LibGuides: English: Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone

About this guide

This libguide supports the study of Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone by J. K. Rowling as part of the Year 7 English course. Harry Potter has no idea how famous he is. That's because he's being raised by his miserable aunt and uncle who are terrified Harry will learn that he's really a wizard, just as his parents were. But everything changes when Harry is summoned to attend an infamous school for wizards.

Published originally as Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in England in 1997, and then as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in America a year later, this is the book that established the phenomenon that ignited imaginations and has fascinated generations of readers.

Fantasy

Fantasy is an enormously popular genre.

What is fantasy?

When we speak of just the word itself we are referring to an imagined dream or event.
We also refer to the word when we are speaking of wishful thinking.
When we refer to fantasy in the context of literature we are referring to stories that have certain definable elements that make the story unreal.
There are many such elements.
They vary from mythical beasts roaming an imagined world to natural settings in which animals take on human characteristics.
There are recognizable conventions of fantasy, such as toys coming to life, tiny humans, articulate animals, imaginary worlds, magical powers, and time-warp tales. A story needs to possess only one of these features in order to be classified as fantasy.
However, some great stories use a combination of fantasy elements. Fantasy is simply this: a fantasy is any story in which at least one element cannot be found in our human world.

Author

J K Rowling - Bloomsbury Press.

Read a short bio on her life here.

Welcome to Hogwarts

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - Trailer

Main characters

The main protagonist who transforms from weak and timid, to a brave hero. Harry lives with his horrible family, the Dursley’s, as his parents were killed by the dark wizard Voldemort. Harry survived and is now known as ‘the boy who lived.

Hermione is a very intelligent, goody-two-shoes who comes from a muggle family. She becomes best friends with Harry and Ron.

Ron is Harry’s first friend at Hogwarts and becomes his best friend. He is a shy boy who comes from a poor wizard family.

Albus Dumbledore is the kind, wise headmaster of Hogwards. He is a very famous wizard who often looks out for Harry.

A great wizard gone bad. When he killed Harry’s parents, Voldemort gave Harry a lightning-shaped scar. Voldemort has thus shaped Harry’s life so that Harry’s ultimate destruction of him appears as a kind of vengeance

Study guides

What are narrative conventions?
Examins various types of narrative techniques in writing, as well as examples of the literary techniques relevant to style, plot, and perspective/point of view.

Chapter and theme questions
Chapter-by-chapter comprehension questions to help guide your reading of the novel. Reading the novel with these questions in mind will help to deepen your understanding of the narrative.

Spark notes Harry Potter
Covers a general summary to chapter summaries, characters, main ideas, famous quotations and further study of famous quotes.

Discussion guide

Discussion Guide for the Harry Potter Series: Books 1–4
Litcharts study guide
Harry Potter's World: Renaissance Science, Magic and Mecidine
Although a fantasy story, the series features magic based partially on Renaissance traditions that played an important role in the development of Western science, including alchemy, astrology, and natural philosophy. From National Library of Medicine.