The return to normalcy (Was: The (Hated) Epilogue)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 172331

Katie wrote:
<snip>
> 
> No, I didn't love the epilogue, either. It was trite and lite and 
> didn't fit with what we know of the series, the characters, or JKR's 
> writing. I felt like she had written it a long time ago (which she 
> did actually do, right?) and then felt she couldn't, or shouldn't, 
> alter it. 

><snip>
> 
> All that said, I did love seeing Hermione and Ron together. I was 
> never a huge fan of Harry/Ginny, so that was just ok. I also loved 
> the comment Harry made about Snape being one of the bravest men he 
> had ever known. That made me cry. I also enjoyed hearing that 
> Neville was the Herbology prof, and that Hagrid was still at 
> Hogwarts. But aside from those things, I didn't love it. It was a 
> snapshot, really, not an epilogue. 
><snip>

Carol responds:

I think we were all expecting the epilogue to be a wrap-up telling us
what happened to all the survivors. But I think it served a different
purpose, establishing a new normalcy for a new generation, who with
luck might actually befriend the Malfoy boy, or at least tolerate him,
instead of starting out as enemies like James immediately assuming
that Severus is scum because he wants to be in Slytherin or Harry
desperately wanting to be placed anywhere other than Slytherin because
of Draco Malfoy. So even though we still have sorting into houses, at
least the rivalry may be more tolerant this time around. 

Primarily, though, the epilogue makes it clear that Harry can now live
rather than survive, he can be "just Harry," as he's wanted to be from
the moment he found he was famous. (He can live with his fame now; his
younger son doesn't even know that his father is "really famous.") We
see Harry and Ginny and Ron and Hermione as proud parents (the names
Hugo and Rose seems to come out of nowhere, but the boy's name starts
with his mother's first initial and the girl's with her father's).
The orphaned Teddy Lupin, Harry's godson (presumably raised by poor
bereaved Andromeda and a consolation to her) is about to find
happiness with Bill and Fleur's daughter Victoire (can't imagine them
having sons). "Give Neville my love" shows that the Potter family is
very close to the Herbology teacher (we all knew he'd get that job).
As a whole, the epilogue is JKR's way of establishing, without really
needing to say so in that last sentence, that all is well.

But even if I hated the rest of the epilogue, which I don't, it
contains my favorite lines in the whole book, which I can't even think
about, let alone read and type, without crying: "'Albus Severus,'
Harry said quietly . . . . 'You were named for two headmasters of
Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin, and he was probably the bravest
man I ever knew'" (DH Am. ed. 758). Thank you for speaking those
words, Harry. Thank you for writing them, JKR.

Carol, wondering if readers would like the epilogue better if they
hadn't been expecting it to be a summary of who's doing what and who's
married to whom