Blog Post #3- Final Thoughts

“Finishing the Harry Potter series is like destroying the final Horcrux of my childhood”- an old Facebook group, which pretty much sums up how I feel about the end of the Potter series. The Deathly Hallows is a harrowing tale in which Harry is forced to choose between Horcruxes and Hallows and learns secrets about his mentor and nemesis professor. The story about Dumbledore proves that even the best people are human. Dumbledore was almost as bad as Voldemort, as he himself, pointed out when Harry was in limbo between life and death. Harry’s mentor played him like a pawn in a giant chess game, which is incredibly symbolic of the chess game in the Sorcerer’s Stone. While I was always a supporter of Snape (thanks to fanfiction,) to see how tragic Snape’s life proves that he too, was a pawn for Dumbledore’s overall plan. It was clear that Snape loved Lily. When Harry viewed his [Snape’s] memories, it became clear that he cared about Harry as well (even though it was never explicitly stated, but merely inferred by Dumbledore.)

The relationship between Harry, Ron, and Hermione was critical to the success or failure of Dumbledore’s plan. While the story is told through Harry’s eyes, the entire series follows a sequence of events that Dumbledore, through Snape, carried out. Whether it were Snape directly, or Harry, or one of his friends, they were all pawns in Dumbledore’s plan. Harry’s friendship with Ron and Hermione arguably kept him alive. Without Hermione’s intellect or Ron’s strategic ability, Harry would have not been as successful.

In terms of a social/cultural context, the series is about good versus evil on civil war scale. While the movies depict it as a world war (in particular, references to World War II), the series is more of a civil war in England, because there is little mention of the international community joining in the fight in England. In the American Civil War, it was a battle between the North and South on the purposes of emancipation. The series follows good versus evil on similar basis. When Voldemort assumed he won, he demanded all those who were supporters of Harry to bow down to him and swear allegiance or die, which means everyone would become slaves to Voldemort. His Death Eaters did his biding and were punished for not obeying orders, much like slaves.