JKR's writing in OoP (was Re: Sirius's Future)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 118100


annegirl wrote: 
> > > The point I'm trying to make is that if JKR had a plan for the
significance of Sirius' death, she didn't pull it off. As a reader, I
was not convinced that Sirius' death impacted Harry in some positive,
life-lesson way. Cedric's death impacted me in a dramatic 
> > > way; Sirius' was contrived and obvious. <<
> > 
catkind responded:  Why do deaths have to be significant or life-lessons?
> > They aren't in Real Life, perhaps that is the point JKR was trying
to make? No, Sirius' death doesn't make much sense, and that's exactly
why I think it might be well written after all.   
>  
> Renee noted:
> I seem to remember JKR saying somewhere that it was necessary for 
> Sirius to die and that we would find out why in the next book. OotP 
> is less of a standalone than the previous books, so it's perhaps a 
> bit premature to say it doesn't make sense.
> Also, Sirius's death may not be overly dramatic, Harry's reaction to 
> it certainly is, and that's where the significance lies.


Carol adds:
Cedric's death didn't make much sense, either. Yes, he was in Voldy's
way and for that reason "had" to be killed, but from Harry's
standpoing, and the reader's, Cedric's death comes out of nowhere,
just as Sirius's does. (Most deaths do, as Potioncat said in another
post to this thread.)

I think, however, that Sirius's death will be important from a
thematic perspective, chiefly because Harry cared so much about him: a
sad lesson Harry must learn about the unpredictability of life, the
arbitrariness and cruelty of death, the suffering that Voldemort is
inflicting on the world viewed from his personal perspective. Yes,
Voldemort killed Harry's parents, but that was fifteen years ago as of
HBP, and Harry never knew them, a point that is brought home when Rita
Skeeter asks him how he thinks his parents would feel about his
entering the TWT and he has no idea how to answer. In fact, he's
annoyed by the question. In contrast, he knows exactly how Sirius
would--and does--feel. Sirius, despite their brief acquaintance, is
real to Harry in a way that his parents never were, and his death is a
severe and unexpected blow.

I've been taken to task for thinking that the living Sirius really had
nothing more to contribute as a character, trapped as he was in his
own depression and unable to offer much beyond bad advice to Harry and
his home as headquarters for the Order. His miserable adult life was
the tragic result of his own bad choices (the Secret Keeper switch and
confronting Peter after Godric's Hollow chief among them), and his
death was also the consequence of his own choices (going to the MoM
rather than waiting for Dumbledore, taunting Bellatrix instead of
viewing her as a serious threat). Please note that I'm not blaming him
for trying to save Harry any more than I blame Harry for trying to
save him, but both of them suffered for these seemingly right choices,
and Sirius would be alive if either he or Harry had stayed away.
Choices have consequences, and sometimes those consequences are painful.

Sirius's death will, IMO, make it clear to Harry just what others in
the WW have lost and will lose because of Voldemort and his Death
Eaters, and it will help to prepare him for the other deaths that will
inevitably follow. It will help him understand what his conflict with
Voldemort is all about, and why he, Harry, must confront and defeat
him. It will also help him to regard Voldemort as a real and deadly
enemy, a point he has failed to grasp so far because through luck,
fate, and the help of others, he has survived four encounters with the
Dark Lord. (For the record, I realize that it was Bellatrix who killed
Sirius, but she was doing it for Voldemort, as his henchwoman. And I
think Harry will understand that, just as he realized that it was
Voldemort who destroyed the Crouches' and the Longbottoms' lives.)

If JKR brings Sirius back from behind the Veil, she will have
tormented Harry for nothing, and she will deny him the lesson of the
finality of death. Suppose that Sirius returns and then Ron is killed.
Harry will expect him, too, to come back. That would be terrible for
Harry and a cheat for the readers. Please, JKR. Let the dead remain
dead. Don't give Harry or the readers false hope.

Carol, back from California and trying to respond only to recent posts

P.S. Hello to the new Carol and welcome to the list!