Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Random House, 2000.
PERSONAL RESPONSE:
Be still my beating heart. This is my favorite Harry Potter book, the real turning point in the series from adolescent school stories to an older and darker story. This where where (excuse my french) shit gets real. Yes, Harry has faced enemies before, yes they were forms of Voldemort and his henchmen, but in this installment Harry comes face to face with the reality of the battle before Wizardkind. This is also the story where we see Rowling’s talent for pulling Classical themes into a contemporary work; where the Hero With a Thousand Faces really shows up, the heroic cycle of adventure. I remember reading this book for the first time, I was 14 and attended a midnight release for the book at my local Barnes & Noble, a first of its kind! My mom took the book away from me as soon as we got out of the store, she knew I’d be awake all night reading if she didn’t. I got up early the next day, unheard of in the middle of summer break, and read the book all day long. I laid across my mom’s bed, i was so enraptured by the story that I didn’t even leave her room before I opened the book. I didn’t stop to eat, I didn’t even move until i realized it was getting hard to read because the sun was going down and I needed to turn on a light. Like many of the books I have written about this semester rereading this book was like going home, like sinking into bed after a long day and talking on the pone with an old friend.
SUMMARY:
The story begins in a muggle village where Wormtail and Voldemort have settled into the Riddle’s old house, they are discovered by the Muggle groundskeeper whom Voldemort then kills, this action wakes Harry from a dead sleep across the country with pain in his curse scar.
Harry is taken to the Quidditch World Cup with the Weasley’s where we see a demonstration of Death Eaters scaring people after the game, followed by the Dark Mark being lofted into the night sky. The Death Eaters scatter at this, since they are only free because they lied about their involvement with the Dark Wizards 14 years earlier. Ministry workers show up and find that Harry’s misplaced wand had been used to conjure the Dark Mark and many questions are asked until Mr. Weasley points out the absurdity of that thought.
When the trio or Harry, Ron, and Hermoine return to Hogwarts they are thrilled to learn that Dumbledore has brought back the Triwizard Tournament, a year long spectacle involving students from two other Wizarding schools, Durmstrang and Beauxbaton. Only students over the age of 17 may put their names in the Goblet of Fire to have the chance to champion their school in the competition. We follow many students as they put their names forward. On the day that the Champions are named for each school some trick has put Harry’s name in under a fourth school effectively making him the fourth champion, something unheard of. Bound by a magical contract to compete against the other students Harry is included in the roster of champions. When this is done most of Hogwarts turns on Harry thinking he did this himself, including Ron, in a search for attention. Only Hermoine stands by Harry until after the first Task is completed, in which the Champions must retrieve a Golden Egg from a full size nesting dragon. In order to beat this Harry takes the advice of the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Moody, and uses his superb flying skills.
After running the gauntlet of the challenges, surviving the Yule Ball, and finally making up with Ron, Harry is in the running for first place against Cedric Diggory from Hufflepuff, the original Hogwarts champion. When they enter the final Task, a maze, they reach the Triwizard Cup at the same time, which turns out to be a Portkey, pulling them far away to a distant graveyard in the same village we started our story in. Voldemort and Wormtail work a spell using Wormtail’s flesh and Harrys blood to bring Voldemort back to an actual body. Before this spell is worked Wormtail kills Cedric on Voldemort’s orders, leaving Harry alone to face the Dark wizards. Through a strange reaction between their wands Harry is given a chance to escape Voldemort during a duel, returning to the entrance of the maze at Hogwarts with Cedric’s body in tow. During the confusion following his reappearance Harry is hustled away by Moody, who we find is actually a Death Eater in disguise using Polyjuice Potion. Dumbledore and McGonagall arrive just in time to save Harry from the Death Eater, Bartimus Crouch JR, and Harry is sent to the hospital wing. The news that Voldemort has returned is announced the farewell feast on the last day of school, greeted by unease and disbelief from Harry’s fellow students. We part ways with our protagonists at the Hogwart’s Express one more time as they leave for summer break, more resolute than ever in their friendship.
CONNECTIONS:
What can I say… Harry Potter is used in classrooms worldwide, sometimes just to catch the interest of reluctant readers. However in my classroom I would use this book as an excellent example of the Heroic journey written about by Joseph Campbell. I would pull all the references to Classical works and figures out of the story and show my students the original works or mythologies they are from. I would hold up the example of bullying and peer stigma that Harry went through to show my students that they are not alone.
I am unsure of which theoretical lens I would use to study this or teach it since it has such great draw from several, Critical Race Theory, with the Pureblood vs Muggle argument, which could also be seen through a Marxist lens if we are going to get serious about interpreting things.
Confessions of a Book Addict 