SUMMARY ANALYSIS

ENGLISH COURSE (KU-1024)

By:

Nabila Shidqiya Hasna

16816089

FAKULTAS SENI RUPA DAN DESAIN

INSTITUT TEKNOLOGI BANDUNG

2016/2017
 This article titled Harry Potter and The Childish Adult concern about the answer of two
biggest questions which the author had. Why do Harry Potters books satisfy children and why do so
many adults read them?. Even though young and adult has a really different gap of age. And the
author, A. S. Byatt, try to answer it from his own perspective from dissatisfied young child's side until
regressed adult's side. He prove his answer based on the books and write an example from another
fantasies novelist, that is make us feel impressed and can imagine about Ms. Rowling's secondary
world. But, since Byatt uses so many of his own personal opinion into this article it is really be an
one-sided article.

As you known, Harry Potter is a series of fantasy novels written by J. K. Rowling. Tell us
about the life of Harry Potter, the orphaned child of wizards who were murdered trying to save his
life and lived with his aunt and uncle the truly horrible Dursleys, and his friends Hermione Granger
and Ron Weasley, also all of whom are students at Hogwarts School. The main story concerns in
Harrys struggle against a dark wizard who intends to be immortal, Lord Voldemort. Byatt answer his
first question why do the books satisfy children is because the books fill up the fantasy of young
child, which is dissatisfied with their normal life, ordinary home and parents, invents a fairy tale in
which it is secretly of noble origin, also want to be a hero who is destined to save the world. J. K.
Rowling with her Harry Potter have been compared with Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton, the famous
childrens writers, and three of them have inspired children across the globe to become substantial
readers and deserve serious attention (Allsobrook, 2003).

Byatt brings up Ms. Rowlings secondary world, an internally consistent, fictional, fantasy
world or setting that is different from the real primary world. Secondary world is quite symbiotic
with the real modern world and yes, in Harry Potter everything is just like a normal life (except the
magic things), the transportation, public facilitation, newspaper, celebrity gossip, etc. Good and
evils side of them. The things that we have already known but maybe not recognize by us. But also
mixed up with an unordinary things like centaurs, fantastic beast, magic wood, the story of hero so it
is quite enough to explained the attraction for children by it is powerful working of fantasy of escape
and empowerment, combined with the fact that the stories are comfortable, funny, and frightening
enough.

That is about the children, now why do so many adults also read them? Byatt try to answer
this question with his perspective as an adult. He said that adult don't have the skills to tell ersatz
magic from the real thing, for as children they daily invested the ersatz with what imagination they
had. Harry Potter comfort against childhood fears as Georgette Heyer comforted adult with her
detective stories. These are good books for their kind. But why would grown-up men and women
become obsessed by jokey latency fantasies? Byatt wrote on this article it is because adult like to
regress. Go back in time when they were young they read Enid Blytons books, find it restful because
of absence of sexuality in it. And based on the BBC survey or as known as The BBCs Big Read, more
than a quarter were childrens books (The BBCs Big Read, 2003). Harry Potters magic wood actually
has nothing big as the other fantasy novels like Game of Thrones, Maze Runner, Christopher the
Wizard, Howl Moving Castle,The Bartimaeus Trilogy, etc. It is small, and on the school grounds, and
dangerous only because Ms. Rowling says it is. But she can compensating her seriousness, area
sense of mystery, dangerous creatures from the dark forest so it is really capable for both young and
adult.

Unfortunately, Byatt said that some of people (including students of literature) will tell that
they havent really lived in a book since they were children and being taught that literature often
destroys the life of the books. If we look at this problem, a substitution of celebrity has fed this
phenomenon. Adult more interested in something they do not really believe but exist than
something they believe deep inside but has nothing to do with reality. Not enough just to
imagining it just like a children.

For the last words, Byatt try his hard to answer his two biggest questions about the
successful Harry Potter gain the readers among young and adult. We can say that he is really like to
read a fantasy novel also criticize it and his answer is acceptable though a bit one-sided at Ms.
Rowlings books (his opinion dominate in this article). Describe the dissatisfied young child of their
ordinary live, the comforting side of the books, the things that adult like to regressed, and also the
problem with feeling lived on the books. There is nothing wrong. But it has little things to do with
shiver of awe we feel when looking trough the fantasy world.
 Works Cited

Byatt, A. S. (2003, July 7). Harry Potter and The Childish Adult. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes
.com/2003/07/07/opinion/harry-potter-and-the-childish-adult.html

Allsobrook, Marian (2003, June 18). Potters Place in The Literary Canon. Retrieved from http://
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2996578.stm

The BBCs Big Read. (n.d). Retrieved April ,2003 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100
.shtml