WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD

The title ought to do it, don't you think?

Yes, I've recently finished book 7 of Harry Potter, and I'd like to get my thoughts on it down before I forget them, so I will be posting SPOILERS:

1) I had already written to some friends, though not posted here, the reasons why certain characters had to die. For instance, before book 6 had come out, I had predicted the death of Dumbledore because he represented the old mentor, the Gandalf, the Obi-Wan of the story. That character always has to die. There are two other characters that always have to die: the Chosen One and the Jester.

The Jester is the comedian of the story, the one who breaks those tenuous moments in a story and makes it more lighthearted. When the Jester dies, it's like the humor is being snuffed out of the world, and it shows that the world has just become a much more serious place. In Harry Potter, the Jester is a combined character - George and Fred. I had originally predicted both would die, but had I considered the issue more, I would've seen that just one would die, like Castor and Pollux.

The Chosen One is a character that doesn't always die, but there are certainly more literary references to the CO dying than to him surviving. With Harry Potter, it was interesting that he was specifically described as the Chosen One during the story. From a literary point of view, Christ can be described as the Chosen One, and it is by Christ's sacrifice that humanity is saved from evil, but it is also because of Christ's willingness to sacrifice Himself that He is able to be resurrected, to defeat death. Harry has almost an identical story, though toned down considerably: he sacrifices himself to save the world, but his salvation is for this life rather than for the afterlife. He defeats death because he is willing to sacrifice himself, but after a fashion it can be seen that he never really dies. This obvious comparison is specifically noted by the author, in her choice to use a phrase from the Bible in reference to the Deathly Hollows: "The last enemy to be defeated is death." This line originally comes from Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth:

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he "has put everything under his feet." Now when it says that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all. (1 Cor. 20-28)

It would be easy to carry this religious allegory further: If Harry is the Christ, it is because he is born of magic. Magic is the god of the world. If Magic is the god, then muggles represent various pagan cultures. Further, the houses of Hogwarts represent different religious groups. Slytherin would obviously be the Fundamentalists, and it is a sort of ironic jab at the Fundamentalists who get angry about Harry Potter for seeing it as a pagan story itself.

2) The Epilogue was partially satisfying, but I would've liked a bit more. It mostly served as fan service, to tell us that Harry and Ginny do get together (I think most of us were happy about that), as do Ron and Hermione. There was also a brief fan glimpse of Neville as a professor of herbology. However, we're not told some other things that might've been useful or interesting, such as:
Who is headmaster at Hogwarts?
Who is the Minister?
Did Neville ever get married? (I was always hoping he would get with Luna)
Is George still running the shop?
What do the "big 3" (and Ginny) do for a living?
Whatever happened to Hagrid?

Of course, the epilogue wasn't strictly necessary. The "excuse" for the story came during two exposition scenes: A) Severus' memories, and B) Harry Potter meeting The Architect... I mean, meeting Dumbledore in his death vision.

3) The story seemed to rush on at times, and drag on at others. It seemed almost a way to make the story longer, but there are scenes where the exact same conversation occurs over and over again. It went something like this:

Person 1: What are you saying?
Person 2: Leave her... come back to Montana with me.
Person 1: I could no sooner run away from her than myself.
Person 2: I'm not asking you to run, I'm asking you to face reality!
Person 1: Whose reality, yours or mine?
Person 2: My reality AND yours, that's whose!
Person 1: What are you saying?
Person 2: Leave her... come back to Montana with me.

and so on. I think she was trying to show that these were difficult riddles to figure out, but by the third time Harry and crew waste 5 pages in circular reasoning, I had to put the book down for an hour and go play video games. Sphere: Related Content