Feelings on OoP - Neville, Ginny, and a little Harry

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 80128

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Donna" <deemarie1a at y...> wrote:

> Donna said in part:
>
> ...edited...
> I think we will still see a very angry and depressed Harry in book
> 6, but I believe here is where we will see JKR make Harry into the 
> man he will become.  I don't think that Harry will die.  If he does,
> then even if he has killed LV, the Dark forces will be able to take 
> over WW.
> 
> ...edited...
> 
> D 

bboy_mn:

One additional comment about Harry's mood in the up coming book (6).
But first, I have to talk about something very unsettling, but bear
with me, it is just a setup to a couple points I want to make. 

Sometimes people are morbidly depressed to the point of becoming
suicidal. Suicide is not about a lack of desire for life. Many times
people who commit suicide are deparate for life. Suicide is really
about pain. When the pain of life becomes so unrelenting that you will
do anything to escape it, that's when suicide becomes an option. 

OK, bear with me just a few seconds more, I am almost to the point I
want to make.

Once a person is resigned to suicide as the only way to escape the
pain, they suddenly feel better; their mood improves, they become
friendlier, are more prone to heart-to-heart talks. To the outside
observer, they appear to have resolved their depression. But in
reality, knowing that the end is near, knowing that finally the pain
will stop, they feel a great weight has been lifted from their
shoulders. In their mind, it seems that all their problems have been
solved. In some ways, it's almost like a euphoria comes over them.

This euphoria or sense of peace is the key point I am trying to make.
When someone finally accepts an unwanted unpleasant destiny, their
mood changes for the better; at least their external mood.

One last sadly equally morbid point, when my father was dying of
cancer, the doctors gave us this little booklet that explained what we
could expect in terms of my father's behavior as he went throught the
various phychological stages of dying. At some point during the
process, the dying person becomes very isolated. They no longer want
their friends and family to visit; I assume, because there isn't much
to talk about anymore, and any conversation they might have is going
to be a painful reminder of 'life' that they are never going to have.
So, it's better to stay by yourself, and mentally prepare for the end.

So, two key points in this overly morbid rambling; euphoria and isolation.

I can see Harry in the next book as having an apparently improved
state of mind. Although, we may see some transition period from his
angry mood, he will be polite, friendly, and not easily drawn into
extremes, good or bad, of emotion. He has resigned himself to his
fate; he as accepted his destiny. This resignation to his fate will
bring on an outer peacefulness, but I think inwardly, he will still be
angry and in an ever changing state of emotional turmoil. 

Picture yourself being a little boy who really hasn't had a very great
life, then discovering that beyond your control, your life has been
forced into a kill or be killed situation. Can Harry or any neutral
outside observer, like the reader, see that as anything other than
miserably and tragically unfair?

Then comes the isolation. Harry said it himself, although I
paraphrase, near the end of OoP, that he felt very isolated from
everyone; completely separated from them. I think once Harry has
accepted his fate, we will see this emotional and phychological
isolation. He will be able to be amoung people, but he will never be
able to be one of them. He will always be separated by his miserable
destiny.

Certainly, Ron and Hermione, and I'm sure others, will sense this
emotional distance between Harry and themselves, but it will be very
uncertain and unsettling, because on one hand Harry, while internally
tormented, will be calm, friendly, and polite on the outside, and yet
his close friends will know that something isn't quite right. 

In the latest book, we also saw Harry come very close to getting his
friends killed because of a mistake he made. I think this will also be
an extention of his isolation. While he will remain on friendly terms
with everyone, he will no longer act like a friend. Why? Because it's
not safe to be a friend of Harry Potter. People who get too close to
Harry Potter, people who love him, invariably die, and he doesn't wish
that death on anyone. Also, he doesn't every want to feel the pain of
the death of someone he loves again. Solution? If you never love
someone, then you can never lose someone you love. 

This is how I see Harry in the next book; mood apparently improved,
calm and friendly, but while friendly, unwilling to be a friend. I
think that this is what Harry will need to resolve in the next book in
terms of his own internal landscape. To realize, that the only way to
accept life and live it to the fullest, is to accept that the risk of
death comes with it. Death is something we all risk, but if we let
fear of death stop us from living, then we lose the very life we are
trying to save.

"Better to die living than to live dying."

That ended up being quite a bit longer than I intended, but I think
you see my point. 

Apologies for the very depressing and morbid setup for my key points,
but I wanted to establish that the are genuine phychological
precidence for the points I was making.

Just a thought.

bboy_mn