Some more on literary elements in Harry Potter
First of all I had better warn you that there are several spoilers so if you are one of the 11 people in the world who hasn't heard the ending of the books and you are also one of the 4 people who have actually read my blog then beware.
Foreshadowing:
There are some exceptional elements of foreshadowing all throught the books. The most glaring and obvious of all these is the constant references to the similarities between Harry and Voldemort. Book 2 really plays these up with the particular mention of Harry's ability to speak Parseltongue.
Another element I found particularly fun was Sirius Black. Sirius is the dog star and Sirius turns into a black dog. Well, she had this planned out from Book 1, when Hagrid mentions he has borrowed the motorcycle from Sirius Black.
Word Play:
I don't know what else to call this, but Sirius Black is an example of a play on words. So is Dolores Umbridge which has a double word play. Umbrage is a sense of offense for bad behavior. Dolores has a latin (especially Spanish) cognate or possibly psuedo-cognate and means pains. So Dolores Umbridge is a painful offense. Professor Sprout is another fun play on words and Filius, Professor Flitwicks 1st name. is based on the latin for Faith or faithful. There are other fun examples of this in the books.
Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed the series as much as I did and my 2nd read through was even more fun than the first, just like visiting a favorite vacation spot but with more time to explore. Read it again for the first time.
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