DH as Christian Allegory (was Classical & Biblical Quotations)

[Monica]

No: HPFGUIDX 173334

> > Monica:
<snip>
> > I will agree that he [Harry] is certainly not divine, and has
> > good and bad within himself, making his sacrifice quite different
> > than that of Jesus. Nevertheless, his sacrifice was to eliminate
> > the personification of evil, i.e. Voldemort.

> Betsy Hp:
> But Voldemort wasn't really the "personification of evil" was he?
> Otherwise his destruction would have brought about bigger (or quite
> frankly, any) changes to the WW.  Instead, as we see in the
> Epilogue, the WW and Hogwarts returns to business as usual.  It's
> pretty much a carbon copy of the world Harry entered in PS/SS.

> Which means Harry's struggle was the equivalent to bringing down
> Hitler (though frankly, Voldemort didn't even come close to
> matching Hitler's evil).  Which okay, good job young man.  But
> hardly an earth shattering occurrence.

Monica again:
I definitely saw some parallels to Nazi Germany, of course, or any other megalomaniacal world leader in recent years. I am more than
willing to accept this as the parallel rather than making it
necessarily a reflection of Jesus' cross (incidentally, I'm sure the
meaning of "King's Cross" has been discussed ad nauseam so I won't
bother going into it here). As far as Voldemort as personification of evil, I would say he was definitely not the only example an evil wizard, nor is he the embodiment of all evil in the wizarding world
such that when he was destroyed, the world would be all happy and nice
and good. I mean, as we all know, Harry had his own dark side, which
manifested itself more than once as the series continued. The reason
that I see him as personification of evil is because given his last
chance to show even the remotest redeeming quality, he chose evil.
That having been said, within the Christian religion, did Jesus come
and eliminate all the evil in the world? He changed the status quo for
sure, but evil still exists in this world (provided this is your
belief, if not then at least as an understanding of Christian belief
this would have occured). Radical change occurs primarily within
people themselves, rather than on an outward level. Perhaps this is
what happened in the case of Harry. Not to mention, if Voldemort had
not been destroyed, the consequences

> >Monica:
> > As far as the house system, I likewise think the ending could have
> > wrapped things up a little better by unifying Hogwarts instead of
> > allowing it to remain divided. Or perhaps a group of Slytherins
> > fighting the death eaters. But Malfoy, the quintessential Slytherin
> > of Harry's day, was redeemable, in his readmittance to wizarding
> > society. Perhaps that says something?
>
> Betsy Hp:
> Draco is returned to the spot he began in as well: a member of the
> unclean, the non-elect, the scapegoat house (clearly marked by
> their green and silver ties).  So again, nothing has changed.  And
> certainly no redemption occurs.  Harry's actions were a blip on the
> radar.  A footnote in "Hogwarts: A History".  Hardly equivalent to
> Christ.

Monica: A blip on the radar, but possibly prevented the destruction of
all that is good in the world.  A subset of the wizarding world would
undoubtedly have continued to fight but with Voldemort at full power
would have been crushed eventually. (Parallel to Jesus overcoming the
effects of original sin; at least this makes redemption possible
whereas if he had not sacrificed himself in that way, there would have
been no hope for humanity). Not having the book on me at the moment, I
would say what is momentous about Draco's appearance at the end of the
book is that he is alive, has children, and has been redeemed. Maybe
he is on the fringes of society, which I do still see as a problem,
but I would have seen it as quite unrealistic for him to come up to
Harry and be old buddies.


Monica - who incidentally is not a shining beacon of religiosity but
is nevertheless enjoying the argument. And is terribly sorry if this
post is lengthy and not particularly well-written but needs to attend
to her work instead of play all the time.