Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2, University of Frankfurt (Main), language: English, abstract: Harry Potter is a heptalogy of fantasy novels by the English author Joanne K. Rowling about an adolescent boy named Harry Potter, first published in England in 1997. Harry Potter attends the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a boarding school for young wizards and witches. Up to his eleventh birthday his cruel relatives, the Dursleys, have raised the orphaned Harry. On this day he learns that he is a wizard and has been invited to attend Hogwarts. The story is mostly set on the school premises, with each of the seven volumes describing a school year at Hogwarts and a year of Harry's growing-up. The main topic is Harry Potter's fight against the evil wizard Lord Voldemort who killed Harry's parents when he was still an infant. Throughout the story the Dark Lord Voldemort gains more and more power and tries to kill Harry several times. In Hallows the climax is reached and the final battle between Harry and Lord Voldemort which will decide the future of the wizarding world. The fight of good versus evil is one of the oldest topics of mankind. Starting with the original sin in the Garden of Eden this fight has dominated moral concepts of the Christian world ever since. This paper presents an analysis of how good and evil are portrayed and presented in the Harry Potter series. First, there is a description of Christian motifs in the series and how these motifs can be compared to certain characters in the books. Second, 'good' characters such as Harry's close friends Ron and Hermione, and Harry's mentor, Professor Dumbledore, are described and characterised as to why they are part of the 'good'. Third, the 'evil' opponents Draco Malfoy and the evil Dark Lord Voldemort are analysed as to how they exhibit 'evil' behaviour. The last chapter deals with the question of whether Harry Potter is 'good' or 'evil' as he does not always act as an exemplary student.

A collection of short stories accompanied by short essays on censorship by twelve authors whose works have been challenged in the past.

The Harry Potter series of books and movies are wildly popular. Many Christians see the books as largely if not entirely harmless. Others regard them as dangerous and misleading. In his book A Landscape with Dragons, Harry Potter critic Michael O'Brien examines contemporary children's literature and finds it spiritually and morally wanting. His analysis, written before the rise of the popular Potter books and films, anticipates many of the problems Harry Potter critics point to. A Landscape with Dragons is a controversial, yet thoughtful study of what millions of young people are reading and the possible impact such reading may have on them. In this study of the pagan invasion of children's culture, O'Brien, the father of six, describes his own coming to terms with the effect it has had on his family and on most families in Western society. His analysis of the degeneration of books, films, and videos for the young is incisive and detailed. Yet his approach is not simply critical, for he suggests a number of remedies, including several tools of discernment for parents and teachers in assessing the moral content and spiritual impact of this insidious revolution. In doing so, he points the way to rediscovery of time-tested sources, and to new developments in Christian culture. If you have ever wondered why a certain children's book or film made you feel uneasy, but you couldn't figure out why, this book is just what you need. This completely revised, much expanded second edition also includes a very substantial recommended reading list of over 1,000 books for kindergarten through highschool.

A Presbyterian minister defends the Harry Potter series from conservatives who denounce the books as paganism, demonstrating how they promote the values of faith and morality, and profiling the main character as a Christ figure.

Join Neal as she explores how key characters in the Harry Potter books, the Chronicles of Narnia, and the Star Wars movies deal with the problem of good and evil as they make choices and face difficulties--and how their choices form their characters.

Modern culture is obsessed with identity. Since the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision in 2015, sexual identity has dominated both public discourse and cultural trends—and yet, no historical phenomenon is its own cause. From Augustine to Marx, various views and perspectives have contributed to the modern understanding of self. In The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, Carl Trueman carefully analyzes the roots and development of the sexual revolution as a symptom, rather than the cause, of the human search for identity. This timely exploration of the history of thought behind the sexual revolution teaches readers about the past, brings clarity to the present, and gives guidance for the future as Christians navigate the culture's ever-changing search for identity.

Provides a Christian interpretation of the first six books, arguing that the series supports biblical teaching as opposed to the practice of the occult, and offers insights into character names, imagery, and themes.

From the "New York Times" bestselling author of the Kushiel series comes another startling fable--an epic tale of gods waging war in their bid to control an entire universe and the mortals they use as chess pieces in a most deadly game.

Ernest Hemingway never wished to be widely known as a poet. He concentrated on writing short stories and novels, for which he won the Nobel Prize in 1956. But his poetry deserves close attention, if only because it is so revealing. Through verse he expressed anger and disgust—at Dorothy Parker and Edmund Wilson, among others. He parodied the poems and sensibilities of Rudyard Kipling, Joyce Kilmer, Robert Graves, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Gertrude Stein. He recast parts of poems by the likes of Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot, giving them his own twist. And he invested these poems with the preoccupations of his novels: sex and desire, battle and aftermath, cats, gin, and bullfights. Nowhere is his delight in drubbing snobs and overrefined writers more apparent. In this revised edition of the Complete Poems, the editor, Nicholas Gerogiannis, offers here an afterword assessing the influence of the collection, first published in 1979, and an updated bibliography. Readers will be particularly interested in the addition of "Critical Intelligence," a poem written soon after Hemingway's divorce from his first wife in 1927. Also available as a Bison Book: Hemingway's Quarrel with Androgyny by Mark Spilka.