This chapter opens with an ominous moment: Harry searching for a place to bury Moody’s eye. He does so under “the oldest, most gnarled, and resilient-looking tree he could find.” Harry’s symbolism is clear, and the scene will be repeated later.
All-in-all, this chapter has an Empire Strikes Back feel to it. Our heroes are stuck in the wilderness, hunting for clues to puzzles they know are important, but coming up empty. As Rowling writes it, the scene reduces the three of them to “three teenagers in a tent whose only achievement was not, yet, to be dead.” The dark magic of the locket, now being passed among them to diffuse its effect on any one of them, is taking a severe toll. And it is most assuredly the prime cause of discord within the tent.
Hermione’s realization that this is so does little to assuage the Horcrux’s effect on all of them. Endless boredom and hunger in the midst of the stress of being hunted like animals isn’t helping the situation. It all creates a vicious psychological cycle within the trio, most notably Harry: “[He] was starting to fear that Hermione too was disappointed by his poor leadership. In desperation he tried to think of further Horcrux locations, but the only one that continued to occur to him was Hogwarts, and as neither of the others thought this at all likely, he stopped suggesting it.” In other words, out of fears over his lack of leadership, Harry quits being a leader. Any reader who has paid close attention to the series knows Harry has to be right, or at least on the right track. The importance Hogwarts holds for Voldemort and others is unmistakable. All of them are ignoring the evidence, from Ginny’s possession and Voldy’s other repeated attempts to penetrate the school, to what Harry learned in his Pensieve lessons in Half-Blood Prince. [click to continue…]
I finally got my copy of Hog’s Head Conversations today. I saw PDF proofs earlier, but it was so much nicer to see the book-as-final-product. Before I go any further, I do want to thank both Travis and Bob Trexler for their work. In addition, they were both invaluable to helping polish my own work in the book. I’m happy and humbled to be presented alongside likes of John Granger, Amy Sturgis, and our two guest bloggers, Gwen and Danielle. Nothing like reading a couple of those essays to make one realize how special it is to be a part of Hog’s Head Conversations. Thank you to everyone involved. I hope my little contribution lives up to everyone else’s brilliance!
Anyway, on to this post’s purpose…
How characters learn and know things in books has fascinated me since I was in grad school. Harry Potter is no exception. After my first read-through, I was struck by the steady connection between visibility and knowledge or learning. Three major magical objects serve as devices through which the books explore this connection: the invisibility cloak, the Mirror of Erised, and Dumbledore’s Pensieve. All three play huge roles in key moments as Harry learns how to understand himself and the world around him. [click to continue…]
Half-Blood Prince’s final chapter opens with a favorite device of Ernest Hemingway, the simple declarative sentence:
“All lessons were suspended, all examinations postponed.”
It really is one of Rowling’s finer moments as a writer, poignant and rich with subtlety. In this one statement, she wipes away all the carefree wonderment of childhood with pointed irony. Hogwarts shifts in symbolism from a place of comfort and safety where the worst worry was two parchments on werewolves for horrible Professor Snape, to a place in which parents are spiriting their children away as fast as possible because Snape has murdered the headmaster.
We see the Centaurs and Merfolk gather and pay their respects in ways I believe would have left Dumbledore deeply honored. His entombment is rich with symbolism, as Harry thinks “for one heart-stopping moment, that he [sees] a phoenix fly joyfully ino the blue.” Yet, the “next second the fire had vanished,” and a brilliant “white marble tomb” sits in its place.
In Dumbledore’s death, Voldemort has seemingly gained a devastating victory. Harry and Hogwarts no longer have their protector. The last bastion of paradise is now vulnerable — very vulnerable. Hogwarts has become, in one sense, a graveyard. [click to continue…]
Another guest post by revgeorge!
Glad to be back with another post on HBP. Sorry I’ll have to briefly touch on many points.
The Trio plus One is enjoying an interlude of calm and happiness. Harry is blissfully happy with Ginny. Even Ron and Hermione are happy and laughing for once. But there are still hints of gloom. Ginny mentions three Dementor attacks. The war is still going on despite the relative insulation the students enjoy at Hogwarts. Do you think Rowling succeeds in showing us the intensity of the war raging outside through only snippets of information breaking into the pretty much routine life of Hogwarts? After all, even though Voldemort’s back and war is on, this school year for Harry is pretty much the same as usual. Any thoughts? [click to continue…]
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