On Achieving the End

When I finished Deathly Hallows for the first time, it was everything I had expected it to be and more. I was pleasantly surprised with the ending (the fact that our main three heroes live, though I was expecting at least one to die) and grateful for the epilogue even though it was neither necessary or super significant. I expected the series to go out with a bang, and boy did Rowling deliver! I thought she did a great job wrapping things up for the most part. Of course, as fans we always want more. We want more back story, further character development, a specific list of instructions on how to make a Horcrux (sickos!)... but realistically the author can't fit everything in and so we are left to wonder, but I think a little bit of remaining mystery is what makes a novel so fun to read! Personally (because I have to gripe just a little bit), I would have liked to find out more about Dumbledore. We discover quite a bit of his history in this book, but (much like Harry) we are left to our own devices when trying to discern his motives behind every one of his actions. How exactly did he transform into the 'good' wizard who preaches love and tolerance from the elitist git he once was? Sure, it may have had something to do with Ariana's demise due to the duel involving him, his brother, and Grindelwald, but it seems like there was more to the story.

What about Lily Potter? How did she come to love James after so many years of despising him? What brought them together? 

Where did Nagini come from? Did Voldemort give birth to her?

Can house elves handle laundry? If not, how does it ever get done?

These are things I'll never know. Sigh.

I think the best aspect of book seven is the theme of self-sacrifice. Snape's revelation was a wonderful shock to so many fans, including myself (who never quite trusted Snape). There's always something about unrequited love that makes me love a story that much more (The Great Gatsby and A Tale of Two Cities are two other great examples of this). Harry too, must sacrifice himself in order to save the Wizarding world from ultimate destruction. I think the most poignant part of the entire series is when Harry whispers to the snitch, telling it he is ready. Ready to die. It is truly a beautiful scene. When he faces off with Voldemort, and the killing curse again backfires, we are observing a kind of altruistic love in action, a very powerful type of love indeed. There is this idea that one must give his blood to the land in order to save it. From the beginning, Hogwarts has been Harry's true home. The magic world is his world and he'll give anything to save it, even if that means he will no longer be in it. Love, which I think is the ultimate message of this series, triumphs in the end. It will always triumph over might and power used unjustly. 

I love that Rowling really makes us question what the "good" is through Dumbledore. In this book more than any other, we question his ethics. We are just as frustrated with him as Harry, Ron, and Hermione are when he leaves them such absurd seemingly useless gifts in his will. At times, I found myself wanting to clobber his cold lifeless body for being so obtuse and difficult! Dumbledore is like the parent who is always right - that parent we desperately want to get away from but can't, even if we were to set out on our own, travelling a million miles away from home. I was horrified when reading the letters to Grindelwald concerning Wizard dominance for the "greater good". Machiavellian principles have never impressed me. The end justifies the means. This is a wholly subjective concept. To what extent must a person go - how many atrocities can a person commit - before the means trump the "altruistic" end? It varies, depending on who you are and what you're willing to do to get to the end. Rowling presents us with the toughest questions at the end of the series, but this is what all the books were leading up to. We not only question the morality of the characters but are forced to examine our own ethics about these problems. This is why the series is successful (why any book is successful in the long run). It allows us to be introspective and to question the world around us as well as ourselves.