Blog Post #1 Response: Great Expectations

At first, I wasn't sure i I agreed with the statement that literary works never truly fulfill expectations. As I got to thinking about the first two Harry Potters and what I had originally thought when I first read it, I realized what Iser could have meant by that statement. Especially in the second book, you have specific expectations of who Harry is and what he will be doing in the second book. For example, you expect that Harry will do something heroic in the second book, because he had saved the sorcerer's stone in the first book. You also expect that he may actually get himself into trouble trying to find how to save something, since you know that's what he did in the first book.

There were many expectations that were also changed in the second book, as you find out that Harry shares a lot of similarities to Voldemort and the Slytherins. I personally started thinking that he was possibly supposed to be a Slytherin when I had first read the book, but that was a good expectation to be changed, so I think that shows that sometimes it's good for the author to change the expectations greatly. It can really help the story and it also keeps the reader on their toes, which always makes for a more interesting book.

I think this is also shown greatly in the first book, where you are so focused on Snape as the antagonist. This was another situation that was a great choice to fail to fulfill the expectation. I think when you first read that its stuttering Professor Quirrell, its a great shock and you sit there and think about all the things that you missed in the book, almost wanting to re-read it with a different perspective to catch all the other details. That's also another good reason to suddenly drop the expectations of the reader because it, as stated above, keeps the reader engaged but also almost makes them want to read it again with that all new perspective and a new expectation, which with my 3rd (or 4th) reading I realized just how many little details and interesting things Rowling had placed in there. It was things you definitely wouldn't catch after your first reading.

It is also interesting to think about how this will set up for the rest of the series. Do we really think that Snape is going to continue to be the antagonist? Does he only hate Harry because of his father or is it something more? What is going to come of this hatred between Malfoy and Harry? Whatever the reader answers about this, then those are the expectations that have been raised by the ending of the first and second books, although I am sure there are more. And I know that many of them aren't going to be what the expectations that are being set up right now, but it will be interesting to see the differences after I re-read the rest of the series again.