Blog Post 3: The End of the Series

I absolutely love the end of the Harry Potter series (apart from the epilogue, but I will exclude that from my blog post). I love the fact that all of the loose ends are tied up—horcruxes and hallows and heroes alike. While I could write pages on how I felt about every detail of the ending of the world’s most beloved book series, I shall hone in on only a few aspects: the “talking chapters” (see explanation below), and the shifts in attitude and tone throughout the final volume.

I will start by saying that every Harry Potter book has a “talking chapter” (a name a came up with as a child). By this I mean a chapter in which there is a lot of character dialogue where all of the secrets are spilled and the mystery comes together. For example, the talking chapter in Goblet of Fire is “Veritaserum”—when Barty Crouch Jr. outlines all of his dark deeds. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has multiple talking chapters. “Kreacher’s Tale” for instance, and “Kings Cross” are two of my very favorites. I find these chapters incredibly satisfying—big pieces of the puzzle slide into place. They also possess a story telling-esque quality, which I find entrancing.

We touched on the changing tones briefly in class, but I shall elaborate here. There are moments where readers see a paradigm shift in Harry particularly, but in the entire plot, too. To me, these moments mark the finality of the book—we as readers know the end is near and we see the characters going through immense strain as they push towards the end of their journey. When Harry and Hermione are nearly captured at Godric’s Hallow, for example, we see Harry grow rather downtrodden—he’s had yet another narrow miss involving Voldemort, and the task of finding and destroying Horcruxes has reached a halt. This is perhaps the darkest part of the book. The darkness is furthered by Harry’s infatuation with the Deathly Hallows. He sinks so deeply into the idea of finding the Hallows that he nearly gets all of his friends killed. The death of Dobby marks another shift—he’s shocked out of his Deathly Hallows trance and directed back on track. Again, there is a shift when Harry allows Voldemort to kill him and Harry enters into the dream-like Kings Cross. I feel that Harry matures here—growing wiser in the matter of a few pages. This shift leads readers to the conclusion of the novel. I love the manner in which Rowling depicts the psychology of the characters as they embark on this most difficult journey. The shifting creates for a beautiful story element, and ends the story on a note of emergence—as if Harry is coming out of a long, dark tunnel a wise, changed man.