Earth, Wind, & The Shire- Too Funny Not To Use As A Title!

I can't even begin to explain how happy and excited about having Lord of The Rings and Harry Potter as some of the required readings for this course. The Lord of The Rings movies are among some of my favorite. I think it is interesting viewing the central ideas of Harry Potter and the central ideas in Lord of The Rings- because believe it or not they're not terribly different because they contain a lot of similar elements. I also thought it was awesome to see how schooling or the topic of being in school takes an effect or role in Harry Potter because the book was initially created as a children's book and so therefore the idea of school certainly makes it a lot more relatable. It also allows for a place in a story where kids can be with other kids and certainly away from their parents and it provides them an opportunity to figure out who they are and where there are going in their lives. As Harry Potter develops from a shy and quiet boy, you see a growth towards a confident and certainly courageous young man. Or better known as a bildungsroman, as Dr. Mitchell-Buck stated, it is definitely a coming of age story- a story as to where you see someone develop and grow up through age. Being at a school implies that it has a lot of structure as well- they have a school, ministry, sports, hospitals, etc. Further on, I thought it was definitely interesting to see why there was an importance of having a clear cut separation- as far as having a muggle world and a magic or wizard world. The world is just viewed as amazing and spectacular because the muggle world is just so plain, bland, and ordinary. As to where the muggle world also has that element of surprise and mystery and you can always expect something unique, extraordinary, and new happen.