Blog #3

The end of the series brought about many waves of emotion but the final one was definitely relief. The moments that stood out to me the most in Deathly Hallows were all the deaths. Death had always lurked in the Harry Potter series yet in the final book it was completely overwhelming. There were so many innocent deaths. Deaths of people and creatures that represented hope, laughter, and freedom. First Hedwig, then Dobby, and finally Fred, Tonks, and Lupin, all characters that brought joy to Harry’s life. I can understand why these people died but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t devastating.
Greatest moment of The Deathly Hallows for me was when everyone started fighting together. It started with the centaurs, then house elves, and thresals all jumped in all in unity. It was so moving. I absolutely loved it.
My feelings toward Dumbledore have always been kind-hearted and endearing. Throughout Deathly Hallows I did begin to feel some resentment toward him for leaving such a mess for Harry to sort out. After the chapter at Kings Cross all ill feelings toward him disappeared and as it was clear to Harry, it was clear to me why he did the things he did. Deathly Hallows made me appreciate his wisdom and humility even more. However, the discovery of Snape’s true allegiance was less fluffy. Even though find that Snape is really a good guy and madly in love with Lily it is still hard for me to forgive his cruelty.
I would place it in a larger cultural context as one of the greatest pieces of writing for our generation. Harry Potter is the equivalent of The Beatles for novels. There never has been, and probably never will be a single series that influences a generation, and future generations the way Harry has. Yeah, we’ve had Twilight. But that is nothing. In the words of Stephen King, “Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength, and doing what is right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend.” It has been an honor to be in this class and learn in-depth about such a fantastic series. Reading the books critically has only made me appreciate them even more, understanding meanings and life lessons I overlooked before. I don’t think I have ever been able to say that I have taken a class whose essay helped me get through personal devastations. Long live Harry Potter!

I Still Can't Believe It's Over

I absolutely loved the way J.K. Rowling ended the Harry Potter series. My biggest fear going into the final book was that Harry was going to have to die, and had this happened, I would have been furious. The first day I had the book, my dad picked it up, flipped to the last page and says “Well, Harry doesn’t die, I’m happy.” Although I was upset that he ruined the ending, I was still relieved that my biggest fear did not happen.

My biggest problem with the final book was that Rowling killed off so many unnecessary people. Primarily, the killings of Tonks and Lupin left me upset. I was particularly mad that it seemed like a side note that they had died at all, almost as if Rowling said “Oh by the way, they died too.” I do respectthe story coming full circle, with Harry becoming a Godparent to an orphan, but I think that Tonks and Lupin deserved a more elaborate death. The same holds true for Mad-Eye Moody. Secondly, I feel that the deaths of Dobby and Hedwig were unnecessary. I feel like Rowling included these deaths as an emotional blow to the reader, not because they were pertinent to the story.

As for my feelings towards Snape, they obviously changed. I was convinced he was truly evil after the sixth book; he did kill Dumbledore after all. However, the way it was revealed that he played such a prominent role in Dumbledore’s plan made me admire him and respect his character. I loved the way Harry refers to him as the bravest man he has ever met in the end.

My feelings towards Dumbledore did not really change that much. Ever since the third book, he has seemed more and more vulnerable so it’s not that surprising that he had flaws. I think it is very admirable that he admits his wrongdoings and uses them to guide Harry. In the end, he is still the very wise man he always was and it is his planning that led to the defeat of Voldemort.

My feelings towards Harry, Ron, and Hermione did not change at all over the course of the final book. Obviously the group had their ups and downs, but they remained close and the journey could not have been completed without any of the three of them.

Many aspects of the Harry Potter series can be related to on a cultural and societal context. I believe that one of the biggest messages the story tells is that no matter how difficult a journey looks, it is still worth fighting for and anything is possible. It also shows that individually, we are much weaker than we are in groups and we must trust those close to us in times of need.

Blog 3 (Sorry! I totally forgot about this until I was finishing up the final essays for this class!)

After reading the entire series, I am happy the story ended up the way it did. It would not have felt right for Harry to die and Voldemort to win. It would not even have felt right for both of these characters to die. Good has to triumph over evil. It is what we are used to, and it is what we want. The way Rowling makes this old theme new again is through her innovation.

I loved how Rowling used Severus Snape to be a character in question until the very end. He always seemed bad, evil, or whatever you negatively want to call him, until everything was explained through the Pensieve and through Dumbledore’s ghost. Snape, in case you did not already know, is good. If a series this dynamic was going to have a good vs. evil plot, something big like Snape’s character development had to happen.

Snape changed throughout the story. He went from a nuisance to Harry and his friends, to an equalizer in the Order of the Phoenix against the Death Eaters. He then went from what looked like being purely evil to being probably the greatest actor known to man. Snape’s development as a character is crazy and surprisingly impressive. Who knew during the first book it would really all come down to Snape? Not many, I’m guessing.

Dumbledore’s character development is a little bit harder to swallow. The way I see it, he started the series in his prime, or at the very end of it. By the end, right before his death, he seems more like an old man waiting for death to call him name. It is hard to think about how influential one character can be in a book only to have him die before the end of the story happens. Besides his physical development, I saw how his relationship with Harry developed over the books. He always has the father figure rapped up around his finger, but Dumbledore does go from a teacher to more of a guiding spirit for Harry. He is someone who affects Harry even after his death, and he will always be with Harry because of what Harry and Ginny decide to name one of their children. This way, he will always be a guiding spirit. Dumbledore had to change into this type of character Because Harry did not need a father the way he did when he is younger. Harry needs a guide to the answer, and Dumbledore knew all the right paths.

Harry grows into a man. He is very mature for his age even at the beginning of the story, and he really faces many things that others do not face until they are very old. Harry is an interesting character in the first place because of his past with the Dursley’s and not showing much trauma at all. He also shows in the end how even in the face of death itself he decides to not use a Killing Curse. That shows HUGE maturity and bravery. Harry, is a man’s man.

Ron and Hermione were never really my favorite characters in the book. They did have very important parts. Hermione was usually the person figuring something out so Harry could do it, and Rob always had his humor and random answers to problems needed solving. I like their loyalty, but I also saw them getting married as early as the 4^th book. Rowling could have made that assumption a little bit harder to make.

Now that I am finished (and about to start my second half of the final for this class) I would put this series with many other series that changed social aspects. Harry Potter is a culture. People are going to be making more stories about this until something bigger and better comes out. It is a present day life changing series. It teaches loyalty, bravery, and quite possibly that rules are not always the best thing to follow. For me, I would put this as one of the best present day series of books, but I am just one opinion. I do know I enjoyed taking the class, reading the book, and actually getting to write fan fiction.

Just remember: Trust the Snape in your life, they may be doing something for reasons you have know clue even exist.

Blog Post #3: That's All Folks!

When it comes down to it, I loved the way Rowling ended the series. At the same time, however, there are definite changes I would have made. First of all, I think Rowling killed off way too many people. I for one did absolutely NOT think Dobby should have died. I think it was an unnecessary killing. Rowling had already created the boundary between Harry and Bellatrix when she killed Sirius. I don't think she should have furthered that boundary in Bellatrix killing Dobby. I also thought she should have killed Percy instead of Fred. I think it would have been the perfect way for Percy to redeem himself to his family (quitting his job, coming back to his family, and dying to avenge them.) I also didn't like how she slipped in the fact that Lupin and Tonks had died. It was kind of an "oh by the way, Lupin and Tonks are laying here dead too, along with a trillion of Harry's other friends" thing. I loved how she sealed the barrier between the Malfoys and Harry. Narcissa spared his life in exchange for the whereabouts of her son, and Harry saved Draco from the fire in the Room of Requirement.

For some reason, ever since I read the book for the first time, I have always hated Harry's fate. Even though it's a fiction novel (clearly, with you know, all the wizards and stuff), I don't think Harry should have been able to die, talk to Dumbledore, then come back to life. It just seemed all too much for me, I didn't really understand it.

My feelings about Snape definitely changed. He's still not my favorite character, but I now see him as a hero rather than a villain. My thoughts about Ron and Hermione have not changed, for they were always loyal to Harry and Dumbledore. I think in a larger social/cultural context it sends a message - we must all stick together. No matter how different you may be, there is a time when we must all come together to protect each other.

Aside from the few things that I would change, and also a cheesy epilogue, Rowling nailed it. There were no questions left unanswered, and everyone was put in the place that was rightfully theirs.

The Last Stand- Blog Post 3

I could not have asked for a better way for Rowling to have ended her series, other than the prologue (which I’m not going to focus this blog post on). I would have to say that I got the more emotional towards the middle, around when Dobby dies, than I have with all of the other books in this series, combined. Other than Dobby’s death, which is almost too painful to even think about, let alone skip over in this post, but I would like to focus more on actual scenes that had an emotional impact on me rather than just death, which everyone can relate to. My favorite scene in the entire series is the one in which Professor McGonagall calls upon the suits of armor and instructs them to do their duty and protect the students of Hogwarts. I’m really not sure why, but every time I read this, I get goose bumps and it reminds me of how much I love McGonagall. It could be that, in calling them to active duty, She could have, unintentionally, preformed the action that’s going to set the scene for the rest of the book: the battle between good and evil. Also, the scene from the Great Hall where Pansy Parkinson tries to turn Harry over to Voldemort and is followed by the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws drawing their wands on the Slytherins, signifying that they are willing to fight, and die, not only for Harry, but for the freedom for them and their families. I feel that in showing us this scene, she is setting up the emotional atmosphere, and preparing us for the battle at Hogwarts. The only scene that I could find to be problematic would be in the shrieking shack, right after Nagini attacks Snape. The moment, after he gives Harry his memories, he asks Harry to look him in the eyes in his last hope to view the eyes of the woman he had done all of this fighting for; this is such an emotional scene and I really wish that Rowling would have emphasized the importance of Snape asking Harry to look into his eyes, as it took me a few re readings before I even picked up on it.

My feelings towards Dumbledore only changed in that I grew annoyed with that fact that he hardly told Harry any of the vital information that he had needed on his mission. I understand why he never told Harry about the fact that he was a Horcux, in that he had to give himself over in a self sacrificing manor but the fact that he never told him how to destroy a Horcux annoys me. While, after gaining new background information on Dumbledore, I didn’t find the way I viewed him to have changed much, I can’t say the same when it comes to Severus Snape. When we read the “Prince’s Tale,” my opinion of Snape changes from he’s just a bad man to he’s a good man that has many mean tendencies. My views, regarding Harry, Ron and Hermione didn’t exactly change; rather, I fully understood who they were and the full contribution that they, as a character, brought to the series. My thoughts on these three never exactly changed, but, in this last book, we got to see them put all of their previous learnings/experiences to use and brought out the in true inner heroes they were always capable of becoming.

My Life—The End of a Chapter Entitled, Harry Potter

I grew up reading the Harry Potter Series. I grew with the characters, and the end of the series was not something I looked forward to. Despite wanting to discover how the series ended, I was disheartened and elated as I closed the book at the end of Deathly Hallows. The hardest pill to swallow was that there would be no more adventures to read about, and now that the movies are almost finished I am approaching that old familiar juxtaposition of excitement for what is to come and longing for it to never come (because then it’s truly over).

I found the truth about Dumbledore’s past to be utterly relieving because I had been mimicking Harry’s resentment throughout the seventh novel. It was horrible to think that Rita Skeeter could actually be right about something, and that Dumbledore could be wrong. I had always viewed Dumbledore as almost a god-figure before he died The Half-Blood Prince. I was disillusioned by his death because I couldn’t comprehend how the man with the plan, the man who always seemed to have another trick up his sleeve, could be dead. Also, the revealing of Snape’s true motives was especially poignant for me; I knew that he liked Lily Potter, but I never could have guessed the deep love that drove him to protect Harry. I felt an intense sadness that Snape died before Harry knew the truth.

I was so pleased with the epilogue of the seventh novel—I wish J.K. Rowling would write an entire novel about the epilogue! However, it was incredibly exciting to see the characters who I had grown up with finally be romantically linked with the people I had guessed/wanted them to be with.

In a social context, I think the Harry Potter Series can be read and related to by a wide variety of readers, which is precisely why the series has grown to be so popular. The themes of the series are so epic, so relevant to any reader that both children and adults are enraptured in the story’s adventurous persistence to love—no matter what.

Re-inventing a genre: Blog response #3

I felt that I had come to the end of a very long journey. Just thinking about how the story begins and how the story ends is thought provoking. There are hints as to what will happen in the final books in the first book, but they are quite subtle.

In the last few chapters, I liked the idea of the "afterlife" beginning at King's Cross. Especially for Harry, this is certainly when his life trues begins. It also matches up with the theme starting in the first book. "Death is but the next adventure to a ... mind" (Dumbledore). I forget te specific line, but the meaning is still there. Dumbledore suggests that "life" still continues after death, and a good place for a new adventure to begin is at King's Cross.

When I Dumbledore comes into the scene as headmaster at Hogwarts, he seems like a bumbling of coot who just has it together enough to keep Harry alive. There are signs that he is a bit of a puppet master because of the way that he always seems to know where Harry is and what he is up to, but he doesn't really appear to be manipulating anything significantly. By the end of the series he turns into this grand master spider - with a little Snape trainee. Snape also goes through a transformation though quite differently from Dumbledore. Snarpe starts out as this villain for Harry to focus on, and turns out a hero which Harry admires in the epilogue.

When the series first came out, people thought of it as a young adult or even a childs book. Upon finishing the series, it can be concluded that is certainly not a child's series. I would still call Harry Potter a young adult, but I feel like it has re-invented the young adult genre. Since Harry Potter there has been an increase in the quiality of young adult fiction, a ready example I have is the Percy Jackson series. It is a similar "coming of age" story, but still lacks the Harry Potter World's vividness.