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Harry Potter and the Missing Denoument
By philobean | July 23, 2007
The last installment of the Harry Potter series hit stores last Saturday, the 21st of July. Having read the first six (of course, I got hooked many many years ago…when I was young enough to claim youth as the sole reason for reading Harry Potter), I decided to read the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, if only to cap off my near seven-year investment on the series.
Well, while I don’t intend to spoil the read for other Harry Potter readers (those who admit to it and those who don’t), I’d like to issue a fair warning: you won’t like the ending.
Rowling’s been traditional when it comes to following the standard storytelling structure–i.e. basically, rising action, climax, falling action. But with Harry Potter Number 7, Rowling makes a fatal error. It’s not a matter of what she wrote (she wrote splendidly) but what she didn’t write. She fails to write a proper denoument (aka falling action).
Fatal, fatal, fatal. Why? Because after having stuck with Harry for near seven years, I’m sure readers would have developed a certain *attachment* to the characters (not the same ones for every reader, at that). So, we’d like to know what happens next. It’s kind of like a despedida, a farewell party of sorts. We’d like to spend sometime untangling our selves, emotionally, from the characters we’re bound to never read about again. But instead, merely a minute after *the good guys win over the bad guys*, the story ends. It’s basically climax, then *the end*.
Sure, sure. Rowling makes a tiddy tiny attempt at a denoument by writting an epilogue, entitled nineteen years later. But, blimey (in Potter-speak), it’s was a pathetic attempt! It features only four of the many many characters and talks about one more (and, note, ask yourself the question, so, what happened nineteen years later, the epilogue won’t give you the answer!). After seven years worth of character-building, you just can’t live with a denoument like that! It’s simply…unjust. You’ll break the little kids’ hearts.
So, manage expectations, people. For those of you who haven’t read the book yet and intend to, it’ll be good upto the climax. After that, prepare yourselves for a highly *unsatisfying* ending.
Just a little spoiler: Albus Severus Potter?! Who the!?! Talk about *creative writing*…
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