Archer Library Award 2017 - Reflective Essay

Abstract

In Dr. Susan Johnston’s J.K Rowling (English 304) class last Winter term, one aspect that she made blatantly clear was that the class will require a lot of reading, theorizing, and reflective thought. It was not going to be easy just because the class is about Rowling’s Harry Potter series, and boy was she right. Approaching our final projects, I thought to myself, “I have to do something cool, something creative, something to really impress,” and I realized that my thoughts always came back to thinking about wands, the function of them and how fate played a role in what wand chose which wizard. Thus, I decided to do a research project about wand lore, which included different types of wood, sacred trees, and sacred animals.