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August 24, 2007 > Arts & Entertainment > Final Potter proves series still only adolescent epic

Final Potter proves series still only adolescent epic

By Matthew McKee | Thresher Editorial Staff

The largest book release in history occurred last month to the cheers of millions. Concluding an epic seven-volume tale, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold 8.3 million copies in the United States alone within 24 hours of its release. After just the first day’s sales, a mind-boggling 13 million readers worldwide found out about the boy wizard’s final battle and tumultuous entry into the maturity of adulthood.

Standing in line on the night of the release, I noticed that adults and children alike waited with bated breath to see Harry conquer the final trials of adolescence. This did not surprise me much, but I still felt a bit childish getting excited over this release. However, like many fellow readers, I sensed the series was reaching levels of maturity beyond simple children’s literature. J.K. Rowling was using symbolism and themes beyond the typical teen fantasy, and the story’s atmosphere had certainly darkened with each passing book. The number of dead was mounting, and deaths were striking closer and closer to the Boy Who Lived.

At the end of Half-Blood Prince, Rowling shattered Harry’s world with the death of Dumbledore and left me hoping for an ending worthy of adulthood. I had not decided on my ideal ending, but I was wishing for more than Rowling’s easy conclusion that put Deathly Hallows on the level of the most formulaic Hollywood blockbusters.

I was wishing for more than Rowling’s EASY ending that put Harry on the level of the most formulaic blockbusters.

That easy way out was partially the climactic confrontation between Harry and Lord Voldemort that capped the enormous battle on the Hogwarts grounds. After a lonely journey almost worthy of Frodo Baggins, the series’ core trio of Ron, Hermione and Harry return to fight Death Eaters, giants and a slew of other evil creatures with their friends and professors. Harry dies, sort of, but easily comes back to life, flogging the Christ metaphor to death. He faces Voldemort in one of those balls-to-the-wall cage matches where, despite any surroundings, the hero and villain can suddenly do solitary battle while talking calmly for long minutes. Thesis and antithesis square off but, in the end, no synthesis is produced. One survives while the other is destroyed completely. Where is the satisfaction in that? How does one learn from such a simple narrative?

It will all make a great film when the movie adaptation is released, but only cheap entertainment goes for such a black-and-white approach. Good and evil are easily-exploited absolutes that make for great popcorn flicks and not much else. Worthwhile, long-lasting stories, however, avoid polarizing their ideals and instead feed on moral grey areas to challenge their audiences.

What could Rowling have expanded to make the plot more interesting? Sadly, she left many avenues into moral gray areas unexplored, even when she had the characters to do the spelunking. In one of the best chapters of Deathly Hallows, she redeems Severus Snape through a flashback sequence. Snape could have been the entryway into extended discussions of morally ambiguous issues of truth and deception, but instead all we receive is the simple “he-was-always-good” wrap-up.

Rowling used the opposite but equally simple wrap-up for Peter Pettigrew with similar disappointments. Pettigrew received so little attention in the series, and yet unanswered questions that could lead to challenging answers remained after his death. Why did he betray his close friends? Why was thatwrong? These and many other glazed-over questions would have extended Deathly Hallows by hundreds more pages, of course. But unfortunately, it seems that attention spans for such discussions run slim in the wider market despite the rewards offered in lengthy contemplation of these difficult issues without easy answers.

Deathly Hallows left me with a bitter taste and a profound disappointment. I may have asked too much of a mass-market story, but the simple conclusion felt extremely unsatisfying and worthy of true teen fantasy, an example of typical Hollywood-esque tripe the never quite grows up. It was too easy. It was flash-in-a-can, easily-consumed entertainment perceptible from the beginning of Sorcerer’s Stone that has doomed Harry to the children’s section forever.

Matthew McKee is a Jones College junior and arts & entertainment editor.

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