[HPforGrownups] Re: Ending the series (was Dept. of Mysteries, "Love" room.)

[heather the buzzard]

No: HPFGUIDX 130340

>>Juli now: Sure killing Harry would be a HUGE shock for all of us,
>>specially since the books are called "Harry Potter", I mean when 
>>does the main character dies? only in lame movies, in good movies
>>the star gets to live, even if he/she's all alone in the world. 
>>And I believe this whole series are "good". 

>Alisha:
>
>I have to disagree with you here, Juli.  The most popular movies are
>the ones where the star lives, but I don't think the best ones are.
>People like to be told that good always wins unequivically, but people need to be told that sometimes good people die and we can only hope that they take down some evil along the way.  That's what makes the difference between fiction and literature.  One tells people what they want to hear and the other tells people what they need to hear. 


heather now:

I agree with Alisha.  Not just in movies, but in any type of story.  The hero surviving gives a 'happy ending' but sometimes only on a 
superficial level... there are different kinds of 'happy endings'.

In regards to the idea of the 'message' Harry dying would give to kids reading the series:

jellocat said:

To me, these stories of Harry are born of hope and what good would the death of its protagonist do to keep that hope alive in children who look to Harry as someone they can emulate.


heather now:

We should remember the very beginning of Harry's story -- his mother's sacrifice.  This has been described many times in the novels as the greatest showing of love possible, to give your own life for those you love.  This could only been done as an act of 'hope' -- hope that Harry would survive and thrive, even without her; she knew -- or felt -- that his continued existence was more important than hers.  That is not self-deprecation, that is noble recognition of your role in the state of things...

Anyway.  So what would happen if Harry died?  It would depend on how he died.  If, as I expect it would happen (if it indeed happens at all), it is a case of he-must-sacrifice-himself-in-order-to-save-the-world, then the message of hope and emulating a worthy role model still stands.

The message is not, then, 'do good and you will have a long happy life'.  It is more complex than that... 'do good and you will have done good - even though you may not be around to see it, the world will live a longer and happier life'.

Self-sacrifice is a very honourable notion, and something sorely lacking in today's world for the most part.  Most folks don't want to live without their fancy fuel-guzzling SUV's, for instance, deliberately oblivious to the harm that might be done to the earth for others now and in the future.  We all want stuff for ourselves to make our lives easier, more luxurious, and we want our stuff cheaper -- if that means that it's made on the backs of the poor (in China, for example) or by destroying the last remaining forests or just in contempt of those who have less, well then so be it.  *I* am more important than *they*, since this is *my* life.

Self-sacrifice recognizes that there is a greater good than your own life.  This does not limit the importance and the value of your life and your happiness -- but it does put an important contextualization on it.  There are already enough meta-messages out there saying "you are your own god, do what you want for yourself" -- there could stand to be a few more saying "you are part of something larger, please be considerate of others"!

Given the importance placed on Lily's sacrifice at the beginning, I would not be at all surprised if Harry had to do something similar at the end of the tale.  I heard a rumour -- cannot remember where, and have NO idea how grounded in fact it is -- that the second-last chapter of the last book will be called "The Man Who Died".  Of course that could refer to anyone, though the parallel to the first chapter would obviously be intended to make us THINK one way... If it DID go that way, it would indeed be a beautiful parallelism, both with the growth of the character and with his mother's sacrifice at that first time.  

The other characters would of course be grief-stricken.  But, they would recognize the nobility of his sacrifice and forever be grateful for it.  There would probably be a 'Harry Potter Day', just as McGonagall predicted back in that first chapter.

Anyway.  I don't know if this will happen, of course.  I'm really just saying two things:
1) Self-sacrifice For the Greater Good is as great a message as 'live happily ever after'
2) Such a self-sacrifice would make a beautiful parallel to Lily's, closing the circle, as it were, and be highly effective as a literary device.

heather the buzzard