The wizarding world is pretty insular, in a lot of ways – it's top secret, it has a fairly small number of people in it. Harry's free to hang out, go shopping, and eat ice cream all day in Diagon Alley. It serves as a nice foray into the adult wizarding world, but it's also a childhood fantasy come true. So it's fitting that Harry spends part of his summer by himself in Diagon Alley.

There's a common thread uniting all of the smaller settings that play an important role in the novel and that's invasion – the outside world is constantly intruding on Harry and his friends this year, which is a sign that they are starting to grow up and become more a part of the adult world. We can contrast this to meals and activities at Hogwarts, where everyone is always talking (as the pages of sometimes uninterrupted dialog indicate) and where magic seems to create a community. They watch TV while eating breakfast and don't really interact with each other. (5.262-263) It's notable that the Dursleys don't really function as a cohesive unit. It was a delicious feast the hall echoed with talk, laughter, and the clatter of knives and forks. (5.240) The golden plates and goblets before them filled suddenly with food and drink.

Compare this to Hogwarts, which is practically a riot of color and people: It was a sea of pointed black hats each of the long House tables was lined with students, their faces glimmering by the light of thousands of candles, which were floating over the tables in midair. It's boring, it's colorless, and it revolves around consumer items like televisions. (2.1.1) The Dursley house is like a prison for Harry. They were watching a brand-new television, a welcome-home-for-the-summer present for Dudley, who had been complaining loudly about the long walk between the fridge and the television in the living room. Harry went down to breakfast the next morning to find the three Dursleys already sitting around the kitchen table. By the time we get into the magical world (Chapter 3), it seems even more magical by comparison to the dreary suburbia of the Dursley house. Often, an initial setting is used to set the tone for the entire novel, but in this case the Dursley house is used to set up a contrast. MagicĪzkaban and the previous two novels start off at the Dursley house. So, instead of just talking about Hogwarts (it's huge, it's awesome, it's magical), we're also going to look at some of the smaller settings that play a big role in Azkaban. But there are more settings than just Hogwarts in Azkaban, though the super cool school is probably the first thing people think of in relation to Harry Potter. If that brand new Harry Potter theme park in Orlando is any indication, the Harry Potter books have very memorable settings.

Harry potter book 3