The Death of Cedric

[absinthe at mad.scientist.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 11223

 harry_potter00 wrote:
> In re-reading the canon I found that I had several 
thoughts/questions 
> about the death of Cedric. I know that Jo has stated in past 
> interviews that it was very difficult for her to write Cedric's 
death 
> and that she cried. My question is did we as readers find Cedric's 
> death that emotional? I personally didn't. It is not that I've never 
> or don't find books emotionally moving, and it's certainly not that 
> I've never cried. It's just that Cedric's death didn't really do 
> that.  He was alive and then he was dead. I have to agree that it's 
> unsettling the way AK works, but doesn't make for a good literary 
> death scene. 
> 
> Another question I had is whether Cedric's death is extraneous to 
the 
> plot, or will later become central? Did he HAVE to die? Not exactly, 
> at least IMO. I mean his death shows the reality of evil, and that 
> Voldemort doesn't care who he kills. It also, as Peg once eloquently 
> pointed out, took Harry's noblest decision and made it the greatest 
> tragedy (in the canon so far, or will someone go against this?).
> 
> Cedric is also (argubly-sp?) the first person to be killed in the 
> Second Voldemort War (SVW or VWII as we've dubbed it). He's not a 
> martyr (as he didn't even know what was happening) but perhaps his 
> death will serve as an inspiration for others to fight in the 
future.
> 
> In the long run Jo Rowling IS more invested in the characters than 
we 
> are, like it or not! (She is the one to breath life into them after 
> all.) That, when it boils down to it, is most likely why she was so 
> affected. Maybe I'm not invested in the characters enough to me 
moved 
> to tears by the death of Cedric.  
> 
> Would anyone like to point out why the death of Cedric was or was 
not 
> needed to forward the plot?
> 
> Scott

I think  Cedric's death is integral to the plot in a couple of ways. 
He is the first in Harry's peer group to be killed. Adolescents think 
themselves to be indestructible: Harry displayed this sort of typical 
adolescent mentality in the previous books. Cedric's death sort of 
squashed that thought. IMO, Cedric's death is meant to sober up the 
students at Hogwarts to the cruelity of Voldemort. 

It also serves as a sort of "battle-cry" for the Hogwarts students. 
Granted some of them lost family during the Voldemort years, but of 
those who did not, Voldemort's prior activity isn't as personal to 
them. Take the recent earthquake in India. I do not have family nor 
friends there so my percepetion of the tragedy is less personal than 
those people who do have family and friends there and far less 
personal than those who have lost family and friends there. Sure, I 
can be empathetic, but it hasn't affected me personally so my empathy 
is limited. Hogwarts student have experienced a tragedy: one of their 
own was killed by Voldemort. It could possibly have been anyone of 
them if Voldemort was able to portkey into Hogwarts. 

:-) Milz