Harry Potter

Harry Potter Books

Harry Potter Movies

Harry Potter Characters

Harry Potter Movie Stars

Harry Potter Film Directors

Content and writing style

The books are written in third person omniscient mode, with Harry as the central character. The books are generally written from Harry's point of view, but with exceptions in Philosopher's Stone, Goblet of Fire and Half-Blood Prince. Although Rowling's shifting of perpective at times has proven essential to plot development, the telling of most of the story from Harry's perspective is one of many reasons that readers identify so well with the title character.
Rowling's main strengths as a writer include her ability to drive elaborate and largely seamless plots over a very wide canvas, the convincing internal logic of her fantasy world. However, while there is much moral subtlety in many scenes in the books, the central clash between good and evil is drawn in largely black-and-white terms. Nevertheless, as the series develops, several characters have faced a choice between doing what is right or what is easy (a central theme), and moral "shades of grey" have been presented. This is especially relevant to characters such as Dolores Umbridge, some Ministry of Magic employees and Severus Snape.
Rowling lets the ideas of racism, genocide, anti-establishment and prejudice find their way in; these are the trademark of Voldemort and his Death Eaters, but also occasionally shown in the relationship between wizards, the non-magical (or "Muggle") population, and magical creatures in the wizarding world who contain some prejudicial baggage, such as werewolves, house elves, giants and centaurs (branded 'half-breeds' by the more bigoted of the wizarding world).
The books have been compared to many well-known works, including C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia and J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. They also fit into a British genre of novels about boarding school life (such as Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown's Schooldays), and sections involving the Dursleys, Harry's relatives, are reminiscent of the works of Roald Dahl. Echoes of Charles Dickens, particularly in the naming of characters, and Douglas Adams have been pointed out by other readers. At root, Harry's origin story is a mythical archetype known around the world: the destined hero sent away as a baby for safekeeping and raised by common folk until he is of an age where he can be told who he really is and what he must do (a motif most famously epitomised in the myth of Oedipus). Readers who are unfamiliar with traditional cultural myths will still recognise the theme; it is the basis for Star Wars and Superman, among others, (the underdog who must come to realize his full potential and fight the corrupted forces of evil).
Aspects of the Harry Potter series have even entered the real world, such as Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, which inspired an actual product of that name marketed by the Jelly Belly Company. The product, named "Bertie Bott's Beans", contains an assortment of twenty different kinds of jelly beans that have been developed to mimic flavours found in the assortment of similar name in the book series, including tooty-frooty, dirt, bubblegum, snot, grass, and the surprisingly realistic "vomit" flavour. Also, knitting patterns have been created for the Quidditch Sweater and Elf Socks.

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