Literary Merit

By: John Patrick O'Donnell

I remember the struggle that learning to read and write was for most kids in kindergarten
or preschool, and not really understanding what was so difficult about it. I mean it just made
sense; vowels with short and long sounds, -i before e except after c in most cases, etc. And
then there was the incentive: Accelerated Reader Points- A.R. Points for short. The way to check
your reading comprehension while at the same time giving you points depending upon how well
you did on the test. Typically it went, the bigger the book, the more A.R. points you would
receive if you did well on the test. Being the competitive person I was, getting the most points
was one of my top priorities. So, in order to do that was to read the books that could give me the
most, the Harry Potter series.
In first grade, I wanted to start reading the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the
Sorcerers Stone. My mom had always said that these were amazing books, and that I needed to
read them as soon as possible; however my teacher and librarians did not think that it was the
best idea. They said things like, itll be too hard for you to understand or, itll take you the
whole year to read it. Well to make a 312- page book short, I read it and was immediately
hooked. The way that J.K. Rowling created another world using magic and an orphaned 11 year
old boy, was nothing short of a phenomenon. At that point, it didnt become about getting the 12
A.R. points, it became about finding out what was going to be in The Chamber of Secrets in
Harrys second year at Hogwarts.
The problem that my teachers had anticipated was that it would take me too long to read
the book, but by the time October of second grade rolled around, I had already read the fifth

book. It seemed that my problem really turned out to be reading them too quickly, meaning that I
had to wait a couple of years until the 6th book would come out, and a few more years until the
seventh. The day the seventh book came out during the summer before 6th grade, I locked myself
in my room for the entire day to read it, only coming out for meals (where the book accompanied
me). When I read the final words, All was well. It was quite a bittersweet moment. Granted,
how the story resolved itself was perfect, but it was the end of an era. The end of the story that
changed the world of fantasy forever. A series that has remained my favorite of all time, and that
I believe should be experienced by everybody.
To the people who decide whether or not a book is of literary merit, something like this
series apparently isnt quite up to par. My AP Literature teacher was of the same mindset, one of
the many reasons I wasnt a fan of her. Her and every other teacher Ive had supported the usual
suspects; Frankenstein, The Grapes of Wrath, etc. Although those books are all fine and well
when you have to read them for school, most people wouldnt sit down and read them if they
werent being forced to. Personally, Huckleberry Finn is one of my least favorite books, yet
thats a book of so-called literary merit. Honestly speaking, the only reason these books are
classified as such is because they addressed topics that are transferrable to real life for years on
end; before anyone else did. Regardless of how well they do it.
In todays day and age, if we dont follow those strict guidelines our teachers put out
there for us, it results in our grade plummeting. An English class has essentially devolved into
writing analytical essays and trying to analyze books that have generalized themes that anyone
can pick up on if they sat down and thought about it. This sort of thing really came to light in the
same AP Literature and Composition class. We had only read 3 books of literary merit as a
class, those being: 100 Years of Solitude, Frankenstein, and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Now,

how these books are considered worthy of the title of Literary Merit is beyond me; nevertheless,
they were and we had to deal with it for the AP exam. It was commonly acknowledged that we
would have to analyze one of these books for a free response question on the exam. Since I sure
as hell was not going to analyze an imitation Hamlet, a monster-mash, or an incestuous story
loosely based on the Bible. I needed a book that I knew better than the back of my hand, and the
answer was staring me in the face. The Harry Potter series can easily cover any theme or
question that the test could possibly offer.
My teacher and I didnt really get along to say the least. She thought that I was a
disrespectful student, and I thought that she was an idiotic teacher who really had no business
teaching an AP course. Now, both these statements are fairly true, but thats beside the point. I
can honestly say that we never did agree on anything, and that didnt change here either. The
Exam date was fast approaching, so she was reviewing methods and books that should be used.
She was describing the proper books to use and in my usual joking, sarcastic tone I said, Well
Harry Potter would be perfect for that. Immediately she retorted, If you use Harry Potter on the
exam, you will fail. She didnt realize though that most of the class loved the series, and the
tumultuous protests began. These comments ranging from, are you stupid?? to, The series
outsold the Bible and last but not least, how can you be an English teacher if you havent even
attempted to read it?! Needless to say, I was loving every moment of it, but there was still a
problem at hand here. Once the noise died down, she said, Regardless of what you think, the
Harry Potter books are not considered books of Literary Merit; therefore, you cannot use
them. If she knew me, she would have realized then that I would have to write about Harry
Potter, especially with her making asinine statements such as those.

As the AP exam day arrived, I was ready to write about Monster-mash/ Frankenstein;
whichever you prefer, simply for the reason that I wanted to pass the exam. I wasnt entirely for
standing down like this, but I didnt see a reason for my grade to suffer because of her irrational
statements. This is what the reasonable and logical John Patrick O'Donnell would have said.
However, the sarcastic a**-hole John Patrick came to the testing site that day, and he was
absolutely ready to pass this exam using The Boy Who Lived.
As we sat down to start the exam, I took a quick look around the room to see my class
mates behaviors. There were the ones who were much too awake for 8 oclock in the morning
(probably hopped up on coffee), the ones sitting in their chairs, glancing at the clocks, with a
worried expression on their face. Then you had me, kicking back, checking on the new rumors
for the transfer window coming up in June for professional soccer, incidentally, Tottenham still
refused to acquire a remotely decent player over the months of June-September, but I digress.
As was expected, the test followed the typical format: excerpts from boring material,
multiple choice questions with 3 correct answers but one answer being the most right, and the
three free responses. I do have to say that the first two questions were just terrible, but I couldnt
have asked for a better question to prove my point then the one that was provided. It said to
analyze an inner conflict of a character between the forces of good and evil in a book of literary
merit, and I couldnt have been more pleased. There were several characters that I could use, if
youve read the series you would know that I could have used Malfoy, Dumbledore, Snape,
Harry himself, etc. I thought that Snape, being the triple agent that he was would be the best
example of this. Hoping that it had been good enough, but also very satisfied with what I had
accomplished, I left the testing site.

One of the great things about AP exams is that the teachers get the essays back. Although
I didnt get that sweet moment of an I told you so after I got a 3 on the exam, passing it, I still
had that great feeling of defending the book that I have grown up loving. Literary Merit is for all
intents and purposes, a subjective term. Every book has literary merit, but not everybody has the
insight that is necessary to appreciate it.