I *love* tragic endings ! (Was : Re: What if Harry dies?)

[Doriane]

No: HPFGUIDX 85317

"susanbones2003" <rdas at f...> wrote:

> I realize this might well be considered a provencial point of view, 
> but if Harry dies, if the ending is not simply bittersweet with the 
> loss of many important characters, but if the ending should require 
> the death of Harry, would the series be something we would want to 
> read and re-read even into future generations? It would be gutsy to 
> to kill Harry but I wouldn't want it to be gutsy for the sake of 
> guts. Harry's death would break untold hearts, and disaffect them 
> as well. A "happy ending" isn't necessary but a satisfactory one 
> is. I am very hopeful JKR will want Harry to triumph over Lord 
> Voldemort and live to tell the tale.
> Jennifer

There seems to be quite a few people out there who share Jennifer's 
opinion that JKR "can't" kill Harry, that it somehow wouldn't 
be "nice" or "fair" to her young readers.

I just don't understand. When I was a kid, I simply LOVED it when 
the/a main character died at the end of a book ! It made the book (or 
the series of books) so much more precious : there was only that much 
of that character, there was *never* going to be any more of them, so 
I made sure I read and re-read the books and enjoyed every line of it.

Moreover, it seemed quite unnatural to me to see a character live a 
great deal of their life in Hell, and quite suddenly end up in Heaven 
for the rest of their life. They go through so much hardship and 
heartache and whatnot, but in the end they just get married and live 
happily ever after. It always felt wrong to me, even as a kid, 
because I knew deep down that life is just not like that. In real 
life, you don't suddenly reach the end of your problems forever. And 
most of all, you don't overcome all your past traumas in the blink of 
an eye. That's why I also loved the endings that showed the/a main 
character living a misfit's life at least for a while as a result of 
their past trauma.

So honestly, if I were a kid now and I found out that Harry dies at 
the end of Book 7, I wouldn't feel betrayed or whatever. I'd be sorry 
for him that he never got to have some good life (without LV on his 
back, that is), but that's it. On the other hand, if I discovered 
that Harry kills LV, the WW reforms itself, Harry gets the girl 
(whichever :-), and lives happily and normally ever after, now *that* 
would make me sick, because it's just not real in my idea.

I think we as adults tend to project our own fears on our kids. But 
honestly, quite a few kids accept death as a normal part of life. 
They get sad when someone they love dies, they might be angry or 
bitter for a while, but most of them will get over it and come to 
treasure the memories of that person. It is mostly the *separation* 
from that person that is hard on them. And when it comes to a book 
character whose author has made it quite clear that no matter the 
ending, there won't be any more books about him, well, the separation 
is going to be there anyway, whether Harry dies or not.

Del