Harry's role (Was:Re: crowns and the Alchymical Wedding)

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 84628


> Hans:
> <snipped>
> 
> > A few
> > months ago there was a big debate in this group about whether Harry 
> Potter
> > is everyman or Christ. I say he is both! 
> 
> <snip> 
> 
> Geoff:
> I feel that I can only disagree with your view on Harry Potter. He 
> cannot be an everyman or Christ. No person can be a Christ figure 
> except Christ himself, God in human form. We can be Christ-like; we 
> are enjoined to imitate Christ – read Philippians 2 for example. 

I can't actually be quite sure what either of you mean here unless you
define your terms more exactly.  For instance, one could debate
whether C.S. Lewis' Aslan is Christ or a Christ figure (Geoff
apparently seeing these as the same thing?), or whether Harry is an
allegorical figure of Christ or just a normal person like any of us
(aside from being fictional) deposited into special circumstances.

I had always looked at Harry as a normal person, and at his story as
what one might do given that magic is real (and given that an Evil
Overlord has marked one for death).  But the prophecy seems to change
 his role completely.  If it is to be believed, Harry is the *one* who
can save many people (not all mankind) from terror and death (not
eternal misery).  He is not Christ, but no longer quite everyman,
either -- or at least that's the feeling I got by the end of the book.
 There is now a disconnect between him and the rest of us.  Not only
that, but there is the implication that he must do his saving by
killing, which idea he likes no better than being killed, and which is
nothing like what Christ had to do.

Where does that leave Harry?  His heart and mind are everyman's, but
there is something that neither he nor we understand yet that sets him
apart.  He is no longer even everywizard.  I can't imagine what JKR
has in mind, though I know some of you have some very definite theories.

Though there's always the idea that Harry and Dumbledore might be
quite mistaken, if Firenze's warnings about interpreting prophecy apply.

Annemehr
belaboring the obvious, perhaps, but antsy for the answers