2. The sense of familiarity- how are we able to be a part of the magic

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So, the chocolate frogs. Bertys bots every flavour beans. Fred and Georges puking pastels. All these magical treats that get us Harry Potter fans excited to read more. These are only some of the examples I will be exploring in this blog. They make us intrigued as we wonder what is it about these sweets that make us want to try them? J.K Rowling is able to turn food which is very familiar to us to something which is unfamiliar. In our muggle world we have sweets such as Haribo and Jelly Beans which some may find appeasing. However, the question I’m posing is what is it about Bertys Bots every flavour beans that makes us want to attend Honey Dukes? The use of high fantasy allows the reader to delve into the magical world and experience it for themselves. Furthermore, as Harry Potter can be classed as a children’s literature it becomes evident that J.K Rowling uses food to entice the child reader into desiring the marvellous sweets. Children are known to see sweets as a sight of desire therefore J.K Rowling incorporates this into her novels in order to allow the child reader to feel involved in Harry’s world. However, is there a change in the representation of food as the series progresses? Does J.K Rowling gradually decrease the amount of food included in the text to show the little significance it plays as the novels progress? Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone includes a vast amount of food to highlight how food is a luxury. An example of this can be seen through this video clip of the great feast. This is the first meal we see Harry eat at Hogwarts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hy9u5qkYaI. As mentioned previously we see Harry have a sense of awe about him as he has never seen so much food available to him. However, as the series progresses we see a decrease for the admiration for food.  Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban portrays food in the beginning of the film as a coping mechanism (a subject I will be exploring later on in the blog) to highlight the necessity for food. With this in mind, it becomes apparent that gradually food fails to obtain its standard of admiration as more important events are beginning to occur such as for example the rise of Voldemort. However, it is worth noting that we are still being able to be part of the magic through the sense of familiarity. Although the use of food is shown to become absent, J.K Rowling uses food we would recognise in order for us to be part of the magic.  In the next few blog posts I will be discussing the idea of change as well as how food is used in the novel to highlight Harry’s maturity. 

Comments

  1. Anonymous14 March 2018 at 10:30

    I like what you're saying here about food functioning as a kind of gateway for readers into the world of magic that Rowling creates in the first novel. We see the familiarity in some of the candy the magical people eat and it's easy for us to imagine what those might look like in real life. Candy is the ultimate kid food, and it immediately catches your attention and ropes readers in.

    I am also really interested in the idea of less presentation and description of food in the later novels. I know personally by the time I was old enough to read the last two works I was old enough to care more about the plot than to be miffed that the kids didn't make a trip to Zonko's joke shop and had to live off meager, not-so-pleasant food. This lack of extravagant food really adds to the dark tone of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows because food has been degraded back down to necessity instead of luxury, similar to times of war in real life.

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  2. Ahad17 March 2018 at 01:51

    Lovely Insight! After reading your post, I realised that not only is the food in Harry Potter magical and that's what attracts us even more to reading it, but also, some of the dishes that are used are actually from the British Culture such as Shepherds Pie, Cornish Pasties and Sausages. And I feel like Rowling did this so that we are able to connect with the novels on a deeper level. And in this way, the British food gives us a sense of familiarity, making the magic feel even more real!

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