PoA Chapters 18-20 - Fudge/WWII parallels

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 21791

Great summary and questions, Monika!

>12. Did you think that Harry really saw his father, or the ghost of 
>his father across the lake, or did you think someone else must have 
cast the 
>Patronus?

In the English-language editions, he doesn't say that it looked like 
his father until near the end of the next chapter ("Hermione's 
Secret"), so I only had two pages in which to wonder (IIRC I was just 
dazed and confused, and way too eager to get on with the story to 
think it through--I certainly wasn't going to pause the tape to 
consider theories).  I do recall hoping that he didn't turn out not to 
be dead after all--sorry, Harry.  Does it mention James in "The 
Dementor's Kiss" in the German version?

> 1. Do you think it was all right that Lupin didn't tell Dumbledore 
   about Sirius?

No.  One of the reasons I love the scenes between him and Harry is 
that you just know that he's feeling more and more terrible about his 
failure to do what he can to alleviate the danger to Harry.

Like Catherine, I think some unarticulated loyalty to Sirius and/or 
likewise unarticulated conviction that he can't really have done what 
he seems to have done may be part of Lupin's motivation.  

None of it excuses his silence, but the whole thing makes him a very 
interesting character.  He'd be gag-inducingly saintly otherwise.

Jerry wrote:

>Fudge, IMO, is Chamberlain.  <snip> Dumbledore is Churchill.  <snip>
>The Death Eaters are the SS and SA - they enjoy the dirty work, pain 
>and suffering they can cause.  Nasty people...

This all works very well, IMO (right up to Harry's being the 
A-bomb--ulp!  Does that mean a Cold War and years of brinkmanship will 
follow the post-V peace?).  But I doubt JKR is writing a simple 
allegory about WWII or any other human conflict, just as I doubt that 
S.P.E.W. will undergo the same stages, successes and failures of any 
particular real-life liberation movement.  It would be boring; too 
much would be known in advance, and it would become like reading a 
history text instead of the thrilling novels we all love.

So I won't make any predictions, other than to say that Fudge needs to 
undergo a serious change of attitude if he is *not* to cause 
catastrophe.  

Amy Z

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 And this our life . . .
 Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
 Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
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