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Analysis Of The Book ' The Night Before A Major Movie '

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Mary Bierley
IAH 201 Section 14
Argumentative Paper
April 20, 2017
Fandoms in the Global Success of the Harry Potter Series On the night before a major movie comes out it is common to find people camping outside movie theaters, raving about their favorite characters and speculating about what new movie they are about to see. Groups of people like these compose a fandom. A fandom is a collection of people from across the world that obsess over any kind of cultural phenomenon, leading to various types of fan-made adaptations and consumption of material related to that spectacle. Amongst the top ten most dedicated fandoms in the world is the fan base for the Harry Potter series (Helling et. al, p. 25). Harry Potter was originally a …show more content…

Universalist ideas are basic similarities and characteristics that everyone around the world share (Shimemura p. 84). Universalistic ideas are often composed of various types of archetypes, which is a reoccurring symbol or motif in any sort of cultural product (Herskovitz et. al, p. 22). Harry Potter contains universal archetypes that human beings are naturally drawn to, such as the hero who conquers evil, the good versus evil debate, and the underdog. One can see these three universalistic ideas through the hero, Harry, the fight between Harry and Voldemort and the upbringing that Harry has with his malicious family. In Susan Gunelius’ book, Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon, she references to this idea when she says, “Harry Potter is a coming of age story about a fallible hero intertwined with magical elements, and, interestingly, its global appeal proves that people are very much the same, regardless of geographic borders” (p. 119). Gunelius’ point emphasizes that as fans or viewers of a movie one wants to be able to relate the characters to their own life and beliefs. Every country, religion, or nationality has their own heroic-figures, figures who struggle with their family, and suffer with the good versus evil debate, and when one watches a movie that exemplifies those values they will be stimulated and be drawn to the movie. If the Harry Potter series did

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