The first thing that comes to mind
when I hear “creative style” is a well-written novel where I can get lost in a world
different than my own. The Harry Potter series, a favorite of mine, is the best-selling
book series in the world, and for good reason. This series transcends age and
is truly a magical journey for any reader. This is a unique part of J.K.
Rowling’s writing of the Harry Potter series. 12-year olds love it, 30-year
olds love it. It is hard to capture such a wide-ranging audience with the same
story, having to be sophisticated enough for the adults but simply imaginative
enough for the younger readers, but Rowling’s version of creative style in Harry
Potter does just that.
Harry Potter and the
Prisoner of Azkaban is the third installment in the Harry Potter series and
often regaled as one of the best books of the series. Rowling churned out the
third book in about a year, directly following the release of the second novel,
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Despite being one of the
shorter books, Azkaban delivers a story of depth and growth, as the writing
evolves as Harry gets older.
The
first few pages of a book often establish the pace and style in which the rest
of the writing will follow. In the beginning of Azkaban, Rowling manages
to convey the longing and sorrow a child has for their friend over the summer
break from school, while also bringing in sophisticated emotion in Harry’s
struggle with his non-nurturing family and the gut wrenching feeling you have
when your life is so tragic, even you forget your own birthday.
The biggest anomaly to me is Rowling’s
ability to capture attention across multiple generations. Perhaps it is a
mixture of relatability to Harry as he endures common adolescent troubles that
everyone can either look back on or look forward to combined with the mature
experience of agony Harry feels after facing death and abuse.
Rowling’s first unique use of
creative style is when she includes an excerpt from Harry’s magical textbook. Instead
of just telling the reader Harry is reading a textbook, the reader gets to look
at the words as well, as if they are in Harry’s Place.
“The quill paused at the top of a
likely looking paragraph. Harry pushed his round glasses up the bridge of his
nose, moved his flashlight closer to the book, and read:
Non-magic people (more commonly
known as Muggles) were particularly afraid of magic in medieval times, but not
very good at recognizing it. On the rare occasion that they did catch a real
witch or wizard, burning had no effect whatsoever. The witch or wizard would
perform a basic Flame-Freezing Charm and then pretend to shriek with pain while
enjoying a gentle, tickling sensation. Indeed, Wendelin the Weird enjoyed being
burned so much that she allowed herself to be caught no less than forty-seven
times in various disguises.”
Within this excerpt and as well as
in the other writing Rowling uses distinction often to provide the meaning of some
words, especially when they are specific to the magical world. This helps the
younger reader in understanding things that may still be confusing to them but
may also aid the older generations of readers who are focusing more on the
story and less on the wizarding world vernacular.
This small example of Rowling’s
writing of the Harry Potter series shows a variety of rhetorical strategies. A
small example of scesis onomaton is used in her description of
Harry’s attempt at being discreet in doing his homework in the dark when he “slowly
and very carefully” opens his ink bottle. By saying he is slowly opening the
bottle implies he is also being careful, but the repletion of the idea truly
emphasizes the care he must take in order to complete a simple task. The
emphasis on Harry’s attention to keeping his magical activities on lock and key
comes later in the example when he puts his things away. Instead of providing
his actions in one sentence separated by commas implying he is doing things simultaneously
or right after the other they are separated by semi colons.
“He replaced the top of the ink
bottle; pulled an old pillowcase from under his bed; put the flashlight, A
History of Magic, his essay, quill, and ink inside it; got out of bed; and hid
the lot under a loose floorboard under his bed.”
This gives the idea that each
step he takes to put his things away is a separate move, as if he has to pause
carefully after each movement in order to maintain the silence that is expected
of him.
The Harry Potter series is
loved by decades of people and it is due to J.K. Rowling’s ability to write in
a way that appeals to that large of an audience in a successfully creative way.
Her words and use of rhetorical devices are precisely the reason so many find
her world just as magical as Harry finds his.
Noelle H.
No comments:
Post a Comment