The Harry Potter series has become one of the most popular groups of young adult fiction books in the world. The magical universe created by J. K. Rowling keeps readers enthralled throughout all seven novels. However, despite the unique characters and rules that govern how they act, the series also follows some similar plot points as other stories whose protagonists are orphans. Much like Ragged Dick from earlier in the semester, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone features an orphaned child living in less-than-desirable circumstances using help from friends to achieve whatever goals they set for themselves.
At the beginning of both Harry Potter and Ragged Dick, the main characters' living situations are not ones that many people would covet. Ragged Dick finds himself living alone on the streets of New York, making just enough as a boot-black to scrape by. While Harry Potter can at least take solace in having a roof over his head, he lives with the Dursleys: his verbally abusive and neglectful aunt, uncle, and cousin. Furthermore, he is forced to live in a closet under the staircase. While Dick expresses less dismay at his misfortune than Harry, they are both forced to deal with depressing ways of life that do not seem to have an easy way out. Fortunately for them, they both receive help from others to escape their dismal situations and go on to much happier lives.
Both Harry and Dick receive their first bit of help from unexpected sources. For Dick, his path from poverty to prosperity begins with a chance encounter: he meets Mr. Whitney and Frank who buy him a suit and encourage him to pursue an education. Meanwhile, Harry receives help from magical letters summoning him to Hogwarts. Despite the Dursleys' many attempts to keep the letters from him, Harry just receives more and more letters, eventually forcing the Dursleys to relent and send him away. Later in both novels, Dick and Harry each get more help from new friends. Dick gets tutoring from Henry Fosdick, a fellow impoverished boot-black who Dick allows to live with him in exchange for his teaching services. Harry is aided by his friends Hermione and Ron as they try to get the Sorcerer's Stone before Voldemort. For example, Ron guides him through a life-sized game of chess, and Hermione is a great help during the potion puzzle. Harry and Dick are both able to achieve far more than they could on their own thanks to their friends using their various skills to help them.
Although both Ragged Dick and Harry Potter seem to have wildly different premises at first glance, their protagonists follow similar paths in their respective novels. Harry and Dick each live in different situations, but they share the fact that both of their lives are miserable. While their goals are different, they pursue them using similar resources in friends. Lastly, each story has a different overarching message (hard work in Ragged Dick and a basic good versus evil plot in Harry Potter), but both novels put a heavy emphasis on the importance of friendship. In these ways, Harry resembles Dick in his transformation from orphan to hero.
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