This paper will compare and contrast literal aspects of Harry Potter by J. K. Rolling and The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Palling. Though both book series fall under the genres young-adult and fantasy novel, their literal aspects differ in many ways. The plot, characters, setting and themes are different from each other, yet, not too different in some aspects.
It may not be possible to say which book series is better, UT after critically analyzing both works, It Is possible to come to a conclusion that the Harry Potter series has managed to contribute more to literature than the Inheritance Cycle. Summary Harry Potter by J. K. Rolling is about a boy named Harry, who is an orphan and had the misfortune of growing up with his horrible aunt and her family. On his eleventh birthday, however, his world changed with the visit of a mysterious stranger, who informed him that he is a wizard and as one he should attend Hogwash’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to complete his education.
He also found out that he was able to survive the killing curse of the evil dark wizard, Lord Voltmeter. While aboard the train that takes all wizard kids to Hogwash’s, he meets his friends Ronald Wesley and Hormone Granger. Together with them, he goes on various adventures, learning and changing, guided by his headmaster at Hogwash’s, Albums Tumbledown, he struggles to achieve his ultimate goal of overcoming Lord Voltmeter, who is the source of his parents’ death and whose aims are to destroy the Muggers (the non- wizard community), conquer the world of wizards, and to become immortal. The
Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Palling is about a farm boy named Oregon, who is an orphan, brought up by his Uncle Sorrow and his late wife Marina. His life changed when the stone he found at the forbidden forest, spine, hatched for him, surprising him with the fact that what he has found is not a stone, but a dragon egg. He named his dragon, Sapphire, after a dragon mentioned by the village story-teller, Broom. After the death of his Uncle by the Razz’s, two mysterious creatures who have come in search of the dragon egg under the orders of the evil king Calibrator, Oregon decides to go after it and kill it with the help of Sapphire.
Broom volunteers to Join them on their journey for reasons of his own. Through their Journey Oregon learns many things about sparring, magic and many races, such as elves, dwarves and Uruguay. Many great battles followed, increasing his knowledge about the true meaning of his identity. The Journey which began as a pursuit to kill the Razz’s later turned into saving Algasis, the land where the story takes place, from the evil king Calibrator and uniting all races. Context The Harry Potter series was written by J. K. Rolling, and was published during the time period of 1997 – 2007.
Joanne Rolling, whose pen name is J. K. Rolling, was born in England in July 1965. She got married in October 1992, in northern Portugal, where she lived at that time and gave birth to her daughter, Jessica in 1993. Joe formed the idea to write the Harry Potter series while riding on a delayed train from Manchester to London, and during the next five years she outlined the plot for each book and began writing the first book of the series, Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone, which she published through Bloomberg Children’s Books in 1997.
Followed by Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in 1998, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Cabana in 1999, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in 2000, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 2003,Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in 2005, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in 2007 (Biography, 2012). Joe faced many trials during the time she wrote the first book of the Harry Potter series. Her mother’s death in 1990 of multiple sclerosis was followed by her father moving in with his secretary. Her family life was not doing well either.
Circumstances brought her to file a divorce from her first husband Just after 13 months of marriage, which ultimately made her a ingle mother with very little money (The J Rolling Story, 2003). With all that was happening in her life she was diagnosed with clinical depression for a small period of time, and she states that she had been contemplating suicide. The main reason behind her decision to go for help was her feelings for her daughter, which included the thought that she was not been a good mother to her (Harry Potter author: I considered suicide, 2008).
Eventually, she got better and those dark periods in her life was portrayed in her writing. Her descriptions of Harry feelings towards the loss the topic. And the creature Odometers in the book, represents her feelings during her dark period of clinical depression. Success didn’t come easy for J. K. Rolling. Her book got rejected by not less than twelve publishers. After a year of rejections her book finally got a publisher in 1996: the Bloomberg K Rolling Biography). Some other factors that influence the writing of Harry Potter were the Marina series by C.
S. Lewis. As one of Rolling childhood favorites, its influence on the Harry Potter series could be shown in the way how, like in the Marina books, an opposing party of adults s threatened by a group of brave young children, who explores an unknown land and performs heroic deeds. Similarly, it illustrates the challenges and adventures of growing up, describing about every child’s wish for winning respect, learning about loyalty, and believing in something bigger than oneself.
Most importantly, Harry discovery that there is something uniquely valuable inside him represents the dream of numerous people, children and adults alike, who enjoy indulging in their imaginations. Rolling herself has stated that her books are really about imagination ND that practicing wizardry is only a metaphor for developing one’s full potential (Sparseness, 2003). The Inheritance Cycle was written by Christopher Palling, who unlike J. K. Rolling is an American author and began writing the Inheritance Cycle at the age of fifteen.
He was born on November 17, 1983, in Southern California and lived most of his life in Paradise Valley, Montana. On one side of the valley rose a snowplowed Breadroot Mountains, which inspired the fantastic scenery in Oregon, the first novel in his Inheritance cycle. Christopher was homesteaded and graduated early at the age of fifteen. He began writing on Oregon after his graduation, as a hobby. After he finished writing his first draft he spent the second year revising it and then gave it to his parents to read.
Who in turn thought of publishing it and spent the third year proofreading and editing it. Meanwhile, Christopher drew the map of Algasis for Oregon, and his sister-Angela- helped sketch the dragon eye for the book cover. In 2001, his family self-published the book through Palling International LLC and spent the next year promoting the book at libraries, bookstores, and schools (The Author, 2004). In 2002, Christopher luck turned when author Carl Hasten, by the influence of his stepson who has read a copy of the book while on vacation in Montana, introduced Oregon to his publisher, Alfred A.
Knops Books for Young Readers. In August 2003 Knops published Oregon and it was an instant success, reaching a worldwide audience. It was followed by Eldest in 2005 and Bringing in 2008. As he was writing Bringing, the third book of the novel, he realized that his plot and characters need more space to answer all the questions raised in the previous books and decided to write a fourth book which was named Inheritance and was published in 2011. What began as the Inheritance trilogy then became The Inheritance Cycle (The Author, 2004).
What mainly influenced Christopher to write the Inheritance cycle was a book called Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatchet by Bruce Seville, in which a young boy in this world goes to an old curiosity shop and finds a stone that he ends up buying and ultimately hatches for him a dragon. He loved reading fantasy novels from his childhood, which he states in hyperbole: “I’d pretty much read all of the fantasy books in our local library’ (Pauli, 2011). His favorites, apart from the above mentioned book, were Frank Herbert Dune, and Raymond E. Jacques, E. R. Edison, David Deeding, and Ursula K. Lee Gain (The Author, 2004).
Plot The plot of a story differentiates according to the book. Each book of a series has slightly similar though different pipelines. Therefore, in order to critically analyze the plotting of both series (Harry Potter and the Inheritance Cycle), the first book of the Harry Potter series: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and the first book of the Inheritance Cycle: Oregon will be taken into consideration and discussed in the following. The plotting for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone begins with some hysterics happenings that occur around Private Drive, an ordinary street in London.
Mr.. Durries, one of its inhabitants notices these happenings but deliberately convinces himself that nothing unusual is happening. However, on that very night three strange out-of-the-place people meet to deliver a baby to the same stubborn Mr.. Durries and his wife. A brief introduction of the situation and the main character, Harry Potter, is then given to the reader through the dialogues that take place between these three characters, who are later introduced to be none other than Hardy’s headmaster at Hogwash’s school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Albums
Tumbledown, headmistress of Harry appointed house, Professor Monoclonal, and Haggard, the caretaker at Hogwash’s. Ten years after, Harry-who was the baby that was delivered that night-is then properly introduced as an ill-treated orphan who had the misfortune of growing up with his aunt and uncle, whose whole worlds revolve around one person in this world, Harry cousin, Dudley. Later on Haggard re-enters Harry life and introduces Harry to the hazarding world with much disapproval to his aunt and uncle’s wishes. The exposition continues until the first few days of Harry at Hogwash’s.
During that time many important characters and minor characters are introduced to the reader. Some of them are Ronald Wesley and his brothers, Hormone Granger, Dorado Mallow and his friends, Professor Snaps and all other staff members at Hogwash’s, including Professor Squirrel, who turns out to be Lord Voltmeter himself in disguise. The rising action includes three main scenarios. They are: the arrival of Harry at Hogwash’s, the news of break-in at Gringo’s, the hazarding bank, and Heroine’s revelation of the trapdoor under the three headed guard dog in the third-floor corridor.
The point of climax happens during the Acquitted match between Gratifying and Slithering, in which professor Snaps is seen to be hexing Harry, who was playing seeker for Gratifying and is stopped by Hormone. From there onwards all suspicions that were build up during the story comes to a peak and Snaps is suspected as being directly involved with a scheme to steal whatever that is being guarded by the three-headed dog. The falling action takes place when Harry accidentally confronts Voltmeter at the forbidden forest, where he was sent to as a punishment and proceeds towards the resolution when he decides that it was for
Voltmeter that Snaps is working and heads out to stop him (Sparseness, 2003). The conclusion or the story’s ending often contains an element of surprise and in this story the element of surprise was Snake’s innocence in the grand scheme, in which he turn out to be none other than the protector of the very stone he was suspected to be stealing. The plotting of Oregon begins at a completely different setting and approach when compared to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
It begins at a fantasy land called Algasis with an ambush on an eleven lady and her guards-who and a Shade. Then an introduction on the story’s main character, Oregon, is followed. Unlike Harry, Oregon seemed to have a fair idea of magic and all types of mythical creatures from the stories he have heard from his childhood. But like Harry, he was also an orphan living with his uncle and cousin, who unlike in Harry situation are very nice to Oregon and treats him as family.
The exposition doesn’t involve that many introductions to characters as in Harry Potter, but gives out a brief introduction to his cousin Roan and his conflicts, Sorrow-his uncle, Sloan-the village butcher- and his aught-Strain, Horst-the village Smith, and of a story teller named Broom. Though the actions in the exposition seemed to progress slower than in Harry Potter, the introductions are rather descriptive taking the reader to a deeper level of understanding of the characters. Unlike Harry, Oregon finds out his identity on his own, when the dragon egg, which he thought was a stone hatches for him.
And an introduction of his dragon, Sapphire follows. The exposition ends with an introduction to his conflict, which is to kill the Razz’s, servants of king Calibrator, which are responsible for the death of Sorrow, his uncle. There are several rising actions in the story. The three most important rising actions are when Oregon, Sapphire and Broom flees from Planar Valley, Oregon rescues Array-the elf who is responsible for the delivery of Sapphire’s egg in Planar valley-from the fortress of Shade Durra and when an army of Uruguay chases after them.
The climax happens when Oregon confronts Durra at the battle of Farther D;r, the home of the Varied, who are a group of rebels that are fighting against king Calibrator, and defeats him. The falling action and the resolution then follow with him fighting an inner battle with the Durra, ho has left a scathing mark on his back, winning the title “Saddletree”, and comes to a conclusion where he decides to Join ‘The Cripple Who Was Whole’ at the eleven village, AllelesRA, to complete his training. Character J. K. Rolling introduces a great number of interesting characters in the Harry Potter series.
Some of the most important characters are Harry Potter, Ronald Wesley, Hormone Granger, Dorado Mallow, Professor Tumbledown, Professor Snaps and Voltmeter. A brief analysis on each character will be described in the following. Harry Potter – the protagonist in the story, is an eleven year old boy who was ill- rated by his aunt and uncle as a child. He is characterized as a brave, determined and a humble child, who doesn’t take pride in things like fame and honor but only in things that matters to heart. He is loyal to his friends and despises all that is evil.
He is portrayed as a true hero with great value. Ronald Wesley – the first ever wizard friend Harry made, is characterized to be shy and a modest child, who unlike others doesn’t take pride in the fact that he is a pure-blood. He is characterized as a friendly and loyal person, who gets bullied a lot by his brothers. But, when it comes to friendship he displays immense courage like in the moment where he surrendered himself to the giant queen while playing wizard chess. Hormone Granger – the second best wizard friend Harry made is a very bright witch.
She is characterized as a very keen and a bossy character, which seem to know every detail by heart and never breaks school rules. But, her character changes through the story and she learns to value friendship and loyalty beyond everything else. Her quick intelligence during compromising situation makes her an interesting character. Dorado Mallow – Harry powerful lineage, loves to bully and show his superiority over others. His action towards others which contrasts with those of Harry helps the reader to develop a better affection toward the protagonist of the story and identify good from bad (Sparseness, 2003).
Professor Tumbledown – the kind, long bearded headmaster at Hogwash’s is characterized as a wise and a powerful leader. He has managed to obtain respect from almost all his staff members, which displays qualities of true leadership. He is a humble and a gentle leader, who in spite of all things he could obtain with all his power and knowledge, is content with a humble position such as headmaster of a school. Professor Snaps – Harry potions master is probably the most secretive master at Hogwash’s. He is characterized to be discriminative and rude. As a teacher he is the worse sort of example to a child, lacking in moral values and judgments.
Nevertheless, his character always seems to bring out surprise and curiosity to the reader. Voltmeter – the antagonist in the story is a very powerful wizard, whose only wish is to become immortal. And by doing that he also wishes to rid the world of all Muggers and wizards except pure-bloods. But his inability to understand love makes him the failure of his own plans. The Inheritance Cycle when compared to Harry Potter has little characters, but the characters that are included are very descriptive and connect much deeply with the reader than in the Harry Potter series.
And one of the main characters being a creature is something unique to the Inheritance Cycle. The most important characters in the Inheritance Cycle are: Oregon, Sapphire, Roan, Mortgage, Array and Calibrator. Oregon – the protagonist in the story is a fifteen year old farm boy, whose only family is his uncle Sorrow and his cousin Roan. He is characterized as an inquisitive boy, who is popular among the village for his talent at archery and bravery. Like Harry, he too despises evil and injustice and stands up for his believe.
In his quest, however, he does not have the console of friends like Ron and Hormone, who would stand up with him. But he has something similar and much powerful, he has Sapphire. He too like Harry is humble and does not take pride in the fact that he is a dragon rider but, considers it as a responsibility and fights for the greater good, no matter what it would cost him, as a true hero does. Sapphire – the mentally bound companion of Oregon, shares a very unique relationship with him that cannot be named. She is proud as a dragon, yet is gentle as a human.
She is the voice of sanity to him as well as the comforter. Her character enlightens the protagonist character and adds meaning to it. Roan – the only relation Oregon thought he had is a strong and an ambitious man. During the series he shows bravery and courage and achieves the title “Strengthener” as a sign of respect. Mortgage – the only human friend Oregon made in the first book, later turns out to be his step-brother and another dragon rider. However, after he got captured in Farther D;r, he turns against Oregon, under the influence of Calibrator, and meets with him in battle.
Mortgage is characterized as a person who would make the most of a situation, regardless of whether what he does is right or wrong. He chooses the best path available for him at the time. Array – the subject of his love is a mysterious eleven women, who Oregon later finds out is actually an eleven princess. She is characterized as being strong and courageous, who under the influence of a shade could not even be broken. She, however, is also characterized to be lonely and ho was driven to mad by loss. His inability to regain what he lost turned his sadness to hatred and revenge.
Through which he developed a dream to take control whole of Algasis and re-build it in the way he suits best, under the rule of dragon riders, in which he is the supreme leader of all races. Narrator/ Point of View Narrators in both stories take a detached third-person observer close to the action, but not involved in it. The point of view in the Harry Potter series at most times takes Harry point of view. Except at the beginning where Mr.. Durables point of view is oaken to show the difference between a wizard’s perspectives and Mugger’s perspective, and few other times during the series it changes to take Aging Weaseled and Mr..
Weaseled point of view. While in the Inheritance Cycle, the point of view major changes between Oregon to Roan and sometimes to NASDAQ, the leader of the Varied. Setting The Harry Potter series is set out in a much modern period than The Inheritance Cycle. The use of trains and mail posts relate to late sass’s, while the village setting and the fighting methods in the Inheritance Cycle relate to an early period of sass’s. The Harry Potter series is major set out in Hogwash’s in the first few books, and in later books it also sets out much in London.
While the Inheritance Cycle sets completely on a fantasy land named Algasis. Theme Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone underlie four main themes. They are: the value of humility, occasional necessity of rebellion, dangers of desire and the power of love. The value of humility is shown through Harry in many occasions. Harry as a boy who was mistreated from his childhood is a very humble character. Even with all that he endured from childhood he doesn’t for a moment think that he deserve the name and name that people gave him when he entered into the hazarding world.
He humbly accepted it but nothing more. When he discovered that his parents has left him a fortune of money, he didn’t take unnecessary pride in it or show off in front of Ron who seem not to have much, but bought food enough for the two of them so he could share. Even when he discovered that he is good at Acquitted he didn’t look for glory but practiced more each day to be better. His humility enabled him to win some lifelong friends, which wouldn’t have been possible otherwise (Sparseness, 2003). The iris book of the Harry Potter series also underlies the importance of occasional rebellion.
Hormone as a perfectionist never deliberately disobeys a school rule. But, when the necessity arrived she lied to the teachers to protect her friends proving that she is able to adapt and understand when it is necessary to break a rule. Harry on the other hand never hesitates to break a rule. When a need arise he follows his instincts and make great discoveries and bother less about rules. It does not diminish his character; rather it shows that he is brave enough to take action when deed and to understand the difference (Sparseness, 2003).
Other themes that are portrayed throughout the story are the danger of desire and the power of love. The danger of desiring more than one should is shown in two scenarios. One is shown through Voltmeter, who desired for immortality through the stone and the other is shown through professor Tumbleweed’s advice to Harry when he sees him looking at the Mirror of Erased, desiring to see his parents. It was explained to Harry that no matter how noble his desire is, an overblown desire can lead to lose perspective on Voltmeter was unable to touch Harry because of the love of his mother, which protects him.
As if mocking him for his inability to understand the power in it that caused him to fail in the first place. The theme of Oregon is to be true to yourself and believe in yourself, that you can do anything if you set your mind to it. Oregon was shown to be in indecision whether or not to accept his true fate to become a dragon rider. He was shown to be struggling to accept the offer that was given to him by the Varied. He did not believe in himself to be a leader or a peacemaker of all races. But, in the end he proves himself to be worthy of the title “Argental”, by killing the shade Durra.
And finally he also decides to accept his fate and decides to fulfill his training at Lesser. Conclusion In conclusion, both the Harry Potter series and the Inheritance Cycle are great literal works. Though in both plots the protagonist is an orphan boy who gains a new identity, the plotting in the first book of the Harry Potter series seems to grab the sympathy of the reader much more than it seem to do in Oregon. The exposition though descriptive is rather slow in development. The rising actions, climax and falling actions have a better flow in Harry Potter than in Oregon.
But, the conclusion seemed to be much direct than in Harry Potter. When considering the characters, they are better developed in Harry Potter. The introduction of totally opposite characters in the story seemed to highlight the characteristics of the different parties and make the story interesting. While in Oregon it seems hard to identify the characteristics of each character, which seem to present an individual mystery. When considering the themes, it is hard to decide which theme is better, but it is my pinion that the themes in Harry Potter are more simple and easy to adapt, while the theme in Oregon is a bit complex.
