Potter's End

Posted on 8/5/2007 Post Comment -

Yes, it is over. No more wandering about the dark corridors of Hogwarts to the inevitable encounter with "˜You Know Who’. No more being flushed down girls’ toilets and running into creepy snakes in the basement. Now we have to return to our ordinary lives in the muggle world and it is time to take stock of the situation.

 

Why is it that Pottermania strikes children and adults alike? It cannot simply be explained away as clever marketing tricks or people wanting to escape into a fantasy world. The main reason, I think, is that these books appeal to people at different levels. You can read it as a simple story of good winning over evil, a schoolboy’s adventure series, a fairy tale with elements of contemporary commercialization or as a morality tale propagating certain enduring values.

 

In the final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" JKR regains some of her magic of the early three volumes. The sense of forbidding returns and for most part, it remains touch and go in the match between Potter and Voldemort.

 

As we turn the pages, Harry grows in stature and Voldemort and his cronies, despite their increase in power, gets substantially reduced in the encounter. The same set of values that helped Harry gain the upper hand in his earlier adventures come into play here. These are essentially the power of love, friendship and overcoming ego, very much like Krishna’s advice to Arujna in the "Bhagavad Gita".

 

Without giving away the climax for those of you yet to read the book, it is only when Harry takes the decision to forgo all his attachments including his own self that he is able to overcome fear and succeed in his mission. It is indeed the fear of the unknown that keeps many of us from doing what ought to be done long ago, anything from learning to drive or simply crossing the street.

 

Enough of the serious stuff. I don’t know why Rowling maintains her fascination for the toilet as even in this book she makes her characters undertake a flushing down entry. Of course, it could be because she wants to depict the place in question as quite in the pits, I suppose. Anyway, the children will be fascinated by the idea of taking a trip down the pot, I think. It would be advisable to warn them not to attempt it at home considering the condition of

plumbing in muggle homes.