CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Prisoner of Azkaban Chapter 1: Owl Post

[willsonteam]

No: HPFGUIDX 189384


Zara:

Questions for Discussion:

1) Ron bought Harry a Sneakoscope, Hermione bought him instructions and products
for broom care, and Hagrid bought him the book "Monster Book of Monsters". 
What did you think of these gifts? What do they tell us about the senders and
their relationships with Harry?

Potioncat: JKR used the three gifts to advance the story and develop characters. Hermione's gift reminded, or informed the reader how important Harry's broom was to him. It also shows how well she knows Harry. She got him something he would like and was useful.

 Ron's gift manages to tell us something about the Weasley dynamics and will play a role as the story moves along.. It's a practical gift from one standpoint, given the experiences Ron and Harry had their first two years.  Yet, it doesn't seem too reliable if it goes off for the least little thing. If the twins' jokes would set it off, it would never stop alarming!  Neither the reader nor the characters know that it's really reacting to Peter, not to the twins. That was a nice bit of misdirection on JKR's part. It's a forerunner for some of the magical instruments Moody uses in GoF and this situation might have warned us to be wary of those instruments coming later. IIRC, Crouch!Moody says one instrument is picking up all the students' lies about homework, so he turned it off. Again, it was picking up on his deception.

 Hagrid's gift was something of a surprise. A book? But if anyone would know about a biting book, it would be Hagrid. I thought he knew something about a class Harry would have, but I never guessed Hagrid would be the teacher. He's giving Harry the book as Harry's teacher now, he's fond of Harry and he's proud of his  new position. 


2) This story shows us several of the Weasleys interacting. What does it tell us
about the actors? What do you like/dislike about the characters in this scene
and how they are written?

Potioncat: It's a big, busy family—with hustle and bustle and rivalries and love and the conflict of different personalities living close.

3) This story is also our first clue to the big Scabbers/Peter surprise in the
climactic scenes of the novel. What do you think of it in this context?

Potioncat: Clue? I sure didn't get a clue. But it's a lot of fun now  to see that yes, there were clues. The Sneakacope going off , for example.

4) This chapter includes information relevant to the relationship between the
Muggle and Wizard worlds, including Harry's History essay on witch burnings and
Ron's ignorance of the proper use of a telephone. What light do these details
shed on your understanding of this relationship?

Potioncat: I don't think it's consistent. You'd think the head of misuse of Muggle Artifacts would have a better knowledge of Muggle items. Just the fact that so many wizarding folk marry Muggles, and that they live in the midst of Muggle areas make it difficult to understand how the wizarding world can be so separate and unaware. At the same time, it's funny and adds to the mystery of the wizarding world.

In this as the third book of her series, Rowling devoted time in the first
chapter to recapping events an persons of significance.

5) What do you think of her choice to do this in PoA and other books of the
series? It is appropriate or unnecessary?

Potioncat: I can remember thinking as I read the books for the first time that the recapping was smooth and didn't take away from the opening chapters. And I think it was a good idea. In the sense of each book being a stand alone book, characters needed an introduction and to a certain extent, events needed to be put in context.


7) Why do you think Dumbledore selected Percy to be Head Boy? Do you agree or
disagree with this decision? The other Head Boys/Girls identified in canon are
Tom Riddle, Bill Weasley, James Potter, and Lily Evans. From this evidence, what
do you think is involved in choosing Hogwarts Head Boys/Girls?

Potioncat: Although Percy is a bit stuffy, he is honest, hard working and smart. I'd say he was a good choice. We don't know anything about the other students in his year to know if anyone else would have been better. When Percy breaks from his family, readers began wondering if he was more like Tom Riddle than we thought—and recalled his reading the book about prefects and power. I'm a little annoyed that we never learned about other Head Boys and Head Girls during Harry's years, nor that we never hear anything about prefects for Ginny's year.

Thanks for the interesting questions!