The Fundamental Message.../ Heroes...

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 176352

> Betsy Hp:
> Rather than Harry working through the whys and wherefores, I see 
> those passages showing more Harry coming to grips with the fact that 
> he's got to die.  He doesn't consider other means or methods so I 
> don't see him thinking for himself.  I see it more as Harry prepping 
> himself to take the action that's required of him.

Magpie:
The way the series is constructed throughout, there's very little of 
this kind of thinking--perhaps because it's plot oriented and more 
about puzzle-solving. For instance, Harry's alleged thinking about 
issues in DH isn't really thinking about issues, but rather what it 
usually is--going over the status of the plot and his position at that 
moment until it changes.

I remember in GoF there's a line that always makes me laugh. It's 
right after Mr. Crouch disappears after his odd encounter with Harry 
and Victor. The next chapter begins by telling us the trio have been 
up late talking about Mr. Crouch, and yet their discussion begins the 
next morning with, "It comes down to this...either Mr Crouch attacked 
Viktor, or somebody else attacked both of them when Viktor wasn't 
looking."

This is what brilliant Hermione has come up with after hours of 
discussion...yipes! 

Of course, it's not really that Hermione is stupid, it's that JKR is 
just telling us where we are--and where we'll be until we have new 
information. We're told there is a puzzle more than we solve the 
puzzle with anyone. Harry goes over his own emotional state a lot--
he's not thinking stuff that really illuminates his character or some 
idea or the theme, it's more like his thoughts are reinforcing the 
tension (it may tell us what to think, but we rarely, iirc, work it 
out on the page). 

When Harry begins to doubt Dumbledore after the story, for instance, 
he goes over how this makes him feel insecure, which adds to the 
tension. He doesn't start thinking interesting things about Dumbledore 
or the potential story, or thinking why Rita would want to write what 
she did, or wondering about Wizarding history and the treatment of 
Squibs in general, or anything like that. (Personally I love David H's 
line that instead of Harry realizing how he "didn't really know 
Dumbledore at all" the narrator ought to have said, "Suddenly Harry 
realized that JK Rowling was a really good writer and all her 
characters were very very complex!") 

DH is full of times when Harry suddenly "just knows" what to do next. 
Dobby's death "slaps him awake" and he stops wanting the Hallows and 
submits to what he's "supposed to do" according to Dumbledore. That's 
the best thing for Harry to do. Which makes me think a little of Frodo 
watching Gollum in the Forbidden Pool, only iirc Frodo has his own 
reasons for not wanting Gollum to be killed, and then is also just 
aware that "Gandalf wouldn't like it." Gandalf is of course here a 
representative of God, and not doing things because God wouldn't like 
it is a good basis for morality as far as Tolkien is concerned, but he 
still manages to make it feel to me more symbolic of literally knowing 
something is wrong and why and just not having verbalized it to 
yourself, and Gandalf is literally representing God to Tolkien. 
(Harry's feeling he's done something wrong is often no more than that, 
a passing feeling that goes away, and Dumbledore is a weird stand-in 
for God.)

-m