Blog Post #3: Everything comes full circle

The end of the series was bittersweet for me, even rereading it. As a reader already invested in the series and caring about the characters, knowing that such an amazing story is coming to an end, and knowing that to get to that end you have to go through a war; it’s hard to come to terms with. I think when you start reading Deathly Hallows you come in with your opinions already formed. You have expectations that things are going to go a certain way. You have the ending from Half-Blood Prince when Snape killed Dumbledore in what seems to be cold blood. So you’re left with being told that Severus Snape is purely evil and Albus Dumbledore died purely good.

Then you read Deathly Hallows and you begin to realize that these people are more complicated then they seem. Personally, I love Dumbledore more knowing his flaws. I think before the end of the series you love Dumbledore because of the mentor role is plays to Harry and the fact that he always has an answer to everything. You love him but you don’t really see him as a person. Knowing Dumbledore went through trauma himself humanizes him. The same thing happens with Severus Snape. He loved someone so much (so selfishly) that he gave up everything. He helped Harry, whom he was determined to hate, just because of the love he had for Harry’s mother Lily. While I don’t love Snape and don’t see him as a good person, I feel that by humanizing him he comes full circle, which was nice to see. I think this reemphasizes what to me is a big theme of the series, that nobody is completely good or evil. While I also do not love the epilogue, I feel that it has its place as well. I feel that the story ends on a note that signifies closure as well as new beginnings, which seems a very good place to be. Rowling does not say that everything is perfect, but even after traumatic events life goes on and that knowledge is significant.

In terms of Deathly Hallows as a whole, there were two moments for me that was the most poignant. In the Battle of the Seven Potters, Harry’s owl Hedwig unexpectedly dies. This was the first death that we witness in the book, and to me the most shocking. Hedwig is a completely innocent character that we come to see as a sense of comfort as a reader and for Harry. This innocence is quickly ripped away, which leads you to realize this is not going to be an easy book to read. Coupled with the death of Alastor Moody, you quickly get the sense that this is war and that people and creatures you love will die. The second scene I feel is the most poignant is again an innocent character’s death- the death of Dobby the House Elf. When Dobby dies, all he speaks of is his friendships and love. He willingly goes into the home of his past abusers and sacrifices himself to save those he cares about. I think book seven (and even the series as a whole) is really a book about loss of innocence and growing up, accepting hard truths about life and these two events really hammer that theme home.