[HPforGrownups] OOP: Re: Why Harry will die (contains spoilers, including one for Lord of the Rings)

[Jennifer Boggess Ramon]

No: HPFGUIDX 65587

*sacrificial no-spoiler line*

At 12:53 AM -0500 6/29/03, Carol Bainbridge wrote, concerning Harry's 
possibly crossing the Veil in Book 7:
>
>While I admit this is certainly a possibility, it's too "Hollywood" for
>me.  <snip> . . .  And
>unlike the ending in Cocoon, the ending suggested here is way too much like
>suicide for my taste.  It also, to me, would show a weakness, an inability
>at last of Harry to come to terms with life and its difficulties and
>struggles.  Even if it comes at the end of a struggle against Voldemort,
>where is the honor in this kind of death?  I would really hate that message.

I don't think it's a particularly Hollywood ending, nor do I think 
that it shows any weakness greater than Harry has already shown.  It 
would be a very effective way of dramatizing exactly how much he has 
been hurt by the circumstances of his life - his unasked-for 
connection to Voldemort's evil, his abuse at the Dursleys', his 
unearned notoriety, even (if the MDers are correct) being manipulated 
against his will by his own allies.  I can see JKR writing the 
remaining two books in such a way as his passing Beyond the Veil is 
the only honorable thing he can do - to remain here any longer would 
only be to continue intolerable pain, both for himself and for others 
who see him suffer.

I hope this isn't what happens, though, because - just as discovering 
that Voldemort is somehow related to Harry would be "too Star Wars" - 
the central hero, bearing a burden he never asked for and becoming 
too ravaged by the burden to lead a normal or even tolerable life 
afterwards, and choosing to escape to the place beyond death would be 
"too Lord of the Rings."  While I expect Harry to have a certain 
resemblance to Frodo psychologically by the end of this - how much of 
his personal magic is the result of Voldemort's connection to him? 
How willing will he be to possibly give that up by killing him? - I 
would hope JKR would choose not to tread too closely.  (I get 
Wormtail and Wormtongue mixed up enough as it is, despite finding 
Brad Dourif strangely attractive with no eyebrows.  What's that? 
Yes, I'm a Snapefan, too, why did you ask?  Oh, nevermind.)

-- 

  - Boggles, aka J. C. B. Ramon			boggles(at)earthlink.net
"It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the 
act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment. "
	- Gauss, in a Letter to Bolyai, 1808.