NEW YORK
Brace yourselves, Harry Potter fans. No matter how desperate
you are for Harry to live, some experts in classic literature and mythology say
that finishing off the young wizard would make sense in a literary kind of way.
J.K. Rowling has never shied from darkness in her
phenomenally successful series it started with the murder of Harry’s parents,
continued through his discovery that an evil wizard was trying to destroy him,
and has included pain and torture and the deaths of major characters.
She’s already promised two deaths in the seventh and final
book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” coming out July 21, and
has refused to commit to Harry surviving. But she couldn’t kill Harry off,
could she? She wouldn’t do that, would she?
“If you look at the tradition of the epic hero …
there is this sort of pattern that the hero delivers people to the promised
land but does not see it himself,” said Lana Whited, professor of English
at Ferrum College in Ferrum , Va., pointing out examples from King Arthur to
Moses to Frodo.
Greek mythology has plenty of examples, like Hercules, who
was killed at the height of his strength, said Mary Lefkowitz, a retired
classics professor who taught at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
“There’s no long promise of happiness,” she said.
“You may have brief moments of glory and then the darkness comes.”
