many years ago.

So what is the magic mix?

The Set Up

The first book starts with an unusually quiet scene in a nondescript suburban neighborhood with something extraordinary going on. A cat that can turn into a woman, a flying motorcycle, an orphaned child, and an old man who most definitely is a sorcerer. You have to know what comes next! So in the very first chapter, an interesting premise has been set up.

Image Source: Wikimedia

Then the theme of the whole series is established in the first few chapters — ‘underdog wins the day’. No matter how many books and movies latch on to this, it almost always works.

“There will be books written about Harry. Every child in the world will know his name.”

Even though Harry Potter is this really famous wizard and celebrity — he is still the underdog. It’s quite remarkable how J. K. Rowling creates this contradiction around him. Super famous wizard since the age one, but at the same time orphaned, abused, hungry for affection, dying to belong somewhere. He comes to Hogwarts with all his fame and yet no advantage. From the very beginning, you want him to win.

Photo by Sarah Ehlers on Unsplash

Likable Teenage Heroes

Who doesn’t love a child soldier, right? From The Chronicles of Narnia to The Maze Runner, the fantasy genre is filled with teenagers fighting grown-up wars.

The trio that makes the central cast for the Harry Potter series is at the cusp of adolescence facing problems beyond their reach.

Harry, by the age of eleven, has had a pretty miserable life. As a person, he is quite nice — witty, intelligent, a little rebellious, eager to learn and to be loved. He may not be the ideal hero, but he has his heart in the right place — he inherently wants to be good. He is a believable hero.

Then there is Ron Weasley — the youngest of six brothers, always getting hand me downs, destined to be friends with the most famous wizard in school, forever living in the shadows. In spite of his disadvantages, he is friendly, kind, and fiercely loyal.

Last but not least, there is Hermione, my favorite character, one I strongly feel is the true ‘hero’ of the series. She is bookish and very competitive. Still, she is intensely loyal, earnest, generous, and the most compassionate of the three. Without her brilliance and presence of mind, Harry and Ron just can’t get very far.

“There are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.” — J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

The whole set of characters in the first book, from Harry’s annoying relatives to his teachers at Hogwarts, is immensely engaging. As a writer, it’s hard to create one or two interesting characters, and Rowling creates several. Hagrid and Dumbledore, I believe, are the most essential characters in the first book. They fill the paternal void in Harry’s life as they mentor him through his first year at Hogwarts. The fact that they knew his parents also ties them to Harry strongly.

Photo by Artem Maltsev on Unsplash

The Magical World

“I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even put a stopper on death.”

― Professor Snape, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

The other ingredient to the story is the magical world itself. Hogwarts School is fascinating and your mind leaps and bounces as you try to create mental images of moving pictures, hidden staircases, dark dungeons and the great hall. Wouldn’t a place like Diagon Alley be fun and entertaining? The attention to detail in creating this other world makes you almost wish that it was real. Always read the book before the movie, so you can imagine this for yourself.

The Jigsaw Element

I believe the defining reason as to why everyone is hooked from Book 1 is that at the end of the day, the story of Harry Potter is really a puzzle. Every chapter in the first book reveals little pieces of the puzzle. As we will read ahead, every book adds to the parts of the puzzle, but the complete picture remains elusive until the end.

The first book itself raises several interesting questions — Why did Harry survive Voldemort’s attack? What was stolen from the safe at Gringotts? Why does the sorting hat suggest Harry be in Slytherin? What is the significance of The Mirror of Erised? Why does Dumbledore see socks in it? Why is it curious that the wand that has chosen Harry is the twin of the wand that left the scar on his forehead? What is Snape’s agenda? What is Harry’s destiny?

Sometimes, there are people, incidents, and conversations that seem irrelevant but make much more sense later on. The Philosopher’s Stone’s primary purpose is to basically lay down the main characters, relationships, plot, and landmarks for the larger story to unfold.

It’s a perfect start to a very entertaining tale.

Check out other bookish articles by Vipula Gupta