Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
J.K. Rowling
Started July 22, 2007
Finished July 23, 2007
Well, I find it somewhat amusing that so many extreme Christians get so up in arms over Harry Potter, because the Christian overtones really came out in the last book. Harry must sacrifice to save everyone else, eh? Granted, a lot of fantasy seems to have religious elements in it- the whole good versus evil thing, I guess. I'm not going to ponder what that means... the relationship between religion and fantasy... but it's definitely there. I was generally happy with the grey areas included within the Harry Potter... while it's hard to see Voldemort as anything other than pretty much pure evil, I think interesting questions are raised about why. He had a pretty awful home life, but then so do a lot of people who aren't evil. It's not like his disposition comes from Satan, at least according to J.K. Rowling, anyway.
I found what Rowling did with Snape and Dumbledore even more interesting in the last book. Although Snape's motives for helping Dumbledore and protecting Harry are less than pure, he does act out of love for someone other than himself. Even better than a "bad" guy possessing humanity, though, is a "good" guy acting selfishly at the cost of others. Dumbledore's power-craving past, which apparently makes him scared of himself, was an excellent twist. And then there are characters like Draco, who sucks, but isn't utterly evil. Generally.
In any case, I was quite pleased that J.K. Rowling managed to end the series without killing any of the main characters in a way that didn't feel like cheating.
I found what Rowling did with Snape and Dumbledore even more interesting in the last book. Although Snape's motives for helping Dumbledore and protecting Harry are less than pure, he does act out of love for someone other than himself. Even better than a "bad" guy possessing humanity, though, is a "good" guy acting selfishly at the cost of others. Dumbledore's power-craving past, which apparently makes him scared of himself, was an excellent twist. And then there are characters like Draco, who sucks, but isn't utterly evil. Generally.
In any case, I was quite pleased that J.K. Rowling managed to end the series without killing any of the main characters in a way that didn't feel like cheating.
No comments:
Post a Comment