I remember the first time I read the end of the series, particularly the last book, I closed the book and the first thing I thought was “Well, I need to go back, because I’ve missed something, or missed a lot of things.” The end of the series is so packed with information that it’s a little hard to keep track of the characters and the events they’re involved in. Once I re-read the end of the series and got it all figured out, I thought it was wonderful. I thought Rowling really tied up all the loose ends and pulled everything together. There were lots of moments that I found to be particularly problematic, the biggest being when Voldemort thought he had killed Harry, but Harry wasn’t really dead. I just didn’t think that Harry coming back to life would go over well with Voldemort, and even further, the fact that one of his followers (Narcissa) lied to him when she told him that Harry was dead even though she knew very well that he wasn’t. The most poignant moment to me was Dobby’s burial, because he’s such a loveable character, and even though he had jeopardized Harry’s multiple times in the past, we know that Harry really loved him and really regretted his death. My feelings toward Dumbledore and Snape both changed. I was kind of angry with Dumbledore by the end of the series for keeping so much information from Harry that could have made a much quicker job of destroying the horcruxes and Voldemort. I could tell throughout the book, too, that Harry was even a little frustrated with how little Dumbledore told him. My feelings towards Snape didn’t really change much, I had always thought that he would end up on the good side, he was just really bad at acting like it. I did think it was a bit creepy how obsessed Snape is with Lily. I hadn’t really thought that Snape was capable of having that much emotion towards someone. I liked Harry more as the book went on, I think that with the big responsibilities he was left with he became more mature and less of a stupid teenager, which made me respect him a little bit more. My feelings towards Ron didn’t change, but I hadn’t expected him to walk out on Harry and Hermione for his own good, which I thought was a bit selfish of him. I lost a bit of respect for Hermione during the book when she kept denying the existence of the Deathly Hallows. I would think that in a dire situation where you don’t have a lot of information to go off of, that you would try anything and everything to solve the problem, not just ignore big chunks of information you’ve received. I think that all of these characters changed in the way they did to kind of teach lessons about life. In the case of Dumbledore, the lesson is to always tell people what they need to know before it’s too late. I think Snape teaches the “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” lesson. I think Harry changed because he showed that sometimes people have to become more mature earlier than anyone should ever have to, but to take it in stride. Hermione didn’t really change, but shows us that we shouldn’t overlook things, and Ron’s part of the story shows that you should never abandon your friends in a time of extreme need. I would place this series in a larger social/cultural context by saying that the series is all about good and evil. There will always be the good guys and the bad guys, as there always is in society, and that to overcome the evil, everyone must ban together, cooperate, and do what must be done to bring down the evil powers. Personally, I have learned a lot of life lessons from the series, and I’m completely guilty of looking for advice and solutions to my problems within the books and take the information in the books and apply it to real life. This is a series I will read over and over again.
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