CHAPDISC: DH, EPILOGUE

[kneazlecat54]

No: HPFGUIDX 185507


> 1.	Authors sometimes conclude novels with a chapter telling 
> readers what happened to the characters after the action of the book
> concludes. <snip> JKR chose not to do that. <snip> In writing the
> epilogue, then, she must have had something specific she wanted to
> achieve or communicate. What do you think that was?
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Well she told us some parts of the stories of the people in canon in 
> the epilogue, no? <snip> Maybe she was saying that the happiness of 
the society depends on the happiness of every member of it and that 
there is no need to paint a big picture, that we can deduct what is 
happening in large if we know the small stories <snip>.

Laura replies:

First, everyone please accept my apologies for being so late with 
these comments.  I had a couple of personal matters come up that took 
me away from my beloved computer for a while. Thanks for your 
patience!

Now, as to your thoughts, Alla. 

I believe that one of the great themes in canon is family, what it 
makes us and how we relate to it.  Harry's lack of a family was 
perhaps the most important element in the creation of his character 
after his parents died, and he spent his adolescence trying to find a  
place in which he belonged.  So I see the epilogue as a resolution of 
that search.  Harry desperately wanted to be part of a family, and his 
reward for his bravery is that he got one.   
> 
<snip>
> 
> 5. How do the Potter and Weasley children demonstrate JKR's belief
> that personality traits are hereditary?
> 
> Alla:
> 
<snip>I am not sure at all that JKR thinks that all personality traits 
are hereditary <snip>.

Laura: 

Right, I don't think all of them are.  But I get the feeling that JKR 
believes that certain core traits are passed from parent to child.  
You see that in the way that she uses physical appearance to symbolize  
the inner person.  Just as Harry's outer appearance resembles James, 
so did his behavior.  Just as his eyes were Lily's, though, his soul, 
his moral core, reflected his mother.  So we see Albus Severus looking 
very much like Harry, which we can guess means that he resembles Harry 
inside too.  The fact that Scorpius takes after Draco, then, is not a 
good sign for him.

<snip>
> 9. In SS, the Sorting Hat considers putting Harry in Slytherin
> because, among his other traits, Harry has "a nice thirst to prove
> yourself" (SS 121). <snip>Do you think that any of Harry's 
personality or behavior was influenced by this bit of Voldemort? 
<snip>
> 
> Alla:
<snip> I would much rather think that  what I consider his bad traits 
are his own – rashness, temper, anger, etc. I do not want Harry to be 
a saintly being without Voldemort's piece in him.

Laura's reply:

It might just be that they were similar in some ways anyhow.  But 
Harry seems so very calm and peaceful in the epilogue-it's almost 
unnatural.  I wonder if those traits of LV's that Harry also had were 
exaggerated while LV's piece of soul was in Harry.


Thank you, Alla, for your thoughtful replies!