[HPforGrownups] Re: The Phoenix

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 9014

aiz24 at hotmail.com wrote:

> The phoenix is definitely on the side of good in the HP canon thus
> far.
>
> Immortality, on the other hand, is not viewed entirely positively.

But the central image of the phoenix is not immortality per se, but
rebirth. A new phoenix rises from the ashes of the old. Rebirth, a la
"Poland has not yet died" (a line from the national anthem, I
believe)--even when all seems lost, there can be a renewal. As in Poland,
which disappeared from the map for what, 300 years? And had to teach its
native tongue to its youth underground. So I think the phoenix is a "good
guy" symbol for the renewal it represents in the face of Voldemort's
threat; I think any connotations of immortality are secondary.

--Amanda