OOP: Plot/Character development

[Gregory Lynn]

No: HPFGUIDX 62093

> As for the death of Sirius, well, it's really necessary for the 
continued development of Harry's adult self IMHO.  Going in I figured 
it would be Dumbledore but Sirius makes as much sense if not more.--ME

Why is it necessary for a 15 year-old kid to lose the one person who 
was becoming a surrogate father-figure to him?  Are you saying that 
Harry has to learn to deal with death and loss to become stronger?  
Are you saying that Harry has to realize that life is unfair?   
Really, I'm curious why this death makes sense to you.--Marianne

Me again:

It's not so much that he has to deal with death and loss.  Really, he's had enough of that, and surely he realizes that life isn't fair.  If his life hasn't shown him this, then certainly Neville's should have.

No, I think it makes sense because Harry has to become Harry.  It's an identity question.  We've seen how much Harry identifies with his father, from the way he looks to the stag patronus et cetera and so forth.  With the blow to his near idol worship of his father, I can very easily see Harry looking for someone else to emulate and landing upon Sirius.  Really, he's only had a father figure for five years now, his dead father, and Sirius, so he doesn't have the experience with that relationship that he should at his age.  And he's at the age where kids start to separate themselves from the family context.  We see Percy, Fred, and George do it in a more literal way just a few years older than Harry is in this book.  I'm really not explaining this well but I think Sirius needed to die or he'd have stood in the way of Harry becoming Harry.  Not Harry growing stronger, not Harry growing up, but Harry discovering his own identity, coming to grips with his strengths, weaknesses, desires, and suchforth.


___________
Gregory Lynn


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]