LITERATURE ANALYSIS: HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE

 1.) *SPOILERS* In this book Harry Potter (a wizard) is carrying a heavy prophecy on his shoulders, one that says a fight to the death between him and the Dark Lord, Voldemort, is bound to happen. In response to this his life-long mentor and leader of the Order of the Phoenix, Albus Dumbledore, sets up meetings in which he can teach Harry Potter how to prepare for such a battle seeing as Voldemort is most powerful dark wizard to have ever lived. Much to Harry's surprise Dumbledore didn't teach him spells or counter-spells but instead went over the Dark Lord's past and what led him to become what he became. He told Harry about Horcruxes which are used by the Dark Lord to become immortal and can only be achieved by killing someone because murder breaks the soul into pieces where it can then be fused into an item thus becoming a Horcrux. There are 7 of these Horcruxes that keep the evil wizard immortal. Harry along with Dumbledore set out to retrieve a Horcrux in the form of a locket. After an assortment of deadly traps and a poisonous potion that had to be consumed by Dumbledore, the locket is retrieved. However, since the beginning of the book the Dark Lord had assigned Draco Malfoy, son of Death Eaters ( the Death Eaters are dark wizards, Voldemort's followers), the task to kill Albus Dumbledore. Harry Potter had his suspicions of this and warned Dumbledore, who acknowledged the suspicions but didn't worry much about to them. So back to the current timeline, after the locket was retrieved they set of towards Hogwarts and upon arrival notice that it has been overrun by the Death Eaters with help from Draco. A fight has erupted between the Death Eaters and the Order of the Phoenix, this fight ends with the death of Albus Dumbledore who was killed by Severus Snape. The locket is discovered to have been a decoy and the real one had been taken by someone named R.A.B in hopes to destroy it to bring the Dark Lord one step closer to mortality. Harry is broken and tells his friends that he will not be returning to Hogwarts the next year because he is going to set off to destroy Voldemort, his friends vow to stick with him. 

2.)  The theme of this story is love and friendship. This story all leads up to the death of Harry's mentor and his love for Dumbledore leads him to finally decide to set out and end Voldemort. His friends (although not mentioned in the summary) have stuck with him throughout everything and are also the fuel behind his sudden decision to end the Dark Lord's reign of death.

3.) Based on the author's tone I have concluded this: She gets up a little late in the morning like 10-11 a.m.(3.1) and drinks tea, specifically a mahogany-brown tea. She does yoga in the afternoon to cool down. And doesn't stumble over to the toilet hungover, in fact she doesn't drink alcohol because she sees it as a vulnerability if you develop a strong taste for it or it could also mean that she thinks it lightens the mood and it's not so bad to drink.(3.2). Yes breakfast is must for the author and maybe like a plate of scrambled eggs with some toast and bacon on the side. Also I don't think the author likes the idea of cheating because on one part of the book it feels like she expressed herself through a character named Hermione. This is when Hermione confronted Harry for using a lucky potion that gave his friend, Ron, an advantage in a wizarding sport. Harry actually didn't use a lucky potion but rather faked it to cause a sort of placebo effect on Ron.

(First excerpt from question #3 or 3.1): Harry bade Mrs. Weasley good night, put on pajamas, and got into one of the beds. There was something hard inside the pillowcase. He groped inside it and pulled out a sticky purple-and-orange sweet, which he recognized as a Puking Pastille. Smiling to himself, he rolled over and was instantly asleep.

    Seconds later, or so it seemed to Harry, he was awakened by what sounded like a cannon of fire as the door burst open. Sitting bolt upright, he heard the rasp of the curtains being pulled back: The dazzling sunlight seemed to poke him hard in both eyes. Shielding them with one hand, he groped hopelessly for his glasses with the other.               

(3.2): It soon became clear that Mrs. Cole was no novice when it came to gin drinking. Pouring both of them a generous measure, she drained her own glass in one gulp. Smacking her lips frankly, she smiled at Dumbledore for the first time, and he didn't hesitate to press his advantage.

    "I was wondering whether you could tell me anything of Tom Riddle's history? I think he was born here in the orphanage?"

    "That's right," said Mrs. Cole, helping herself to more gin. "I remember it clear as anything, because I'd just started here myself. New Year's Eve and bitter cold, snowing, you know. Nasty night. And this girl, not much older than I was myself at the time, came staggering up the front steps. Well, she wasn't the first. We took her in, and she had the baby within the hour. And she was dead in another hour"

    Mrs. Cole nodded impressively and took another generous gulp of gin.

  "Did she say anything before she died?" asked Dumbledore. "Anything about the boy's father, for instance?"

    "Now, as it happens, she did," said Mrs. Cole, who seemed to be rather enjoying herself now, with the gin in her hand and an eager audience for her story.

(3.3): Ron and Harry were the last wo in the changing room. They were just about to leave when Hermione entered. She was twisting her Gryffindor scarf in her hands and looked upset but determined.

    "I want a word with you, Harry." She took a deep breath. "You shouldn't have done it.  You heard Slughorn, it's illegal."

    "What are you going to do, turn us in?" demanded Ron.

    "What are you two talking about?" asked Harry, turning away to hang up his robes so that neither of them would see him grinning.

4.) 5 literacy techniques that the author used to convey tone in this book are imagery, flashback, foreshadowing, onomatopoeia, and hyperbole. Imagery was used by the author in the excerpt (4.1) when she was describing Harry Potter's home. Flashback was used when Dumbledore and Harry traveled into past memories to study Voldemort's past (4.2). Foreshadowing was used in the book in the form of the prophecy concerning Harry and Dark Lord. Onomatopoeia was used when describing teleportation of wizards in the book (4.3). And finally hyperbole was used when describing time or appearance I forget which though since I couldn't find the exact place I read that. 

      (First excerpt from question 4 or 4.1): Harry Potter was snoring loudly. He had been sitting in a chair beside his bedroom window for the best part of four hours, staring out at the darkening street, and had finally fallen asleep with one side of his face pressed against the cold windowpane, his glasses askew and his mouth wide open. The misty fug his breath had left one the window sparkled in the orange glare of the streetlamp outside, and the artificial light drained his face of all color, so that he looked ghostly beneath his shock of untidy black hair.

(4.2): Harry had been indeed eyeing the Pensieve with some apprehension. His previous experiences with the odd device that had stored and revealed thoughts and memories, though highly instructive, had also been uncomfortable. The last time he had disturbed its contents, he had seen some much more than would have wished. But Dumbledore was smiling.

    "This time, you enter the Pensieve with me... and, even more unusually, with permission."

    "where are we going sir?"

    "For a trip down Bob Ogden's memory lane," said Dumbledore, pulling from his pocket a crystal bottle containing swirling silvery-white substance.

    (4.3): But then, with a very faint pop, a slim, hooded figure appeared out of thin air on the edge of the river. The fox froze, wary eyes fixed upon this strange new phenomenon. The figure seemed to take its bearings for a few moments, then set off with light, quick strides, its long cloak rustling over the grass.

    With a second and louder pop, another hooded figure materialized.