I've been reading (rereading really, anyone who hasn't already read at least a dust jacket of Harry Potter has probably been in a coma for a about 10 years) Harry Potter and really noticing the effective use of foreshadowing. Or maybe they are just good clues in books that have won awards for being effective mysteries. I doubt I would be spoiling much but I just in case I will only refer to one good example. As I have been going through them, I have really wondered about the purpose of the apparently totally useless Divination Class that Ron and Harry are continually doing homework for without any real result. The class that J.K. Rowling spends the most time describing (aside from Defense against the Dark Arts)
The reason she spends so much time with Divination is that variously through the books Harry is the one gifted with visions of the future. The most prominent example of Divination prompting Harry's Visions is in book 4 when he falls asleep in Divination and He has visions of Voldemort which turn out to be true. Through the rest of the books you see divination and Professor Trelawney being used as counterpoint to Harry's true abilities to predict either future or far distant events. All during book 5 when Harry is plagued by awful (and true) dreams He has to make up dreams for Ron to interpret in Divination. More to come on other effective elements of literature in Harry Potter. I will also come back to FuturHype.
Thinking about what I teach and why I teach it
6 years ago
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