A Report on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is a modern fantasy book, which “…refers to the body of literature in which the events, the settings, or the characters are outside the realm of possibility” (Lynch-Brown, Tomlinson, Short 131). Four characteristics that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone portray are heroism, competition, bravery, and loyalty.

These are just some of the characteristics from the story. An example of heroism that is portrayed in the story is when Harry grabs onto Professor Quirrell, who has Voldemort inside of him, whose face is on the back of the professor’s head. He does this because Harry’s skin is excruciatingly painful to Quirrell and feels like he is burning. “Harry jumped to his feet, caught Quirrell by the arm, and hung on as tight as he could. Quirrell screamed and tried to throw Harry off – the pain in Harry’s head was building – he couldn’t see – he could only hear Quirrell’s terrible shrieks and Voldemort’s yells of “KILL HIM! KILL HIM!” and other voices, maybe in Harry’s own head, crying, “Harry! Harry!”” (Rowling 295).

An example of competition is when Gryffindor goes up against one of the other houses at Hogwarts for a Quidditch match, which is a game like , but with three hoops instead of one, on each side. All the players are flying on brooms, with seven players on each side. Also, there are four different types of balls in the match, one player for one type of ball, two players for another, three players for another and one player as the Keeper (goalie). This example is the first match of Quidditch of the year, and Harry’s first time playing in the game when “WHAM! A roar of rage echoed from the Gryffindors below – Marcus Flint had blocked Harry on purpose, and Harry’s broom spun off course, Harry holding on for dear life” (Rowling 188).

An example of bravery is when Harry drinks from a bottle that protects him from black flames that would have engulfed him had he not drank the correct bottle, since there were seven total different ones, and only one would protect him from the black flames. He drank it so he could move forward into saving Hogwarts from Voldemort conquering.

Harry“… put the bottle down and walked forward; he braced himself, saw the black flames licking his body, but couldn’t feel them – for a moment he could see nothing but dark fire – then he was on the other side, in the last chamber” (Rowling 287). An example of loyalty would be when Harry and Ron go and save Hermione from a troll that had gone loose at Hogwarts, even though at this point, they are not very fond of Hermione yet, they still could not leave her to die. “…Harry suddenly grabbed Ron’s arm. “I’ve just thought – Hermione.” “What about her?” “She doesn’t know about the troll.” Ron bit his lip. “Oh, all right,” he snapped…. Ducking down, they joined the Hufflepuffs going the other way, slipped down a deserted side corridor, and hurried off toward the girls’ bathroom” (Rowling 173).