What Most People Don't Know About Harry Potter

By William R. Hicks

A deeper look into why the Harry Potter series has become a phenomenon. It draws upon parallels such as The Lord of the Rings, The Wizard of Oz, Star Wars, The Twilight Zone, Diaries of a Wimpy Kid, The Hunger Games, Heroes of Olympus, The Matrix, Minecraft, and other stories. It does a masterful job of bridging the gap between fiction and non-fiction. As you turn the pages, you will be transported to a mysterious realm just as Harry Potter was transported to the magical realm of Hogwarts. You will discover that there is much more to the Harry Potter series than meets the eye. You will find that you really can't judge a book by the cover alone.

• Language: English
• Publisher: William R. Hicks
• Release date: Nov 5, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370731923

William R. Hicks

William Raymond Hicks is a native of Southern California who met his wife, Elise (also a Southern California native), in 1996 through a transformational workshop environment called Lifespring (now M.I.T.T.). During much personal growth together, William was inspired to begin painting, as well as to co-write Wings: The Journey Home, with Elise in 1997. “Wings” is their first joint book, Our Experiences As Ghosts Aboard Titanic is their second, and ‘The Workbook’ for “Wings” is their third. They have also published 50 Poems & Musings for Ropepullers, which they co-wrote with their brother, Joseph Hicks.William has been painting, journaling, writing poetry, and creating his own works of both fiction and non-fiction. He has written a series of non-fiction books called What Most People Don’t Know..., which touches on alternative views of topics such as The Bible, cancer, money, and life purpose. William has also written a series of fiction books called Adventures with Joe, in which he and his brother, Joe, time-travel together to both the past and the future, come face to face with the paranormal, enter a wormhole to another dimension, and come face to face with alien visitors.William is working on several other books with both Elise and Joseph, as well as more of his own works. William and Elise are students of history, psychology, self-empowerment, metaphysics, and quantum physics, and their intention is to teach what they have learned in a unique, fun, and inspiring way.

Book preview

What Most People Don’t Know About Harry Potter

By William R. Hicks

Copyright 2016 William Raymond Hicks & Elizabeth Emily Hicks

KDP Edition, License Notes

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to KDP and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Cover design by Elizabeth & William Hicks

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"The stories we love best do live in us forever, so whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home."

– J.K. Rowling[1]

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Spell

Chapter 2: Hogwarts, Middle Earth, a Galaxy Far, Far Away…

Chapter 3: You Are a Wizard, Not Just Some Wimpy Kid!

Chapter 4: Vampires, Witches, Werewolves, Dragons & Zombies

Chapter 5: Ninja Powers

Chapter 6: The Hunger Games

Chapter 7: The Heroes of Olympus

Chapter 8: The Matrix

Chapter 9: The Big Bang Theory

Chapter 10: The World is Your Minecraft

The End

Endnotes

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Connect with Us Online

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Chapter 1: The Spell

Harry Potter fans will agree that J.K. Rowling is a great writer. She wrote an intriguing plot and theme, interesting characters, descriptive settings, and a compelling conflict, essential for any good story. Rowling threw in a magical school of wizardry, some interesting creatures, and abracadabra she had herself a hit, right? Well, not exactly, and I am not referring to the marketing efforts to get the Potter books to the public’s attention. That is an important piece, but good marketing doesn’t create a successful book, or turn it into a blockbuster film series for that matter. There are plenty of authors and books that fulfill all of the above criteria, but still fall into obscurity. So what is it about Harry Potter?

Harry Potter is obviously not the first successful book or movie franchise. There are such memorable works as: The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, The Hobbit and the The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by the brilliant J.R.R. Tolkien in the first half of the 20th Century, and the Star Wars saga created by the imaginative genius of George Lucas in the second half of the 20th Century. Okay, so what do all of these have in common?

First of all, I would have to call on the insightful work of Joseph Campbell in order to tie them together. In Campbell’s books, he writes about myths and legends that stand the test of time[2]. In these myths, there are archetypal figures, such as The Fool, The Absent Father, and The Wise Teacher, to name just a few. If we take a look at the stories above, we will notice common threads: Dorothy was raised by her aunt and uncle, Harry Potter is an orphan, Bilbo’s father and Frodo’s father are absent, and Luke Skywalker’s father is the infamous Darth Vader; all of these characters are young and innocent heroes pulled into an adventure; and they are mentored by wise teachers the likes of the traveling salesman, Dumbledore, Gandalf, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Yoda.

Of course what story would be complete without a gripping shadow character, such as Voldemort, Sauron, Darth Vader, or The Wicked Witch of the West? Now I could go on with a list of other archetypal characters (e.g. Threshold Guardian, Herald, Shapeshifter, Trickster, etc.) and stages of the hero’s journey, but I think that there is something deeper than simply formula. I do not want to trivialize Joseph Campbell’s immense research