Blog Post #2: Discovery of Courage

One of the major themes that Rowling has in the Harry Potter series is the power of courage when faced with hardships. In the first couple novels in the series we see the main character Harry, Ron, and Hermione exemplify an extraordinary amount of courage when facing dangerous creatures, a Troll, Fluffy, Aarog, and a Basilisk, and dangerous wizards, Voldemort, death eaters. As the series progress, Harry, Ron and Hermione encounter more danger and they face it head on. However, they are not the only characters that’s showcase a great deal of courage. Neville Longbottom is depicted as a quiet timid boy in the first novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. As I read the first novel I couldn’t figure out why the sorting hat put Neville into Gryffindor, the house that is composed of students that possess the quality of courage, a quality which Neville certainly lacked. But as the series progress, Neville matured and slowly became more courageous. In the first novel, stands up to Harry, Ron and Hermione and tries to stop them from sneaking out of the Tower. Though it was a small act of courage to stand up to his friends, that was one of the first signs that showed embodying the Gryffindor virtue of courage. In later books, specifically Order of the Phoenix, Half Blood Prince, and Deathly Hallows Neville becomes more courageous fighting death eaters and continuing DA meetings at Hogwarts when Harry was no longer at school. To me the importance of Neville finding his courage as he matured was very different then that of Harry’s courage. Both boys are Gryffindors, both had parents in the Order of Phoenix, and both suffered major losses at a young age. The major difference being that Harry had courage thrust upon him from a very young age with losing his parents, undergoing the maltreatment from his aunt and uncle, and continually being targeted/attacked by dark wizards, and Neville had to search inside himself to find his courage and you see that as he grows from a timid first year student to a seventh year student who continued to lead a group of students in the fight against the death eaters during the school year. Neville’s transformation shows that courage is something that can be attained from standing up for your loved ones and what you believe in.