OOP: Suicidal thoughts? (spoilers)

[Richelle Votaw]

No: HPFGUIDX 65084

Some spoilers ahead, beware:

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Toward the end of OoP Harry is so angry and grieving so that he is tired of being Harry.  This continues for a while, through the screaming fit in Dumbledore's office where he just keeps screaming that he doesn't care.  He wants out.  This seems to me that JKR is touching on suicidal thoughts that a lot of teenagers experience.  They can't handle the emotions they are experiencing, and for some the only way out they can find is death.  Now any thoughts of death Harry might have had are pushed aside when Dumbledore tells him he is "the one" who must defeat Voldemort.  So now any suicidal thoughts would be selfish.  Regardless of what some people think of Harry in this book, one thing I've never seen him as is selfish.  He has little moments of selfishness in OoP, but reasons himself past them.  And those moments are generally when he's feeling overlooked and doesn't understand (like the prefect thing).

Now, I've already mentioned that it's possible at the end of it all if Harry lives, with Voldemort defeated, that so many people Harry has loved may be gone that he doesn't want to live anymore.  Which brings up the veil. If, indeed, it is a one way trip through the veil, that would be a fairly easy suicide.  I wondered for a moment if one could simply walk through of their own accord without "help" from another wizard/witch (Sirius had "help.").  But apparently they can or Lupin wouldn've made such a big deal of grabbing Harry back.  So one could possibly choose to go through the veil, go on to the other side, join the friends and family who have gone on before and so on.  BUT that would be suicide. Since the books are, after all, fiction, and as JKR does such a good job of writing about the emotions of teens, to suddenly approve of suicide would be disasterous.  However, could Harry entertain thoughts of suicide again in the last book?  To end it all, to be with his family, but then perhaps find he does have something to live for.  I, for one, would like the last book to end on a positive note.  While I can see how JKR could write it such a way that I'd be happy for Harry to join his parents and Sirius, if he did so by choice it would be suicide.  Which I've already said wouldn't work.  Oh, sure, it would work in the book, but since these are still "children's" books . . .. I suppose it is possible that someone else could kill Harry after Voldemort is vanquished, perhaps he would be "up for grabs" then, if the prophecy was fulfilled.  Yet it would seem such a down note to end on, if Harry was another solder killed in action.  Thoughts on the matter?

Richelle


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