In the Sorcerer's Stone, and in many of the Harry Potter books, the characters must decide whether or not to break the rules. Rowling appropriately placed the first of the series in middle school, because that is when we develop critical thinking. We begin to question our place in the world and our relationship to rules. In this world of magic, we have an outsider, Harry, who is the perfect vehicle for these questions. To him, everything is new and a curiosity to be explored.
Many rules in the story seem at first to be for the student’s protection. They describe the off-limits areas as dangerous. But the characters realize that they also seem to hide the truth. When they decide to break the rules, it is because the danger is seeping outside of the zones and the truth needs to be found out. In the end, it seemed that many of the rules were set up by a malicious authority who was undermining the whole system. This concept can translate well to the readers, because it asks us to question why we have rules. It does not say that rules are intrinsically bad. Instead, it encourages us to look into the reason for the rule and question the “truth” that is presented to us.
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