This week on The Literary Life, Angelina and Thomas wrap up our encore series on J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter: Book 1. Angelina and Thomas begin the episode with some thoughts on their Aristotelian approach to literature as seen in this series of episodes. After sharing their commonplace quotes, they dive into their discussion of the last few chapters of the book. Some of the ideas they consider are how the entire plot is a series of symbols, alchemy and the allegory of the soul, and the figure of the "wildman" in the literary tradition. They also go over the characters of the centaurs, the significance of the unicorn, more references to Greek mythology, how Harry exemplifies the "chest" of the well-ordered man, and the great importance of the philosopher's stone as a Christ symbol. Visit HouseofHumaneLetters.com for classes with Angelina, Thomas, and other members of their teaching team. To view the full show notes for this episode, including commonplace quotes, book links, and today's poem, please visit https://theliterary.life/282.

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

Transcript

Related