Blog Plost #1: Expectations and Reversals

         One of my favorite creative writing device is the reversal. Shakespeare used them in both Macbeth and Othello, and they are even found in children’s stories like Hansel and Gretel. Every narrative needs a reversal of some sort, but none more than the mystery. Having read the both books before, and having come to the understanding that they do indeed fit into the mystery genre, my expectations for a good mystery are fulfilled. When I think back to my first read through, though, all that I can remember thinking was, “Were you surprised? I was surprised?”

           

     I was eight for my first read through, and the plot rarely indulged my expectations. In my mind, Snape was undeniably guilty. Skulking about, muttering curses, and being a right git made him a really dislikable character. My young self empathized with Harry and a small part of me wanted Snape to be the bad guy because if there was ever a thing true to most children’s stories is that the bad guy never wins. The expectations that I had for the ending is that Snape would be found out and punished however wizards are punished and then Harry would live on (less miserable than before). Rowling knocked those thoughts right out of my head. The fact that it was Quirrell who was the bad guy was actually less surprising to me than how dark that scene was. I hadn’t expected the book to be that dark. The end of the first book prepared me for the darkening themes of the second book, though I was still caught off guard at the time. 

     The second book also had many more reversals than the first; the biggest being for me was the initial discovery of Hagrid and the subsequent reversal of finding out that he was framed. Despite the fact that I knew to respect a red-herring, it is a testament to Rowling’s ability to craft a narrative that I was just continually thrown off guard through the novel. How many people were suspected by both the reader and the characters throughout the book to be the heir of Slytherin: Draco, Harry, Hagrid. At those points in the book, I believed each possibility to be true even because Rowling set scenario to be entirely possible.

             

     Reversals are a necessary device for a writer to keep readers on their toes, and to keep their expectations in a perpetual state of evolution. Rowling does a wonderful job of continuously changing Harry’s road map so that neither he nor the reader how he’ll get to his final destination.