Resita Sofiani

A Battle between Wizards and Vampires

Time by time, people are interested in reading fiction books. There are two reasons why people adore reading it. Some people say, when they read a fiction book, they can visualize the characters as someone else based on their imagination. Other people say that a fiction book builds their world of imagination because there are some mythical creatures which are created in the book. Some fiction books magnetize people with their astounding imagination world and they become very popular. There are a lot of bestseller fiction books in the world through the eras, but it is only a little number of them which becomes phenomenal. Lately, there are two books which are booming and successful. They are Harry Potter and Twilight. As the most popular books, Harry Potter and Twilight not only have similarities in some aspects, but they have also dissimilarities in genre of story, characters, and readers.

First, both Harry Potter and Twilight are similar in some aspects. Harry Potter and Twilight are series books although they have different number of series. Harry Potter consists of seven books while Twilight consists of four books. However, both of them grip a lot of people’s attention around the world with their fantastic and wonderful story. They had been sold for more than 100 million copies worldwide until March 2010. Besides, Harry Potter and Twilight were filmed and it was being success. Presently, their fans are waiting for their final movies which will premiere next year. Yet, we cannot say that Harry Potter and Twilight are the same because they still have some differences. The genre of story, characters, and readers are three aspects which make those two books dissimilar from each other.

First of all, the differences between Harry Potter and Twilight are in their genre of story. We know that both of them are fiction series books, but Harry Potter is a series of fantasy books. Harry Potter’s story is the adventure of an adolescent wizard, Harry Potter, and his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. All of them are the students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry Potter is also about mystery and death because in each book Harry Potter character has to battle with Voldemort, who killed Harry Potter’s parents, or some of Voldemort’s followers, the Death Eaters, with the stakes a matter of life and death. In each of the final four books, some characters such as Cedric Diggory, Sirius Black, and Dumbledore are killed by Voldemort and Snape one by one. One of the special things from Harry Potter books is about magic. The characters do everything with magic which shows the strength of fantasy genre of this series book. In contrast to Harry Potter, Twilight is a romance-fantasy series book. The story is about a girl, Isabella Swan, who falls in love with a 104-year-old vampire named Edward Cullen. On the other hand, there is Jacob Black, a werewolf, who falls in love with her. Their triangle love builds the story romantically. The main conflict in this book is about Edward and Jacob. They hate each other because of their forefathers’ agreement that they cannot come to each other’s territory. From the genre of the story, we can notice that those two series books are distinctive.

Another difference between Harry Potter and twilight is in the characters. In Harry Potter books, the characters are growing naturally; for example Harry Potter was still a child in the first book, but he grew up in the final book and he became an adolescent. Besides, most of the characters in Harry Potter books are human although there are also some mythical creatures in this series book. Moreover, some of the characters die just like a human. Different from Harry Potter, Twilight has some immortal characters who have strength to stay alive, cannot grow up, and become old. Edward, a vampire, physically looks like a 17-year-old man, an age when he became a vampire, although he was born 104 years ago. This immortality also happens to Jacob as a werewolf. Indeed, the characterization is one of some factors that makes those two series books become very different.

Then, Harry Potter and Twilight are different from the age of the readers. Harry Potter is read by all ages, children to adult. Harry Potter’s story which is about adventure and friendship make this series book appropriate to be read by everyone. Children love to read Harry Potter because of its fantasy aspect. On the other hand, adult adore reading Harry Potter because of its moral value about family, friendship, and love. Compare to Harry Potter, Twilight has an age bracket of its reader because Twilight is a romantic series book and there are some parts which are not appropriate to be read by children. The age bracket allows everyone who is above 13 years old to read this book. Based on the author of Twilight, teenagers are the main focus readers because the characters of Twilight are senior high school students. The differences of Harry Potter’s and Twilight’s readers are another thing that makes them dissimilar to each other.

In conclusion, the similarities between Harry Potter and Twilight series books do not make them become two similar series books because they still have some differences. Although both of them are phenomenal-bestseller books and have a big number of fans, they are diverse in the genre of the story, characters, and readers. All of those differences build a unique story and strong enchantment for their readers. Besides, they give options for the readers to choose which one they love. Are they curious about an adolescent wizard’s adventure story with a lot of magic and amazing world or a vampire love story and immortality?