In our Literature of Horror, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy class; this week we had watched “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” This movie relates to the topic of Spiritual Education. The Spiritual Education genre usually has its characters as students, having teachers and professors teaching them about the complexity of their world. For this week’s reading, I have read the book version of the movie “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”. Based on both the movie and book, some tropes I saw were: magic education, power, relationships, etc.
The most primary point about spiritual education, is within its name, the teaching of magic. Students consist of being younglings, and know little to nothing about their world and potential. In “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”, Potter gets enrolled into Hogwarts and did not know the existence of magic until now. All of the children are beginner wizards/witches. Following up, children would then learn magic from their various professors inside classrooms or in a school. Magic is shown as very prominent within the plot of the story.
Next, I could see the hierarchy of power used in the story. Obviously teachers are more skilled and experienced than the students. But I see the students compete against each other. The dark arts is also notable, being Voldemort having an influence to make many wizards scared or become a pawn.
Lastly, relationships has a major effect in the book’s characters and story. I have seen rivalries, close friendships, and enemies. For example, a rivalry between Harry and Malfoy- Malfoy always tries to one-up Harry, because of the fact that Harry is well-known in his world. Harry also forms close friendships with Ron and Hermione, they all have each others backs and encourage one another.
Overall, I see Harry Potter as one of the “classics” in our generation. It is well-known, uses great amounts of worldbuilding, and many have grown up with the making of these books/movies. I believe these series of books sets the standard of the Spiritual Education genre.
I also agree that the Harry Potter series takes the place of a sort of "new classic" in our generation. It's very interesting to have grown up with this series and see how important the series is to the "spiritual education" sub-genre.
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