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The Witch's Boy Research Paper

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The Witch's Boy Research Paper
Witches and wizards have been present in stories throughout history, so it only makes sense that they receive their own sub-genre of fantasy. How is the witch/wizard sub-genre defined? If a novel has a witch or a wizard character does it automatically become a part of this sub-genre? The simple answer is no; a novel does not fit into the sub-genre of witch and wizard unless it meets the definition and most of the basic tropes. The definition of a witch/wizard novel is that they contain a main character with the ability to practice magic, sorcery, or that possesses magical powers. Now that definition has left another question, what is considered to be magic? There is also a simple definition for this also; magic is a force of supernatural power that adheres to its own rules depending on the setting it is used in. There are eight tropes commonly present throughout the sub-genre, in order to be considered a witch or wizard novel it, …show more content…
In The Witch's Boy, nature is one of the single most important story elements. The woods are presented as this mysterious place that the people of Ned's village are terrified of. They heard legends of giant monsters that roamed the forest and ate people. They heard stories of the trees moving and shifting to keep people lost. The Ancient Stones shifted the forest to bring Ned and Áine to them and it was the stones – part of nature themselves – that brought them home. Sometimes nature can be used as a sense of balance between the natural world and the supernatural powers. Ged’s entire magic is based off of the nature of things and knowing their true names, one of the first rules to his magic is that for every action he does with magic there will be some sort of reaction. Sometimes to potions and spells used by witches and wizards involve natural things like bugs and flowers to create something, like Aunt Zelda had to use in the novel

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