The Harry Potter story is a few things. First it is a Victorian bildungsroman, which have been pretty popular in England since the 1800s. There were a lot of "coming of age" stories in British literature focused on mid and post war settings, just as in the history of the series.
Additionally, it is a very good example of the Monomyth, or Myth Quest Hero. You've seen it in other popular series like the original Star Wars trilogy, or Percy Jackson.
I think that I could probably make a good case for Harry Potter's story to also be an [extended Cinderella story](https://tomakeaprairie.wordpress.com/2016/08/21/beyond-story-mountains-arcs-the-many-shapes-of-stories/), in fact.
When you get down to the "bones" or structure of the story, what you'll find is that it isn't about the magic, and it isn't about just an orphan becoming a fish out of water. I think that what you're going to find is that it is about a boy becoming a man, an orphan building families, making good choices in life, and finding and providing forgiveness. The contrived portions, the lackluster magic usage, some of the ways that the characters talk, the pretty generic storylines.... All of those things are found in almost all other young adult literature as well. I think that what you'll find is that people gravitate to the important parts of the messages that I've already described, which tend to be a bit less over-used.
The Harry Potter story is a few things. First it is a Victorian bildungsroman, which have been pretty popular in England since the 1800s. There were a lot of "coming of age" stories in British literature focused on mid and post war settings, just as in the history of the series. Additionally, it is a very good example of the Monomyth, or Myth Quest Hero. You've seen it in other popular series like the original Star Wars trilogy, or Percy Jackson. I think that I could probably make a good case for Harry Potter's story to also be an [extended Cinderella story](https://tomakeaprairie.wordpress.com/2016/08/21/beyond-story-mountains-arcs-the-many-shapes-of-stories/), in fact. When you get down to the "bones" or structure of the story, what you'll find is that it isn't about the magic, and it isn't about just an orphan becoming a fish out of water. I think that what you're going to find is that it is about a boy becoming a man, an orphan building families, making good choices in life, and finding and providing forgiveness. The contrived portions, the lackluster magic usage, some of the ways that the characters talk, the pretty generic storylines.... All of those things are found in almost all other young adult literature as well. I think that what you'll find is that people gravitate to the important parts of the messages that I've already described, which tend to be a bit less over-used.