[HPforGrownups] Re: Harry's sacrifice

[rayheuer3 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 58595

runningbecky2002 at yahoo.com writes:

> You say that Harry hasn't sacrificed, but that he has risked life and 
> limb often enough.  To me, they are pretty much the same thing -- 
> Harry puts his life on the line; it's just that he hasn't actually 
> lost it (yet).  So, yes, I think we can say that Harry is willing to 
> sacrifice his own life and see his friends sacrifice their own in 
> order to save the WW or even one young witch (Ginny).
> <snip>
> And yeah, Harry did lose that last Quidditch match in PS/SS by his 
> deliberate choice to go after the Stone and winding up unconscious in 
> the hospital wing -- or are you looking for him to deliberately throw 
> a game? ;-)

You're confusing "risk" and "sacrifice".  "risk" implies *possible* 
consequences, and young folk like HRH never believe these consequences apply to them.  
Harry has more reason than anyone to believe that he is immortal and 
invulnerable.  "Sacrifice" implies the certainty of loss, even as small one (such as in 
baseball, when you "sacrifice" an out to score a run or move runners up a 
base).  
To follow along with Buffy, which was the original example, she has twice 
sacrificed her life to stop an apocalypse.  The first time, at the end of Season 
1, she goes to fight The Master, even though her death has been foretold.  She 
chose to fight, even though she expected to die (which, technically she did, 
but she was revived)

I don't want to get into a long OT discussion of Buffy (well, actually I 
*do*, but I won't). I'll just mention that both Buffy and Harry have sacrificed a 
"normal life" to be what they are.  However, in Harry's case, I don't think 
was very much of a loss.

  --  Ray
<A HREF="www.buffycon.org">www.buffycon.org</A>



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