Posted on 07/21/2007 5:18:11 PM PDT by JenB
So you finally know what happens to Harry. All our questions are answered. Or not. What are your reactions? Whose death hurt the most? Do you want more, and about whom?
SPOILERS are ok on this thread! You have been warned!
Wow. It's over.
That's my nephew's take on Snapes.
I think I was pulling for Snapes mostly because the actor's portrayal in the movies is such genius.
It has nothing to do with the intensity of the books. But with a perceived "relationship" many young readers have with Harry.
Devastating adults, or college age students who started reading HP in grade school (my son among them) is one thing.
Devastating a 7-year-old is entirely a different matter.
It's just my theory. Your mileage may vary.
My belief also till I read the part where Harry is walking through the Forest to his certain death, and was crying my eyes out.
Still have a bit of headache left from that wrenching affair.
BTW, there’s lots of movies and books geared to young elementary children that deal quite frankly with death (Charlotte’s Web, my fav. book in second grade for one) or Bambi or Old Yeller.
IMHO, YMMV, OMGWTFBBQ.
Someone told me that these stories started as ones she made up and told her son for bedtime stories.
Ginny had a crush on Harry early on. She tried to flush Riddle's diary to get rid of it but was entrapped by it and Harry saved her from the snake. Was that Chamber of Secrets?
I cried about Dobby, then I cried again when Luna visited his grave.
Heh, Ginny was there on the train platform, wanting to go to Hogwarts, in Book 1. Just like young Lily at the end of Book 7.
Well, there should be a portrait of Snape in the headmaster’s office.
There were sparks flying from Ron and Hermione quite early.
I think it was in POA that Harry thought they reminded him of Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.
On the deeper level it’s the difference between the series being a morality play and a tragedy. In a morality play the main character learns and grows and screws up and learns some more and suffers and learns but in the end triumphs over evil thanks to what he learned. In a tragedy you do everything possible to make the readers love the main character then you kill him, often times pointlessly. If Harry dies in the end, especially if he dies without striking down Voldemort, the whole thing becomes a tragedy, and the moral lessons become somewhat weakened (what’s really the point of all that learning and growing just to bye the farm).
Tragedies tend to be less popular because we like our heroes to triumph, and there is a certain cruelty in spending hundreds of pages making people love a character just to whack him. It would have been kind of funny after 10 years of selling vast forests of books to turn the whole series into shaggiest dog of a tragedy ever, probably would have made some of the literary nerds like the series better. But I think it probably would have irritated a lot of the audience.
I was distressed that the movie OOTP decided to include practically everything and hence the storyline whipped by too fast to really be enjoyed, and some stunning character portrayals were “Now you see them, now you don’t.”
One of those stunning portrayals was the actress that played Ginny.
I wasn’t going to even buy the book or see the rest of the movies if Harry died. It would (to me, and to my children)become pointless.
Just finished reading! Had to take a break to show my husband some attention, so we went to see Transformers and have lunch.
Excellent book. I must now reread, then go back to book six and read that one again.
I KNEW Snape would be vindicated! I also knew there was a Horcrux in the Room of Requirement. That’s about all, though. Lots of surprises.
Hedwig. Does that make me weird?
Minor long-term surprises:
* Snape, Lily, and Petunia (!) grew up together!
* Hedwig? Good lord! (Rowling killed her to deny Harry of a means of communication later, but it was a surprise when it happened.)
* The Gray Lady and the Bloody Baron were lovers (sort of).
Definitely a Christian work! I would say that the overall theme of the series was voiced by Dumbledore: Our choices make us who we are.
Dumbledore overcame his youthful bigotry by devoting his life to protecting Muggles and the Muggleborn (and denying himself power).
For all his sins, Voldemort, thanks to Harry’s mercy, might have found redemption even at the very end if he had repented and felt remorse for his actions.
Petunia decided to hate a world she could not be a part of rather than be happy for her sister, and it poisoned her life.
Percy the prodigal son gave up his career to stand with his family when it really mattered.
Draco was pulled back from the brink. I don’t think that Harry and Draco will ever like each other, but there is respect there now.
And let’s not forget Big D.!
Of course, Snape gets a whole chapter to himself on this score.
On the deaths: I was surprised at how many happened “off camera”, but if you’re going to stick with Harry’s POV, I suppose that’s inevitable. I would have liked to see Lupin and Tonks go down back to back, though, and taking twenty or so with them. I had expected before this book that it would be Neville taking Bella down, but given Fred’s death, I’m glad it was Molly who got to go all Ripley on her (her line is going to bring down the house when the movie comes out).
I might have missed someone, but I think that every character still living (and one not) came out for one more bow somewhere in the book, from Krum and Umbridge right down to the Headless Hunt and Griphook.
I hope this series is preparing an entire generation of English kids to fight the war of their generation against radical Islam. They’re going to need all the help they can get. Just a few weeks ago, the Muggle PM banned the phrase “War on Terror.” Perhaps they will start saying “The Conflict That Cannot Be Named” instead?
As for the movie of DH, there is the middle of the book that will be cut way down.
But, in a strange way I liked the pages and pages of wandering around, the false starts, the deprivation, the irritable moods, etc. because much of the real world fighting of evil (like the war in Iraq) is like that...no quick Hollywood solutions, just day in day out fighting evil or trying to figure out how to fight it.
Don’t know if Rowlings knows that her books may end up saving a generation, but I will take to the mat anyone who suggests that Christians shouldn’t allow their children to read these books.
Well, I imagine they'll trim out the camping-in-the-woods-for-a-long-time-not-really-doing-anything bits. I'm not saying those parts were bad, but considering how many loose ends I though JKR was going to be tying up, it surprised me how little plot-related activity took place in the several months after the trio fled the wedding, and especially after leaving Grimmauld Place. In any of the other books, this kind of lull would be filled by everyday life at Hogwarts, but in this book, they seemed to just hang around in one forest after another, being cold and hungry and grumpy.
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