Harry's Angst Re: A Simpler Scenario

[Lyn J. Mangiameli]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "annemehr" <annemehr at y...> wrote:
> --- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> wrote:
> > --- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "annemehr" <annemehr at y...>
> > wrote:
>  
> > > I can come up with a reasonable explanation for Harry's feelings and
> > > how he got from one to the other, but I had expected that part of
> > > Harry's story would be *how* he came to terms with it.  Instead, I
> > > find his change of heart was a fait accompli that took place outside
> > > our view.
> > > 
> > 
> > Pippin:
> > But it did take place in our view, in chapter 23, when Dumbledore told
> > Harry he was setting too much store by the prophecy. As you say,
> > the prophecy didn't say he must, but Harry interpreted it that way,
> > "his life must include, or end in, murder..." OOP 38. Harry didn't
> > have to struggle to abandon that view of things, because he'd 
> > never been happy with it in the first place, in fact he found it hard
> > to believe, unlike Voldemort. He, unlike Voldemort, is much happier 
> > to see his life as a series of choices rather than a 'destiny.' 
<little snip>
> > It's another case of Harry's first intuitive reaction being the wrong 
> > one. The solution, I think, is not that he becomes so wise in the
> > future that his first reactions will be right, it's that he will
> > become wise enough in the future not to trust his first reaction.
> >  
> > Pippin
> 
<little snip>
> 
> Since GoF, Harry knew LV would never stop trying to kill him. But,
> though we never see him thinking about it, he probably assumed the WW
> battle would go on until *somebody* killed LV without ever really
> thinking it was very likely to be he himself.
> 
> In OoP, Harry heard the prophecy.  Not only did he find out why LV
> wanted to kill him, he also found out that (supposedly) Harry was the
> *only* one who *could* kill LV.  So, things went from "somebody's got
> to stop him" to "I've got to stop him."
> 
> So in HBP, DD explains that the prophecy did not have to come true;
> that the reason it does seem to be coming true is that LV believes it
> and acts accordingly; that Harry has free choice in the matter.  DD
> asks Harry what his choice is, and Harry replies he'd like to kill LV.
> 
> My problem? I thought that in OoP it wasn't the idea of "destiny" that
> bothered Harry so much, it was the idea that he would either kill or
> be killed.  Then in HBP, DD takes away the idea of destiny.  But where
> did the angst about killing go?  Was it ever there, or did I read OoP
> wrong?  It's the process of Harry reconciling himself to killing that
> we never see.
> 
> Anne

Lyn now:
I think Harry began to understand he was going to kill LV from his first night in the 
Forbidden Forest. It was that night when he first came to directly recognize the impact of 
evil at a level other then the strictly personal (i.e, the deaths of his parents). Firenze that 
night served as a model for him, of one having the courage to act independently,  without 
the acceptance of one's group, against the fates, against the odds, to confront and 
confound evil---because evil unopposed will overwhelm and destroy even the most pure 
and good. 

Harry voices that enlarged understanding in his little speech to Ron and Hermione before 
they set out after the Stone. It is a speech that reveals his understanding that a contest 
with LV, though a personal one, is by his choice, is for the purpose of saving the WW. 
Harry may have assummed he might die in any encounter with LV, but, he assumed 
responsibility to give his all to prevent LV from living. To me, there is no great leap from 
preventing LV from returning to full life, and killing the life that remains. 

All the rest has only been for Harry to review the decisions he has already made, and to 
have to understand their meaning at a larger, though not necessarily deeper level. For 
myself, Harry's angst at the end of OOTP was out of character. He had already been willing 
to kill LV, and would have been happy if he had accomplished it. What was different then, 
was he had just learned that maybe, he was the only one who could do it.

As for where the angst went, it dissipated a little with each and every report of a good 
wizard or witch gone missing or killed. Rowling actually does a realistic job, IMO, of 
conveying how quickly one can take for granted checking the papers for the latest body 
count.  Harry does have a "saving people, thing" and its damn lucky for the others that he 
does."

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do 
violence on their behalf. 
-George Orwell