Epic Showdown as Harry Potter Is Initiated to Adulthood

So, here it is at last: The final confrontation between Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, the Chosen One, the “symbol of hope” for both the Wizard and Muggle worlds, and Lord Voldemort, He Who Must Not Be Named, the nefarious leader of the Death Eaters and would-be ruler of all. Good versus Evil. Love versus Hate. The Seeker versus the Dark Lord.
J. K. Rowling’s monumental, spellbinding epic, 10 years in the making, is deeply rooted in traditional literature and Hollywood sagas — from the Greek myths to Dickens and Tolkien to “Star Wars.” And true to its roots, it ends not with modernist, “Soprano”-esque equivocation, but with good old-fashioned closure: a big-screen, heart-racing, bone-chilling confrontation and an epilogue that clearly lays out people’s fates. Getting to the finish line is not seamless — the last part of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and final book in the series, has some lumpy passages of exposition and a couple of clunky detours — but the overall conclusion and its determination of the main characters’ story lines possess a convincing inevitability that make some of the prepublication speculation seem curiously blinkered in retrospect.
Harry’s journey will propel him forward to a final showdown with his arch enemy, and also send him backward into the past, to the house in Godric’s Hollow where his parents died, to learn about his family history and the equally mysterious history of Dumbledore’s family. At the same time, he will be forced to ponder the equation between fraternity and independence, free will and fate, and to come to terms with his own frailties and those of others. Indeed, ambiguities proliferate throughout “The Deathly Hallows”: we are made to see that kindly Dumbledore, sinister Severus Snape and perhaps even the awful Muggle cousin Dudley Dursley may be more complicated than they initially seem, that all of them, like Harry, have hidden aspects to their personalities, and that choice — more than talent or predisposition — matters most of all.

It is Ms. Rowling’s achievement in this series that she manages to make Harry both a familiar adolescent — coping with the banal frustrations of school and dating — and an epic hero, kin to everyone from the young King Arthur to Spider-Man and Luke Skywalker. This same magpie talent has enabled her to create a narrative that effortlessly mixes up allusions to Homer, Milton, Shakespeare and Kafka, with silly kid jokes about vomit-flavored candies, a narrative that fuses a plethora of genres (from the boarding-school novel to the detective story to the epic quest) into a story that could be Exhibit A in a Joseph Campbell survey of mythic archetypes.

In doing so, J. K. Rowling has created a world as fully detailed as L. Frank Baum’s Oz or J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth, a world so minutely imagined in terms of its history and rituals and rules that it qualifies as an alternate universe, which may be one reason the “Potter” books have spawned such a passionate following and such fervent exegesis. With this volume, the reader realizes that small incidents and asides in earlier installments (hidden among a huge number of red herrings) create a breadcrumb trail of clues to the plot, that Ms. Rowling has fitted together the jigsaw-puzzle pieces of this long undertaking with Dickensian ingenuity and ardor.

Perfect Ending, Yet Anti-Climatic At the Sametime.

I have to admit to being a Christian who use to preach the evils of Harry Potter, not having read a word of the books. Every rumor I had heard was proven false as I read and smiled my way through Sorcerers Stone, I didn't see a single legitimate spell designed to drag innocent children into witchcraft in Chamber of Secrets, but I did begin to get hooked in by Ginny's sweet infatuation with Harry Potter. The only wicked desires I found in Prisoner of Azkaban was to be a Weasley, making the Twins, Triplets so I could join the escapades of my new heroes Fred and George (Through whom I was now reliving my long long LONG gone youth) I also got hooked in even deeper with the depth of Harry's pain and I have to say that Daniel Radcliffe did an AMAZING job in the movie showing it. The Goblet of Fire is my least favorite of the seven, I did gain a new respect for Ginny when she didn't dump Neville to go to the Yule Ball with Harry and the ending was a killer, I'd heard that Order of the Phoenix was much darker, so I looked carefully for satanic chants but found only a young man fighting with his own inner demons and a bully in cotton candy pink and a position of power ( I would have LOVED to have gotten creative with places for her to stick that damn black quill.)! But nothing broke my heart more than when Harry finally found complete happiness with Ginny, only to lose it at the end of The Half Blood Prince when he broke things off with Ginny at Dumbledores funeral.
I read the aforementioned books in a weekend and ended up at Wal-mart at 3 am buying DH, I couldn't stand until morning to find out what happened next!
There were some obvious contrivances in the plot, and plot holes as big as the state of Texas, but largely, Rowling hit the nail on the head with the finale. There are some character deaths that are obviously coming, and some that tore my heart out (FRED?! NO!)
One of the things that I really loved is how she used the Marauders Map as a device to show the reader that Ginny was still nearly constantly on Harry's mind. Having him watching her on the Map is probably the sweetest bit of fiction I have read in years and as this series has so often, it takes me back to my own teenage years, when I would do silly little things for the sake of love. Unfortunately, this lovely addition to the story makes what is missing from the ending even more glaringly obvious...Harry and Ginny's reunion. Those who followed the future Mr and Mrs Potter from the time Ginny blushed and ran away in Chamber of Secrets and swooned over every hopeful glance will feel cheated by the fact that after the ruined birthday kiss, and all those pages of watching the map...theres nada...zip...zitch. Not even an embrace. In fact, Harry in effect, blows her off, figuring they have plenty of time so she can wait.
The rest is a thrill a minute rollercoaster ride with a few stops to camp out and argue, swim in a freezing pond, get captured, be betrayed by a desperate man and visit the newlyweds. So much happens in fact that by the time Harry and Voldemort finally come down to the final flourishes of their wands and the cries of their curses are the only sounds in the red light of the coming dawn....it is oddly anti-climatic, and while Harry is the obvious hero, Rowling makes it just as obvious that he is NOT the only one, that it truly was something he couldn't have done without Ron, Hermione, Luna, Ginny and particularly Neville, at his side.

As a Fan of the Series...

As a fan of the series I have to say I loved it. J.K. Rowling could do no wrong as far as I'm concerned, though I didn't always think that way. As Potter mania first began to grip the youths of America I was in the grips of another British author with initials for a first name.

J.R.R. Tolkien had me spellbound to his stories and at the time I saw Potter as stupid childish kids book with no higher merits. I made fun of the series and the people that read it up until the fifth book came out. I had heard from too many people praising it and its darkening tone and decided to see what all the hype was about.

The first book surprised me a little with its style and use of language though it still had a children's book feel to it. I didn't like the way it ended mostly. The whole "I defeated the greatest dark wizard with... Love" made me think that J.K. just didn't know how to end her book with a low-level boy facing off against a high-level wizard. The journey to get there however, was great and as a result I moved on to the second book.

The second book was even better than the first. A back-story about a murder within the school and a series of attacks gets the heart pumping. Even the more gritty finish made me think twice about J.K.'s ability to write. She still relied a bit heavily on the Dais Ex machina. The fact that Harry just happens to get the magic sorting hat brought to him by Fawkes and pulled out a sword was bit much at the time. But J.K. made use of all those unlikely events later.

The third book was dark and even a little scary compared to your average kids book yet had a refreshing uplifting ending. It also setup the Great War giving rise to Voldemort and his death eaters. The mystery involved in this book was step up from the last keeping you guessing even at the people that were right in front of you. J.K. knows how to setup misdirection.

The forth book was a thrilling adventure with a surprise ending that actually brought a tear to my eye. At this point the series is not for children anymore. Harry is now heading toward adulthood and so is the series. The level of action makes this book fun to read and the bit of mystery keeps you guessing at whom the betrayer is. The murder in this book is what sets it apart.

The fifth book is the actual beginning of the war. It sets up the landscapes in which future battles are to take place. It brings in all the needed characters and gives them personalities. This book is truly great and reminds adults what it was like to be a teenager. That point in life where you think you know everything are start to rebel. It ends on sad note that nearly brought a tear to my eye.

The sixth book is probably the most exciting and crushing build up to a finale that I have read next to book seven of "The Dark Tower". The death of Dumbledore at the hands of Snape enraged me and actually made me feel as if I had been betrayed. I cried at the funeral of Albus Dumbledore.

And now for this book. Book seven in my opinion is the greatest of all. It answers most if not all the questions that you may have about the lives of the characters, their past and their future. Harry's relationship with Ron's sister is realized and the truth about Snape and Dumbledore's relationship is revealed.

The whole book had me in a range of emotions but for a book to make me cry from sorrow, relief, and happiness that is an amazing thing. Very few writers can do that. The last few sentences still make me cry.

A good, but not excellent, finish for the Harry series

For those who are fans of Harry this book accomplishes in many respects the desired result of completing the series. Rowling did the best job she could in concluding the life and times of Harry Potter, Lord Voldemort and the rest of the Magical World.

The book is well in keeping with the rest of the series. It will definitely delight readers and make people want to turn the page. I found throughout the series it was on some level perfectly believable that these people actually existed. That magic could be a part of the world and yet be kept from us Muggles.

J.K. Rowling in her series did a great job invigorating not only the youth imagination but also in giving youth and adults a commonality that they could talk about. I argue that it is part in due to Rowling’s work that the Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings was reinvigorated on such a global scale since both are some 70+ years old. I remember reading The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe when I was a youngster some 25 years ago.

As for the specifics of Deathly Hallows, this book was a little more predictable in many ways than the previous in the series. But it does more to explain the history of Lord V, Tom Riddle, Dumbledore, Harry's parents, and Snape. There is a lot of development around Harry, Hermione and Ron as a good deal of the time it is one, two or all three of them in some fashion or another. As with the previous books be prepared with a box of Kleenex nearby, as this is the book where the main battle commences.

Somewhat of a SPOILER: In general I found that like many of the well written or scripted novels/movies, so much time is given up to character development, toils and action, leaving to what I can describe as only as a somewhat hasty conclusion. The conclusion of this basically equated to a "and they all lived happily ever after" except. This to me distracted from what I would argue was an incredibly well written series. It left me feeling a little cheated. It worked in that I'm not waiting on the edge of my seat for the next in the series, but at the same time it made me loose a little interest in anything Harry, which does not bode well for the movies.

All in all I think that people will feel cheated if they do not finish the series and as such the Deathly Hallows is required reading and does an good job (just not excellent). I am glad I read it, but probably will not as I did with the previous novels read the story again.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling (2007)


The reason I bought a copy of the final installment of her seven-part series was because J. K. Rowling compelled me to. She offered so much and she challenged us as readers to commit ourselves to the story, that this was one (hardcover) volume I wanted for my library. I've read all of them, but only owned the first and in paperback. I leant it out to a curious reader and she must still be curious because she hasn't given it back.
But my curiosity was peaked as well. I thought book six, "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" would be the beginning of the end, so to speak. I thought she'd begin to tie up story lines that had been running for six previous volumes. Instead, she opened new story lines, making her job all the harder for the concluding volume. She raised the bar so high, she made it nearly impossible to clear it.
The revelation she had in that British Rail coach one day seventeen years ago was unbelieveably complete. Like many others, I had read where the last word was "scar" and she had written the final chapter first and secured it in a bank vault somewhere in the United Kindgom. I wanted to see if her written conclusions were the same as her thought-through conclusions ~ and it seems they were.
After book seven was released, I saw an interview she did where she was asked if the final book was as she thought it would be. It was, she replied, nearly 3/4 of it (especially the ending) was. (She also said her sister told her if she (J.K.) killed off Hagrid, she'd never talk to her again.)
Many have complained that the Epilogue was unnecessary and was a bit damaging to the story. I don't stand in that camp. I think so many want to know what happened to Harry, Ron and Hermione, Rowling felt it necessary to tack on a segment to expolain the future. Because she knew there would be no Book Eight, "Harry Potter and the Geriatric Demon," she had to end it where and how she did.
And so will I.
Many have criticized the Harry Potter series as being less of a work than J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Ring/Middle Earth series.
Well, as one who could not read about hobbits and Orcs and the perils of the Baggins family, I eagerly picked up very volume of Rowling's. In time, I think her series and her status as a writer will be equal to ~ if not greater than ~ Tolkien or Philip Pullman and his "His Dark Materials" series. She is not just a great writer of children's and young adult literature. No, she is a greater writer. Period.
Thank you, Ms. Rowling, for challenging and entertaining and engaging me for the past 8+ years. It was worth all 4125 hardcover pages. Well done.