Harry Potter and the Jung interpreter

[alhewison]

No: HPFGUIDX 36577

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., dfrankiswork at n... wrote:
> One ... essay, (www.cgjungpage.org/articles/grynbaumpotter.html) by 
Gail A Grynbaum on the Jungian and alchemical symbolism that she 
finds in the books.
 
> The essay is very good, though it contains one or two oddities and 
the language is occasionally hard work.  It is a very different way 
of interpreting the books than we mostly do here, and there are lots 
of ideas to be sparked from it for general discussion.  

After reading your post I too went to read Gail Grynbaum essay, and 
now throughly fear for Harry's future. My mind is now full of ideas 
and arguments that I can't yet put onto paper!

> The approach to interpretation also lends itself to a degree of 
prediction.  Just to whet your appetites, here are a few that I have 
come up with.  Unfortunately most of them relate to book 7.  I won't 
try to explain how it works: read Grynbaum's essay.
> 
> Harry will die at the end of book 7, probably shortly after Hagrid, 
who will continue to be important in all 7 books;

As Grynbaum argues that Harry is the moral antithesis of Voldemort, 
so it would seem to make sense that he will die. Just as Voldemort 
pursues eternal life to save himself, so Harry must ultimately choose 
death to save others. Dumbledore told Harry in PS/SS that death was 
but the next stage to the well ordered mind. I've always thought that 
that statement was from Dumbledore the philosopher, but maybe it was 
from Dumbledore the teacher. (ie Dumbledore telling Harry how he 
should be, rather than Dumbledore telling Harry what he, Dumbledore 
believes).

I don't understand where Hagrid fits into this pattern. I suppose I 
have he, or for some reason Molly Weasley marked to die in OoP. 

I also continue to hope that because Harry Potter has always been 
marketed as a children's series that the publishers would not have 
agreed if the hero of 7 books ended up dead.


> He will SHIP Ginny, however, the nature of the ship will be outside 
of our rather impoverished platonic versus romantic polarity;

Do you mean that Harry and Ginny will have a relationship based on 
romance but never fulfilled - isn't this platonic? I can certainly 
think of close male friends who I was initially "attracted" to, but 
instead became "good mates" with, or are you suggesting something 
much deeper?

> Voldemort will for a while occupy Harry's body, like he did with 
Quirrell;

I'm not saying that this won't happen, but up til now Harry has 
always managed to withstand Voldemort. Will the boy who can 
(unusually) withstand Voldemort's Imperiatus curse really be 
possessed by him?


> Ginny's character will be developed at the same time as Lily's 
history is revealed; in the book in which that happens the first time 
we see her Ginny will be asleep or otherwise lacking in life;

I also believe that Ginny will be developed much more in future 
books. I also wonder (as loads of others do) whether Lily will be 
whiter than white. Perhaps this will be another of JKR's plot twists, 
and the seeming familiarity Voldemort has with Lily will show a 
darker side to her character: Yet another example of the choices over 
Good and Evil. Lily's ultimate sacrifice to save Harry redeeming 
herself. (Perhaps she betrayed James?). I'm waiting to see how this 
backstory develops, and I guess nothing will surprise me!


Well you've certainly got me thinking, and that's quite difficult to 
do on a Friday afternoon!

Ali