J.K Rowling: The Symbolic World of Magic

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Joanne Rowling, better known as J.K Rowling the author of the best-selling Harry Potter Series was born in Bristol in 1966. According to J.K, she had two best friends her in her neighborhood whose last name was Potter. She said, “I always liked their name” (Rowling). When she was nine, her family moved to Tutshill, Wales. It was around this time her grandmother, Kathleen passed away, “whose name I took when I needed an extra initial” (Rowling). After leaving her university she moved to London, then in 1990 she and her boyfriend moved to Manchester. According to J.K, the idea for Harry Potter simply fell into her head while riding a crowded train to London. In December 1990 her mother died at the age of forty-five from multiple sclerosis, which devastated her family and nine months later J.K left for Portugal, where she taught English. In 1996 Bloomsbury Publishing offered to publish Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, know in America as the Sorcerer’s Stone.

The Harry Potter series, despite being as popular as they are, have suffered excessive criticism and ostracism as well. According to seventeen year old Amanda Javaly, “Harry is a normal kid. He could be one of us yet he exists in a different dimension,” (MacDonald 6). Harry Potter books have been controversial due to some thinking that the books promote a dangerous point of view (MacDonald 10). It is even found as Satanic in some churches, such as this pastor saying, “We at Jesus Non-Denominational Church refuse to allow Satan to take the minds of our children. We will do all that is in us to stand and hold up a standard of righteousness and we will win,” said Pastor Tommy Turner about the Harry Potter Series (MacDonald 10). J.K Rowling claims that the world of H...

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...y devices of imagery and symbolism and have a motif that is overdone but still popular. Even if the controversy surrounding them is immense, the amount of people she has captured in her magical world is even greater.

Works Cited

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Theme of good versus evil.” Schmoop Gamma. Web. 4-3-11

MacDonald, Joan Vos. Harry Potter: Banned, Challenged and Censored an Unauthorized View. Berkeley Heights: Enslow, 2008. Print

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2007. Print

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2005. Print

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Arthur A. Levine Books, 1997. Print

Rowling, J.K. J.K. Rowling Official Site. Web. 3-28-11

“Thoughts on the Pensieve.” The Leaky Cauldron. Web. 4-3-11

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