OOP: General impressions (spoilers)

[FrisbeeK]

No: HPFGUIDX 63015

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "rlharalson" <rharalson at h...> 
wrote:

> I felt the same way at Sirius' death scene, no tears, just "what?!" 
> Of course I must be dense because I never guessed it would be 
Sirius. 
> I fooled my self with the title "The only one he feared" (or 
> something like that) I thought from the begining that was going to 
be 
> Dumbledore's death scene. What got me emotionally was Harry's 
> reaction to the death back in Dumbledore's office. If you are 
looking 
> for an emotional response try re-reading that scene. It  had me 
> bawling, of course that was after 10+ hours of reading with no 
> sleep. :)
> 
> I also agree that we don't move too far foward with the 
whole "second 
> war" storyline, but then I think that's because JKR wanted to spend 
> some time on the impotency of the Ministry of Magic and how 
dangerous 
> that can be. It made me think of the isolationist policies prior to 
> both World Wars. I'm from the US so I tended to think of the first 
> rise of Voldemort in connection with the Vietnam war, mainly from 
the 
> timeline ( check out the Harry Potter Lexicon- he has a canon 
> timeline that will blow your mind) but with the chapter title of 
the 
> last chapter I realized that the parallel is closer to the World 
> Wars. The whole additude of the Ministry and especially Umbridge 
was 
> repulsive to me. We may have felt like we were standing still and I 
> think that helped push our emotions against what the ministry was 
> doing. We, like Harry, thought book 5 would have brought the war 
on, 
> but the delay played with our emotions. 
> 
> Just my thoughts,
> Renee

Just a response to Renee; remember that JKR is from Britain and in 
WWII, Britain begged the US for quite a while to enter the war to aid 
them (a small army against a sadistic madman who went around killing 
for pleasure).  The US only finally entered the war when Pearl Harbor 
was attacked by Japan.  But if you consider JKR's background and age -
she probably grew up hearing a lot of stories about WWII and to some 
degree Vietnam (but that was more an American war) - you can see the 
parallels.

If Hogwarts is Britain and the Ministry of Magic is the US, you have 
the small group (OoTP) fighting against the sadistic madman (LV) who 
won't help until an attack takes place on their territory (the battle 
for the prophecy).  

I think JKR is just setting the stage for the real action to take 
place in the next book where alliances will have to be formed and 
strategy plotted.  Think of the other parallels - alliances with 
Russia (the dementors), Spain, France (Giants in Dijon), and others 
needed to win.  

And another thing, Japan - the ally of Germany - attacked the US, not 
Germany itself.  If you assume JKR is following the general plotline 
of WWII, then maybe the push to gain the prophecy while instigated by 
LV is really a secondary tactic and there is something much worse 
about to happen.

I think JKR is using a lot of other references and storylines 
intermingled with this, but I find it interesting that you can draw 
so many parallels.

"FrisbeeK"