I'd have to agree generally with the preceding review- the "grand scheme of things" in a theological sense is sadly overlooked- the main character informs us fairly often of her angst re. the Bible and witchcraft but there is no development of this theme and it remains as an arbitrary constant while other plot events happen around her.
In addition to this conflict, there is the introduction of her "outsider status" even in the Wizarding world due to her ancestry- this again remains as a constant, with few serious attempts to "compare and contrast" or indeed interweave these themes. She's not only an outsider for her religious background, she's an outsider on account of being muggle-born- while the two might well be fairly logical consequences of each other, I can't help but feel that more time could have been taken over the central theme if the main character weren't subject to the massively ramped-up (relative to the original works) cruelty of the pure-bloods of Slytherin.
She falls in fairly rapidly with a group of self-declared outsiders and there's a bad taste left in the mouth over the seeming setting in stone of Rowling's already fairly obvious parallels between pure-blood supremacist philosophy and real-world race hate- indeed it seems that our heroine is about the only one willing to treat the black characters/muggle-borns in general with even the most basic of civilities.
That is, in my opinion, due to the story's overarching flaw, though- the characters' dialogues and much of their conduct is pretty jarring and seems to be a case of Robot Devil Syndrome- they immediately get down to business, declaring their position on pureblood/muggleborn relations as a matter of introduction, and where that is deemed insufficient they brutally attack unknown first-years in the middle of the common room. This pureblood/muggleborn conflict really comes to dominate the story and perhaps it is unsurprising that the identities of the characters (including race) reflect to a large degree their position on that theme.
Religion theme is rapidly drowned out
I'd have to agree generally with the preceding review- the "grand scheme of things" in a theological sense is sadly overlooked- the main character informs us fairly often of her angst re. the Bible and witchcraft but there is no development of this theme and it remains as an arbitrary constant while other plot events happen around her.
In addition to this conflict, there is the introduction of her "outsider status" even in the Wizarding world due to her ancestry- this again remains as a constant, with few serious attempts to "compare and contrast" or indeed interweave these themes. She's not only an outsider for her religious background, she's an outsider on account of being muggle-born- while the two might well be fairly logical consequences of each other, I can't help but feel that more time could have been taken over the central theme if the main character weren't subject to the massively ramped-up (relative to the original works) cruelty of the pure-bloods of Slytherin.
She falls in fairly rapidly with a group of self-declared outsiders and there's a bad taste left in the mouth over the seeming setting in stone of Rowling's already fairly obvious parallels between pure-blood supremacist philosophy and real-world race hate- indeed it seems that our heroine is about the only one willing to treat the black characters/muggle-borns in general with even the most basic of civilities.
That is, in my opinion, due to the story's overarching flaw, though- the characters' dialogues and much of their conduct is pretty jarring and seems to be a case of Robot Devil Syndrome- they immediately get down to business, declaring their position on pureblood/muggleborn relations as a matter of introduction, and where that is deemed insufficient they brutally attack unknown first-years in the middle of the common room. This pureblood/muggleborn conflict really comes to dominate the story and perhaps it is unsurprising that the identities of the characters (including race) reflect to a large degree their position on that theme.