I don't think that Harry will die

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 160146

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" <dumbledore11214 at ...> 
wrote:
>
> > pumpkinpastie18:
> > > Because Harry = hope.
> > 
> > Sarah:
> > 
> > But if he = hope now, what will he = after his job is done, is my
> > question.  I'd rather see him go out in a blaze of glory, than end 
> up
> > washed up.  Tons of hero stories end up with the hero joining the
> > glorious dead after successfully completing their quests.  Neo,
> > Hercules, the Pevensies, Frodo and Harry would all be more boring 
> if
> > they went home and got government jobs after.
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Why boring? I do not agree at all - normal happy life, something 
> that Harry craves IMO, something that would be of the sort of the 
> reward, besides if you do not like reading about his post Voldemort 
> **life** which I hope will exist, I am sure JKR will deal with it in 
> a few sentences in epilogue - married Ginny, had twelve kids, 
> etc :), or at least that is the epilogue I want to see,hehe.
> 
> Sara: 
> > WWJKRD?  Well, she's consistently given quotes to the effect that 
> what
> > makes anyone think Harry lives that long?  And that she has to 
> write
> > what she set out to write.
> 
> Alla:
> 
> She never said AFAIK that she will kill Harry though. She teases all 
> the time, yes, she asks that questions, she recently flat out 
> refused to tell anybody what is going to happen to Harry, so I am 
> not sure at all that we know what she set out to write.
> 
> 
> IMO of course,
> 
> Alla, who certainly joins Geoff in "let Harry live" club and  for 
> whom Harry's death is the only plot twist which would stop her from 
> reading the series again - just too depressing, sorry.

Geoff:
I'm glad to see that there are at least two other members of 
the IWHTLC. :-)

I think several valid points have been made by other contributors 
to this thread. Perhaps my main argument is that, to kill Harry, all 
the wrong messages would be sent to the millions of /young/ readers 
throughout the world.

Harry comes from a disadvantaged background. He is not a 
muscle-bulging, bronzed, advert for an anti-perspirant deodorant. He 
is not a world-renowned sporting name who gets millions of pounds for 
just showing his face on the advertisement hoardings. He is a fairly 
ordinary guy. He wears glasses, he is described as small and skinny, 
untidy and we know that he is not a great academic. He is also often 
guilty of jumping into a situation without thinking it through first.

In other words, a boy much as many others of the hundreds of teenagers 
I taught for over 30 years.

But because exciting things happen to him, he is a model for the great 
majority of young people who do not fit the poster boy CV of my previous 
paragraph. Youngsters see that someone ordinary, whom you might pass 
in the street without noticing can achieve great things.

To kill him off would be completely devastating for many of these who 
see him in this way. Frodo and the Pevensies leave their respective stories 
at the end, - although in passing I do not see Frodo's death in his departure. 
Not having seen "The Matrix" I can't comment on Neo, but my general 
feeling about these characters is that they are do not touch readers in
quite the same way. They are removed from real life as readers see it. 
Harry is much more immersed in the late 20th/early 21st centuries and 
is part of that scene whereas the others mentioned are not.