My Credentials

1. I do not have a degree in English. I am not in college. I am in my last year of High School. I have not taken any writing classes. However, English is my first language, and during my high school years I have had excellent English teachers who have taught me not only to look at plot of a book, but to look at how things are said, why certain characters exist, or even why entire scenes occur. It is on this knowledge that I analyze the Harry Potter series.
2. In said English classes, I always attain grades of A (or what might account to an 'E'or 'O' in Harry Potter terms). During class discussions, I always have unique insights into books that even my teachers have not had.
3. I have read and analyzed the following books in an analytical manner (in no particular order)
   PLAYS:
   Romeo and Juliet,Macbeth,Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing
   Oedipus Rex, Antigone (both Sophecles and Jean Anouilh), Everyman, Tartuffe, Enemy of the People, The Seagull, Uncle Vayna, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Cherry Orchard, Ivanov, The Three Sisters, The Glass Menagerie, Oh Dad Poor Dad Momma's Hung You In The Closet And I'm Feelin' So Sad, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible

   PROSE FICTION:
   Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, The Great Gatsby, Brave New World, 1984, All Quiet on the Western Front, Night, Les Miserables, Chesapeake, The Odyssey, A Farewell to Arms, To Have and Have Not, Woman at Point Zero, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Siddartha, The Gulag Archipelago, The Brothers Karamazov, Ethan Frome, The Time Machine, A Separate Peace, Wide Sargasso Sea, Ethan Frome, Things Fall Apart, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (and other Robert Louis Stevenson stories), *The Handmaid's Tale, July's People *Not finished yet

   Steal This Book, Stainless Steel Rat (series),Lord of the Rings (Trilogy and The Hobbitt) Many Stephen King novels, Interview With the Vampire (and a few other Anne Rice works) Tuesdays With Morrie

   POETRY:
   Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, William Butler Yeats, Andrew Carvall, Edger Allen Poe, Calivier poets, Romantic Poets, Edgar Allen Poe

4. As such, much of my analysis of Harry Potter has been confirmed by one of my English teachers,who helped me clarify use of terms and logical processions of discussions. She also gave me the confidence to share my findings and interpretations with others. As a result, I was able to give an oral presentation of Harry Potter's similarities to The Odyssey, a transcript which I have provided on this site. And I will say, I received very high marks on the presentation itself.
5. I wrote a paper on the concept that Harry Potter is a modern myth, based on the works and ideas of Joseph Campbell
, for my final essay to graduate from the International Baccalureate program. It was considered by my superiors as a very detailed analysis. It is currently on the site.

I hope that this little bio will clear up some of my background, and perhaps explain the origin of my thought processes regarding Harry Potter.