hero or Hero? (was Re: Is Harry feeling guilty for being alive?)

[Eustace_Scrubb]

No: HPFGUIDX 117579


<much snipping from an interesting conversation>
Alla wrote : 
> "Funnily enough, usually I don't have much use for them either. But 
> suprisingly, Harry is not an obvious type of hero for me."
> 

Del replies :
> Harry is *not* a Hero for me. He is the story's hero as in "central
> character", but he's not a Hero. That's why explanations centered on
> "he does it because he's the hero" don't go well with me.
> 
> To me, Harry is a normal person thrown into abnormal circumstances,
> just like any kid thrown into a war for example. They are everyday
> heroes, if you prefer.

Alla wrote :
> "You said that one cannot be both Frodo and Legolas. True,but what 
> do you make of Aragorn? He is a normal person and a hero."
> 

Del replies :
> Aragorn is hardly a normal person IMO. He is the one prophesied to
> come and he's suspected or known this for most of his life. He was
> raised by Elves. He is loved by an Elven princess. And most of all
> he's *experienced* : he's not fresh out of innocence. He's had
> *decades* to ponder his role in History and to prepare for it. When
> duty calls, he stops and reflect before jumping. He *knows* he's a
> prophesied hero and he *chooses* to fulfill that role, putting aside
> whatever else he might want.

Eustace_Scrubb interjects:
On the other hand, I see greater parallels between Aragorn and Harry
than between Faramir or Eomer and Harry.

While I don't recall that there was any pre-birth prophecy about
Aragorn's role in the defeat of Sauron, he was the heir of Isildur. 
But his youth parallels Harry's in that "his true name and lineage
were kept secret at the bidding of Elrond." (LOTR, Return of the King,
Appendix A)  When he was 20, Elrond told him his true name and
heritage.

In Harry's case, he is not (as far as we know now) the scion of some
ancient royal house--although there's always the chance that he's the
"heir of Gryffindor" which would change things a bit.  But there is
that prophecy, which may not have originally referred to him but
according to Dumbledore did refer to him as of Voldemort's attack on
him.  Like Aragorn, Harry knew nothing of this in his youth.  He has
discovered gradually over the first five books that he is special and
at the end of OoP he hears that he is doomed to kill Voldemort or be
killed by him.

We don't really know yet how like Aragorn he may be.  One of the great
questions in the Harry Potter series is how Harry will come to grips
with the prophecy.  He now knows that _he_ is a prophesied hero.  The
chances are that he _will_ also "choose to fulfill that role, putting
aside whatever else he might want."  Yet he may try to avoid that fate
for a time as well (more like the reluctant Aragorn of the LOTR movies
than in the books). We know little about how Aragorn felt about
Elrond's revelation.  We already know quite a bit about Harry's
reaction to the prophecy and we'll undoubtedly learn lots more.  What
will keep Harry from seeming like the stoic Aragorn accepting his fate
is the fact that we see so much of the stories from Harry's point of
view (and the fact that the rest of the story occupies about two years
rather than 80 or 90!).

I'm afraid that Harry's stuck being the Hero of the series, whether he
(or I) likes it or not.  I don't think he'll end up seeming a
_typical_ hero, though.

Cheers,

Eustace_Scrubb