Brandon Rodriguez
The Harry Potter series has meant a lot to me over the years. As a child I watched the series over and over again. I was about the age as the characters in the film when I started watching the movies and it really meant a lot to me seeing these characters every time the new movie was released. I only read the first two books as kid only after seeing the first few films. However, a great joy I had is that I watched all these films with my family. To this day I have not seen a Harry Potter movie without at least one family member. So the series became very nostalgic to me and a big part in family as well. We all make references to it every once and a while and during Christmas time we re-watch some of the movies. Now my family while religious never had a negative stigma towards the series. My father always enjoyed watching different types of world building movies and creative characters and visuals. So the series for has always been fun for me and everyone around me, even people at school including students and teachers, everyone seemed to know what it was, and because of that the series felt like what I can only describe as a modern classic.
Being an adult after the series finished always left me wanting more of it. That’s when I read the rest of the books. Yet, I still wanted more canon content and fantastic Beasts while I thought it was great didn’t feel the same. It wasn’t until I joined this class at CSUDH that I felt like I could really engage with the content of series with new people. I have enjoyed being able to have these open discussions with my peers, hearing their talking points and what they like or didn’t like from series was really enlightening. There are a lot of hidden meanings and morals throughout the series that I was influenced by that I didn’t realize until we went into depth about it in class. These ideas of right and wrong of why a character does what they do really help solidify a viewer or a reader’s stance on their own issues. This theme branches out to other pieces of literature or film, where we see a character come up with their own way to solve an issue despite what others may have told them. We see characters that hold up their own personal values against an oppressive force. We see characters just like us that are afraid, but in the end push back that fear. And those are also the three main characters in the Harry Potter series. This class has been a joy and will always remain as a reminder for meaning behind great storytelling.