Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Symbols of Heroic Fantasy (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,3, University of Duisburg-Essen (Anglophone), language: English, abstract: It has not been a surprise that over the last years the novel of a boy with a scar and magic abilities has inspired children and adults. People cannot stop reading the story of a young boy who goes to a wizard school named Hogwarts. But have they thought why readers are attracted to this book series? And how it has influenced them in different ways? These are questions, this paper tries to answer. Furthermore, the main goal will be to answer the question in what way does symbolism appear into the novel? What is the meaning of the symbols in this novel? These questions will be answered by both: analysing the context in which they appear and their possible meaning in the novel.

The answer would be simple: Due to many stylistic and rhetorical devices, J. K. Rowling enlightens the world of the and gives us the possibility to discover it. However, a big part of this input comes from symbolism she uses as an author to catch attention in a better way. An entire generation has been influenced of how the author J. K. Rowling turns the world of a book into a living one. Therefore, it is no surprise that this piece of fantasy literature has become an important object of various studies. The novel itself can be investigated in several ways. This means Harry Potter as a fantasy novel is a masterpiece of literary and stylistic devices. It can also be approached as a good example of how an author could with use of symbolism write a good novel.

In this term paper, the author would therefore like to limit the field of study to the meaning of the symbols we can find in Harry Potter. Furthermore, there will be a short definition to give an overview about what are core aspects in Heroic fantasy? This should help to get an impression of what is important in this genre and how it is presented. The term paper will be structured with a theoretical framework, the analysis and a conclusion to summarise all important results and with a look in the future concerning symbolism. There are a lot of traditional symbols with different origins and meanings. In this term paper the author is describing only the most common symbols like e.g. good versus evil, magic, names and spells and other important symbols which she considers as nameable. She will be working with the hypothesis that patterns can be found in the manner of symbolism in many various ways.