A mundane finality

[Sandy]

No: HPFGUIDX 185327

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Heather Hadden <kaamita at ...> 
wrote:
>
> 15. Tom Riddle falls "with a mundane finality." Such a fascinating
> phrase. Was there anything mundane at all about this? Does JKR
> imply that death strikes us all, no matter who are what? Why use 
> such a phrase?
> 
> Because of the almost anti-climatic nature of his end: 
> "And Harry, with the unerring skill of the Seeker, caught the wand 
> in his free hand as Voldemort fell backwards, arms splayed, the 
slit 
> pupils of the scarlet eyes rolling upwards. Tom Riddle hit the 
floor 
> with a mundane finality, his body feeble and shrunken, the white 
> hands empty, the snake-like face vacant and unknowing." (DH 
> "The Flaw in the Plan" p.596 UK edition)

DA Jones: 

What I noticed here is one of JKR's signatures. Her focus on eyes. 
And she focuses on "Tom" on the end to remind us that a person has 
died.  

But Voldemort is not the only character to day in a mundane manner. 
Colin for one dies in battle, but there is something about his death 
that seems wasted to me. Colin's death isn't heroic. Neither is 
Fred's for that matter. And then there are 48 more deaths of minor 
characters. Does anyone else sense that JKR is projecting the idea 
that any death in war is wasted? That it is not heroic at all?