Role of ESE in Hero's Quest (was:Re: Was HPB's ending BANG-y?...)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 147619

Betsy hp:
> See, I'd say that the *entire series* has been a heroic quest.  And
> Harry has *always* correctly identified the villain (Voldemort).
> In fact, he's one of the few people willing to out and out name
> the villain, and often (each time?) he has a moment of personal
> connection with the villain.  Harry's challenge has, it seems to
> me, been to correctly identify himself and thereby correctly see
> past Voldemort's smoke and mirrors.  Voldemort and Harry are tied
> together and perhaps the whole thrust of the series has been Harry
> trying to untangle himself from Voldemort.

Jen: Oh, I like this interpretation Betsy. The part about Harry 
untangling himself from Voldemort particularly, because that does 
seem to be the 'central and critical question' JKR is trying to 
answer: How did Harry become tied to Voldemort in the first place 
(almost there but for Godric's Hollow) and how can he *untie* 
himself via destorying the horcruxes and ultimately, vanquishing 
Voldemort. And how does Harry do this without destroying his own 
soul in the process?

Betsy hp:
> However, even if Harry does need to strike out to parts unknown to
> collect the bits and pieces of Voldemort's soul, it's the 
> metaphorical journey that will be the most interesting, I believe. 
> Because that's what JKR has always been more interested in.

Nora:
> I agree that the metaphorical journey is important, but again, I 
> think it's definitely going to be accomplished through the media 
> of the actual quest itself and not through a more internal style
> of questing.  <snip> The strength of the HP books is that Harry
>  Does Things, and when she wants to, the plot zips right along.

Jen:
This *is* a metaphsycial story in the sense of two souls of opposite 
composition (so to speak) being tied together, and how that can 
change both people. At least that's where I think we're headed: 
Voldemort ultimately can't tolerate having Harry's blood inside him 
or being bound to someone genuinely loving and sacrificing, just as 
Harry can't bear the pain of Voldemort's destroyed soul obtaining a 
body and coming in contact with him. The internal human struggle in 
the form of two separate souls.

In that sense I agree with Betsy that the 'quest' may not go very 
far from home even though Harry internally will change through the 
process. JKR said she took Harry to all the places he needed to 
visit in OOTP, so presumably we aren't headed to Egypt, Durmstrang, 
Azkaban or other places unknown because the scene has already been 
set.

Betsy hp:
> I doubt JKR is going to change that all for book 7.  
> Instead, as he's had to do in all the other books, Harry will need 
> to learn something about himself, face an unpleasant truth (i.e. 
> you'd have done well in Slytherin) and hopefully, learn some sort 
> of basic truth that Voldemort has failed to grasp.

Jen: Lily. I think she's the hinge Harry's story will hang on when 
all is said and done. It won't be *her* story, but the truth Harry 
will discover is what Voldemort underestimated and what Harry 
underestimates as well judging by his dismay at Dumbledore's speech 
about love in HBP. Lily, who also would have done well in Slytherin 
apparently <g>, will be the missing piece to the puzzle. I can't 
wait to see if 'finding his [mother] inside himself' will manifest 
in actual magic as James did with the stag patronus. I love those 
little bits in the story, a little overly sentimental but what the 
hey.

Harry destroying the horcruxes makes the defeat of Voldemort 
possible, but it will be a change inside Harry which is the 
final 'weapon' handed by Voldemort to Harry and the cause of the 
defeat. I picture this being an internal battle similar to the 
external brother wand confrontation. So Voldemort will in a sense 
defeat himself and fulfill the prophecy he set in motion. Simple, 
clean--I'm rather attached to this ending <g>. 

Jen R.