I don't know if I've mentioned this or not, but this summer I'm pursuing a few personal academic projects. One of these is a research project looking at the portrayal of mental illnesses in the Harry Potter series.
Basically, I'm arguing that a stigma exists around mental illnesses in the Potterverse, and characters who display mental illness symptoms are seen as weak. I'm focusing on Harry and how he displays a lot of symptoms of depression, including self-harm tendencies and suicidal thoughts.
My argument will mainly focus on books 4-7, but books 1-3 may set up why Harry develops these problems. Anyway, my first step is to read through the series and mark it up. I have colored tabs denoting the different aspects of mental illnesses, like depression, suicide, child abuse, etc.
Anyway, the whole point of this post is to say that I've finished the Sorcerer's Stone. I've tabbed and annotated it and taken notes about specific points. I'm relieved that I've finally made progress on it, so now it's just to get through the rest of the books, hopefully by the end of the summer.
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