This book is currently sitting battered next to me after my second reading wave. It was the first Harry Potter book my father bought for me, and the doodles and stickers I find inside bring back memories of how I used to have reading marathons at home as a kid. Rereading the second book was quite refreshing, and as I mentioned in my previous review, it allowed me to look at the series with fresh eyes.
This book opens with an argument at breakfast between Harry and the Dursleys, about Hedwig, Harry's owl, being locked up.The Dursleys have locked up Harry's things and his owl, to prevent him from communicating with his friends and using magic. The Dursleys make plans to invite a builder and his wife for dinner, to seal a deal with Uncle Vernon's firm, and Harry's role is to remain quiet, unseen and unheard, presumed non-existent. Plans go awry when Harry finds a house elf, Dobby,in his room, who tries to persuade Harry not to return to Hogwarts, due to great 'evil' coming up in Hogwarts. Dobby's determination extends to brutal sabotage, where he performs magic in front of the guests, smashing a pudding , to ruin the dinner and lock Harry up.
Harry is rescued from his imprisonment by Ron and his brothers, the twins Fred and George in their father's flying Ford Anglia, escaping the Dursleys and landing at the Weasley's residence, the Burrow. They spend the summer there, and on the day they're to return to Hogwarts, they have trouble getting onto the platform, miss the train, and decide to fly the car to Hogwarts. They end up crashing into a tree, and are severely admonished for their rather dramatic entrance. Incidentally, they have a new professor for Defence against the Dark Arts a rather questionable, narcissistic celebrity, Professor Lockhart, who has a penchant for dragging a reluctant Harry into unnecessary spotlight. This year also marked Ginny's entry into Hogwarts, Ron's painfully shy and insecure sister .
Beginning with the caretaker's cat, when a series of Muggle born students are attacked and left in a state of frozen petrification, with threatening messages alleging the presence of a Chamber of Secrets that means to purge the school of unworthies , a duelling club is organised for the students , where an encounter with a snake causes Harry and the rest of the school to discover his ability to communicate with snakes.Since this language, Parseltongue has been known to be used by Salazar Slytherin and dark wizards of his line, Harry is now the prime suspect behind these attacks.
Harry, Ron and Hermione try to find answers by working in a haunted girls' toilet , conjuring forbidden potions, where Harry comes across a mysterious blank diary that responds to what the owner writes, belonging to a Tom Riddle. When Hermione herself is attacked, they work faster to uncover a series of connections with Hermione's own clues, and eventually discover the Chamber of Secrets, the person who opened it, the monster within , the real culprit and how it all revolved around Harry. A battle in the Chamber ensues, destroying both the monster and the vestiges of the culprit. They eventually manage to leave the Chamber, and clear the situation with Professor Dumbledore. Harry manages to free Dobby too, and the year ends on a high note again.
This book sees the characters grow up a little, but not much; they still have a healthy disrespect for school rules. The tone of the story is rather more serious, and the sense of wonder we see in the first book is now replaced with familiarity and curiosity, while navigating possibilities in a magical landscape. Witnessing Harry's abuse far more directly and vividly right from the beginning, the series ceases to be the fairytale it was in the first book. The topics of fame, insecurities, reputation, ability, truth, and loyalties start coming in. Gilderoy Lockhart craves attention and reputation and is willing to go as far as possible to further it, Harry struggles with his own reputation and tries to stay both away from attention and clear his reputation, Tom Riddle is trusted while Hagrid is punished, all on account of their reputations. We also see a second social issue, that of social divide, possibly a reflection of racism and slavery, concerning the discrimination between so called Pure Bloods and Muggle born students, and wizards and other magical creatures.The conflict between these, and the struggle to resolve them, marks a turn towards tolerance and narrative seriousness. The book grows up a little, as does the reader's range.
I do have a point of debate with Rowling's narratives, in that, her stories gain momentum and the plot moves on, not as much with the deductions and adventures of the protagonists, which readers should ideally be able to do in parallel, but by introducing new bits of information present at each stage, culminating in shocking finales.The plot advances with the information presented. While one may argue that the wealth of magical knowledge in that universe is too vast for readers to be presented a concise picture to reason with, the fact that in each case, action could be taken by a trio of teenagers, in this case, twelve year olds, while adults save for Dumbledore, who did have access to greater information and awareness, could not connect dots, one can assume plotwise in the series that maybe they could have been streamlined to advance more on the basis of the characters themselves, and not newer information?
Perhaps, a factor for the series' success is the sheer bulk of information itself, their complexity, and requiring considerable of imagination in every scene, something maybe other fantasy authors would not have bothered with after establishing the scenario. In this case, the experience is like discovering gold nuggets in every sieving of sand, connections and parallels can be drawn at every point, with every re-read bringing up new insights.
The second book presents several important themes in a rather prophetic manner, something a reader would only realize after having read the series. If the first book established Harry's magical identity and his first adventure, the second book effectively introduced themes and positioned Harry opposite his nemesis, and set the tone for future books to follow.
This book opens with an argument at breakfast between Harry and the Dursleys, about Hedwig, Harry's owl, being locked up.The Dursleys have locked up Harry's things and his owl, to prevent him from communicating with his friends and using magic. The Dursleys make plans to invite a builder and his wife for dinner, to seal a deal with Uncle Vernon's firm, and Harry's role is to remain quiet, unseen and unheard, presumed non-existent. Plans go awry when Harry finds a house elf, Dobby,in his room, who tries to persuade Harry not to return to Hogwarts, due to great 'evil' coming up in Hogwarts. Dobby's determination extends to brutal sabotage, where he performs magic in front of the guests, smashing a pudding , to ruin the dinner and lock Harry up.
Harry is rescued from his imprisonment by Ron and his brothers, the twins Fred and George in their father's flying Ford Anglia, escaping the Dursleys and landing at the Weasley's residence, the Burrow. They spend the summer there, and on the day they're to return to Hogwarts, they have trouble getting onto the platform, miss the train, and decide to fly the car to Hogwarts. They end up crashing into a tree, and are severely admonished for their rather dramatic entrance. Incidentally, they have a new professor for Defence against the Dark Arts a rather questionable, narcissistic celebrity, Professor Lockhart, who has a penchant for dragging a reluctant Harry into unnecessary spotlight. This year also marked Ginny's entry into Hogwarts, Ron's painfully shy and insecure sister .
Beginning with the caretaker's cat, when a series of Muggle born students are attacked and left in a state of frozen petrification, with threatening messages alleging the presence of a Chamber of Secrets that means to purge the school of unworthies , a duelling club is organised for the students , where an encounter with a snake causes Harry and the rest of the school to discover his ability to communicate with snakes.Since this language, Parseltongue has been known to be used by Salazar Slytherin and dark wizards of his line, Harry is now the prime suspect behind these attacks.
Harry, Ron and Hermione try to find answers by working in a haunted girls' toilet , conjuring forbidden potions, where Harry comes across a mysterious blank diary that responds to what the owner writes, belonging to a Tom Riddle. When Hermione herself is attacked, they work faster to uncover a series of connections with Hermione's own clues, and eventually discover the Chamber of Secrets, the person who opened it, the monster within , the real culprit and how it all revolved around Harry. A battle in the Chamber ensues, destroying both the monster and the vestiges of the culprit. They eventually manage to leave the Chamber, and clear the situation with Professor Dumbledore. Harry manages to free Dobby too, and the year ends on a high note again.
This book sees the characters grow up a little, but not much; they still have a healthy disrespect for school rules. The tone of the story is rather more serious, and the sense of wonder we see in the first book is now replaced with familiarity and curiosity, while navigating possibilities in a magical landscape. Witnessing Harry's abuse far more directly and vividly right from the beginning, the series ceases to be the fairytale it was in the first book. The topics of fame, insecurities, reputation, ability, truth, and loyalties start coming in. Gilderoy Lockhart craves attention and reputation and is willing to go as far as possible to further it, Harry struggles with his own reputation and tries to stay both away from attention and clear his reputation, Tom Riddle is trusted while Hagrid is punished, all on account of their reputations. We also see a second social issue, that of social divide, possibly a reflection of racism and slavery, concerning the discrimination between so called Pure Bloods and Muggle born students, and wizards and other magical creatures.The conflict between these, and the struggle to resolve them, marks a turn towards tolerance and narrative seriousness. The book grows up a little, as does the reader's range.
I do have a point of debate with Rowling's narratives, in that, her stories gain momentum and the plot moves on, not as much with the deductions and adventures of the protagonists, which readers should ideally be able to do in parallel, but by introducing new bits of information present at each stage, culminating in shocking finales.The plot advances with the information presented. While one may argue that the wealth of magical knowledge in that universe is too vast for readers to be presented a concise picture to reason with, the fact that in each case, action could be taken by a trio of teenagers, in this case, twelve year olds, while adults save for Dumbledore, who did have access to greater information and awareness, could not connect dots, one can assume plotwise in the series that maybe they could have been streamlined to advance more on the basis of the characters themselves, and not newer information?
Perhaps, a factor for the series' success is the sheer bulk of information itself, their complexity, and requiring considerable of imagination in every scene, something maybe other fantasy authors would not have bothered with after establishing the scenario. In this case, the experience is like discovering gold nuggets in every sieving of sand, connections and parallels can be drawn at every point, with every re-read bringing up new insights.
The second book presents several important themes in a rather prophetic manner, something a reader would only realize after having read the series. If the first book established Harry's magical identity and his first adventure, the second book effectively introduced themes and positioned Harry opposite his nemesis, and set the tone for future books to follow.
