Now that I've finished the final book in the Harry Potter series, almost exactly one week after getting the book in the mail at 3 PM on Saturday afternoon, the deathly silence of my room is unnerving.
How a book can manage to be as bafflingly confusing, terribly satisfying, and wonderfully gut-wrenching all in one is beyond me. I still need to suss out the explanations for a few things in the final chapters of the book, but overall it was a much darker read that delivered the exciting climax to the series that readers were expecting -- with a few twists and turns.
After I finished the book's epilogue, I thought back to reading the first few books in middle school and the innocence of young Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and I can't help but believe that J.K. Rowling is a most deft master of the story arc.
A theme that pops up several times in Deathly Hallows is the importance of children's stories and fairy tales. To anyone who dismisses Harry Potter as mere child's play, I would say that, to quote Meg Ryan's character in You've Got Mail (one of my all-time favorite guilty pleasure movies), "When you read a book as a child it becomes part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your life does."
Agreed, Meg. Agreed.
The quality of our children's books reflects upon the quality of generations to come. If Harry Potter is our generation's obsession, maybe we have less to fear from our generation and generations to come than we may fear.
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