Okay, so you're probably wondering why we are releasing the analysis of HBP before OOTP. Well, due to some schedule conflicts, Calie was unable to finish; so we figured that since I had already gotten my reading done, that I would go ahead and publish the analysis, therefore staying on time with the posting and not extending it by a week. Sorry for the out of order release, but expect to see Calie's analysis sometime next week. Now for the analysis of HBP:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is tied with Sorcerer’s Stone as my favorite Harry Potter book. I think that this is the best written book by JKR. Her deception of the reader of who characters actually are is amazing. She achieves this by having Harry being one-sided to characters that have the potential to be good, but having him only see the bad. The character development of the main characters in this book is also one of my favorite things. They have changed so much, especially Harry, who realizes his duty to the wizarding world. I also love Voldemort’s background and how it’s presented; it is one of my favorite things in the series.
In this book, we learn about the past of Voldemort. Dumbledore shows Harry various memories in the Pensieve that have to do with Voldemort to figure out his motives, which turn out to be Horcruxes. He also shows Harry the importance of his past in order to beat him in the end. The title Half-Blood Prince comes from the Potions textbook that Harry gets secondhand that helps him in Potions as well as spells. It is an object of arguments in the trio, and turns out to be Snape’s old Potions book, as he is the ‘Half-Blood Prince’.
The Other Minister
I really love this chapter; it is one of my favorites of all of the books. It gives us an insight to the Muggle world and what’s happening on their side as we see through Harry’s eyes what is happening in his world. It is comical, and I enjoy the Muggle minister’s views of Fudge. JKR uses this chapter mainly to catch the reader up on things that we didn’t see happen because they took place in the Muggle world. It shows that the Death Eaters are attacking Muggles and also witches and wizards that are known and acknowledged in the Muggle world.
Snape
This book shows us a different side of Snape. For one, we learn a bit about his past, and the book is basically named after him. He is still his usual hateful self towards Harry, but we see his unpleasantness build in his position as the teacher of DADA. In the second chapter, we learn that Snape is involved in a very important plot that involves Draco and Voldemort, but it isn’t revealed till the end. As a reader who sees entirely through Harry’s eyes, we are lead to believe that Snape is on Voldemort’s side indefinitely and that he kills Dumbledore because of that. That is completely contradicted in Deathly Hallows, but for this book, it is a major driving force for Harry to kill Voldemort and his want to kill Snape, especially after he finds out that Snape is the one that sold out his parents.
I think that the Half-Blood Prince textbook was a neat device used to the plot; especially that it involved Snape. It shows us an insight to his life as a student, though indirectly. We learn what kind of student he was and it is interesting to see his notes. The insight to his past is surprising as well. The fact that he is a half-blood, but does so well with the Death Eaters is interesting for one, along with him taking the title of “Half-Blood Prince”. I wonder how soon Snape realized that Harry had his book.
Slughorn
Slughorn is an interesting character. We learn from the beginning that he likes to ‘collect’ people and has all sorts of connections with famous people. Dumbledore takes advantage of this and uses Harry as bait to get him to return to Hogwarts, which ultimately is so that he can recover his memory. Slughorn is one of the most important characters in this book, though we don’t know it until the end. He has a very important memory of Riddle at Hogwarts that holds a secret about him. It turns out that he was the one who gave Riddle the information about Horcruxes, which Riddle used to confirm his suspicions and make his Horcruxes to beat death.
The Gaunts
The Gaunt family members make up the last remaining descendants of Salazar Slytherin. They are also Voldemort’s family. The father, Marvolo, is who Voldemort is named after, the son, Morfin, is a Muggle hater, and the daughter, Merope, is Voldemort’s mother. Marvolo and Morfin can speak Parseltongue, which is a main trait of Slytherin’s. We learn about them in Bob Ogden’s memory, and learn of their background as Muggle haters and how they very much represent the proud pure-blood attitude in the wizarding community that we see with the Malfoys. The only thing is that Merope doesn’t hate Muggles; we learn that she had an infatuation with a Muggle that turned into a marriage and that they had a baby- Voldemort.
This is very important to Voldemort. He tried to figure out who is family was, and as soon as he found out who his mother was, he tracked down their house and learned about his lineage to Slytherin. He steals the ring bearing his family crest off of his uncle’s finger and turns it into a Horcrux later. In the memory, we see that they also have Slytherin’s locket, which Voldemort doesn’t learn about until Hepziba Smith shows it to him; even though technically it would belong to him, but he turns that into a Horcrux as well.
Harry and Ginny
I love the hints of Harry’s interest in Ginny that we get throughout this book. Harry is finally starting to notice her. In their first Potions class, the Amortentia causes Harry to smell “treacle tart, the woody smell of a broomstick handle, and something flowery he thought he might have smelled at the Burrow.” Right after that class, they are in the Great Hall, when Harry smells it again: “’Hang on,’ said a voice close by Harry’s left ear and he caught a sudden waft of that flowery smell he had picked up in Slughorn’s dungeon. He looked around and saw that Ginny had joined them.” He doesn’t acknowledge it; he just sort of subconsciously recognizes it. Later on in the common room while talking about the Half-Blood Prince, “momentarily stymied, Harry watched Ginny Weasley playing with Arnold the Pygmy Puff for a while”. I don’t think that it’s later on when he sees Ginny and Dean kissing that he really comes to terms with his feelings for her. When they finally get together, it is short-lived because Harry breaks it off in order to search for Voldemort- which Ginny completely understands.
Easy Things To Gloss Over
• The tiara in the Room of Requirement
• Malfoy won Dumbledore's wand
• The twitch of Malfoy’s wand, which meant that he was contemplating going to the good side.
• The Peverell coat of arms on the Horcrux ring- which reveals (unknowingly to the reader in this book) that technically, Harry and Voldemort are distantly related.
Things I Loved
• The Other Minister chapter
• Ginny’s understanding of Harry’s reasons to end their relationship and how she handled it.
• All of the hints that JKR drops that play a huge part in Deathly Hallows
• Harry throughout the cave scene.
Questions I Have
• Did Slughorn know the Dark Mark spell?
• Can Squibs have wands? It’s not actually explained if Merope was a squib or just really bad at magic, but she did have a wand. Does this mean that she went to Hogwarts? What does that mean for Filch?
• Did Stan Shunpike attend Hogwarts? If so, in HBP, he was 21, meaning he would’ve graduated Hogwarts at the end of Harry’s second year, yet there is no mention of him.
• Why did Snape leave his old textbook at Hogwarts?
• How did Malfoy mend the cabinet?
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is tied with Sorcerer’s Stone as my favorite Harry Potter book. I think that this is the best written book by JKR. Her deception of the reader of who characters actually are is amazing. She achieves this by having Harry being one-sided to characters that have the potential to be good, but having him only see the bad. The character development of the main characters in this book is also one of my favorite things. They have changed so much, especially Harry, who realizes his duty to the wizarding world. I also love Voldemort’s background and how it’s presented; it is one of my favorite things in the series.
In this book, we learn about the past of Voldemort. Dumbledore shows Harry various memories in the Pensieve that have to do with Voldemort to figure out his motives, which turn out to be Horcruxes. He also shows Harry the importance of his past in order to beat him in the end. The title Half-Blood Prince comes from the Potions textbook that Harry gets secondhand that helps him in Potions as well as spells. It is an object of arguments in the trio, and turns out to be Snape’s old Potions book, as he is the ‘Half-Blood Prince’.
The Other Minister
I really love this chapter; it is one of my favorites of all of the books. It gives us an insight to the Muggle world and what’s happening on their side as we see through Harry’s eyes what is happening in his world. It is comical, and I enjoy the Muggle minister’s views of Fudge. JKR uses this chapter mainly to catch the reader up on things that we didn’t see happen because they took place in the Muggle world. It shows that the Death Eaters are attacking Muggles and also witches and wizards that are known and acknowledged in the Muggle world.
Snape
This book shows us a different side of Snape. For one, we learn a bit about his past, and the book is basically named after him. He is still his usual hateful self towards Harry, but we see his unpleasantness build in his position as the teacher of DADA. In the second chapter, we learn that Snape is involved in a very important plot that involves Draco and Voldemort, but it isn’t revealed till the end. As a reader who sees entirely through Harry’s eyes, we are lead to believe that Snape is on Voldemort’s side indefinitely and that he kills Dumbledore because of that. That is completely contradicted in Deathly Hallows, but for this book, it is a major driving force for Harry to kill Voldemort and his want to kill Snape, especially after he finds out that Snape is the one that sold out his parents.
I think that the Half-Blood Prince textbook was a neat device used to the plot; especially that it involved Snape. It shows us an insight to his life as a student, though indirectly. We learn what kind of student he was and it is interesting to see his notes. The insight to his past is surprising as well. The fact that he is a half-blood, but does so well with the Death Eaters is interesting for one, along with him taking the title of “Half-Blood Prince”. I wonder how soon Snape realized that Harry had his book.
Slughorn
Slughorn is an interesting character. We learn from the beginning that he likes to ‘collect’ people and has all sorts of connections with famous people. Dumbledore takes advantage of this and uses Harry as bait to get him to return to Hogwarts, which ultimately is so that he can recover his memory. Slughorn is one of the most important characters in this book, though we don’t know it until the end. He has a very important memory of Riddle at Hogwarts that holds a secret about him. It turns out that he was the one who gave Riddle the information about Horcruxes, which Riddle used to confirm his suspicions and make his Horcruxes to beat death.
The Gaunts
The Gaunt family members make up the last remaining descendants of Salazar Slytherin. They are also Voldemort’s family. The father, Marvolo, is who Voldemort is named after, the son, Morfin, is a Muggle hater, and the daughter, Merope, is Voldemort’s mother. Marvolo and Morfin can speak Parseltongue, which is a main trait of Slytherin’s. We learn about them in Bob Ogden’s memory, and learn of their background as Muggle haters and how they very much represent the proud pure-blood attitude in the wizarding community that we see with the Malfoys. The only thing is that Merope doesn’t hate Muggles; we learn that she had an infatuation with a Muggle that turned into a marriage and that they had a baby- Voldemort.
This is very important to Voldemort. He tried to figure out who is family was, and as soon as he found out who his mother was, he tracked down their house and learned about his lineage to Slytherin. He steals the ring bearing his family crest off of his uncle’s finger and turns it into a Horcrux later. In the memory, we see that they also have Slytherin’s locket, which Voldemort doesn’t learn about until Hepziba Smith shows it to him; even though technically it would belong to him, but he turns that into a Horcrux as well.
Harry and Ginny
I love the hints of Harry’s interest in Ginny that we get throughout this book. Harry is finally starting to notice her. In their first Potions class, the Amortentia causes Harry to smell “treacle tart, the woody smell of a broomstick handle, and something flowery he thought he might have smelled at the Burrow.” Right after that class, they are in the Great Hall, when Harry smells it again: “’Hang on,’ said a voice close by Harry’s left ear and he caught a sudden waft of that flowery smell he had picked up in Slughorn’s dungeon. He looked around and saw that Ginny had joined them.” He doesn’t acknowledge it; he just sort of subconsciously recognizes it. Later on in the common room while talking about the Half-Blood Prince, “momentarily stymied, Harry watched Ginny Weasley playing with Arnold the Pygmy Puff for a while”. I don’t think that it’s later on when he sees Ginny and Dean kissing that he really comes to terms with his feelings for her. When they finally get together, it is short-lived because Harry breaks it off in order to search for Voldemort- which Ginny completely understands.
Easy Things To Gloss Over
• The tiara in the Room of Requirement
• Malfoy won Dumbledore's wand
• The twitch of Malfoy’s wand, which meant that he was contemplating going to the good side.
• The Peverell coat of arms on the Horcrux ring- which reveals (unknowingly to the reader in this book) that technically, Harry and Voldemort are distantly related.
Things I Loved
• The Other Minister chapter
• Ginny’s understanding of Harry’s reasons to end their relationship and how she handled it.
• All of the hints that JKR drops that play a huge part in Deathly Hallows
• Harry throughout the cave scene.
Questions I Have
• Did Slughorn know the Dark Mark spell?
• Can Squibs have wands? It’s not actually explained if Merope was a squib or just really bad at magic, but she did have a wand. Does this mean that she went to Hogwarts? What does that mean for Filch?
• Did Stan Shunpike attend Hogwarts? If so, in HBP, he was 21, meaning he would’ve graduated Hogwarts at the end of Harry’s second year, yet there is no mention of him.
• Why did Snape leave his old textbook at Hogwarts?
• How did Malfoy mend the cabinet?
Mischief Managed.
Paige Cyrus
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