Ending the series (was Dept. of Mysteries, "Love" room.)

[madorganization]

No: HPFGUIDX 130369

> >>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. 
> 
> Sherry now:
> 
> i totally disagree with that.  Literature can have either or 
ending.
> However, life, real life, is full of enough circumstances without 
happy
> endings.  I dislike books or movies with no hope.  In fact, though 
my very
> favorite book in the world of my whole life, has a mixed ending, 
happy and
> sad, the overall feeling of hope is what makes it work for me.  
Otherwise, I
> don't like to read things that are supposedly good literature but 
filled
> with misery and hopelessness.  My real life has been hard enough 
for me to
> know about hard times already.  The daily news is full of unhappy 
endings.
> I read fiction to enjoy myself.  I read nonfiction to educate 
myself, even
> about difficult things.  To me, Harry dying would be an act of 
total
> hopelessness and futility.  If I was a child reading them, it 
would have
> filled me with despair and a sense that it wasn't worth trying to 
be brave
> and good, because you were still going to get kicked down anyway.  
JKR may
> very well end the series with the death of Harry, but many of us 
will be
> very unhappy with that, and many children will feel betrayed.  As 
for happy
> endings meaning a book isn't good literature, what about Jane 
Austen?  I'd
> rather read her any day than say Dickens.  I just don't think 
Harry dying,
> even if it's by self sacrifice would make a satisfying ending in 
any way.
> But thankfully, we don't have to worry about that quite yet!  Whew.
> 
> Sherry


Alisha:
Wow, that really got my defenses up, so I'll try to keep calm about 
this.  I never said that happy endings made the difference between 
fiction and literature.  I said that literature tells us what we 
need to hear as opposed to what we want to hear.  Sometimes we need 
to hear that Elizabeth Bennet, for all her poor upbringing and 
uncouth family, wins the heart of Darcy and goes on to do great and 
noble things with her new position.  Sometimes we need to know that 
good people have good things happen to them.  And sometimes it's 
true, that does happen.  However, a happy ending does not 
necessarily make a good ending.  Harry Potter's story is a 
distinctly moral story (not religious, not allegorical, just 
moral).  Therefore it is necessary that Good triumph over Evil in 
the end.  It is not, however, necessary that Harry lives and 
Voldemort dies.  Think of Hamlet (depressing, I know).  Hamlet 
doesn't survive the story, but he takes down his unscrupulous mother 
and his villainous uncle before he goes.  That's what's important.  
JKR may be able to tell her story without having Harry die.  That 
would work.  It would also work to have Harry die to show that 
sacrifice is sometimes necessary for victory.  I do think, however, 
that even if Harry lives, it won't be the happy ending most children 
are expecting.  If JKR is to make this story believable and real, 
then Harry will never be the same again.  We won't ever see that 
happy, healthy boy we met on the train to Hogwart's.  To bring in a 
similar story, he'd have to be like Frodo, broken by his 
experience.  

-Alisha

" 'But.' said Sam, and tears started in his eyes, 'I thought you 
were going to enjoy the Shire, too, for years and years, after all 
you have done.'
'So I thought too, once. But I have been deeply hurt, Sam. I tried 
to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must 
often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give 
them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.'"

J.R.R. Tolkien
Return of the King