So, I think we all know that there's a message for readers in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." I think many of us who have read the series and watched the movies would agree that there are multiple messages. When you boil it down, of course, the most obvious message is good triumphs over evil. But as I was watching the final film installment last night, I realized there's a message in it for all of us that's more applicable.
We all have within us the seeds of our own destruction, as well as the seeds of our own triumph. Our lives are the result of the struggle between the two within us.
Throughout the series, Harry catches glimpses of Voldemort's thoughts. He discovers early on that without any instruction, he can speak parseltongue, the language of snakes--just as Voldemort can. He learns that when he taps into Voldemort's thoughts, Voldemort is also able to tap into his own. In the final installment of the series, what we all have begun to think about Harry is confirmed--within Harry is a sliver of Voldemort.
Aside from the obvious juxtaposition of good and evil between Harry and Voldemort, there is the equally interesting juxtaposition between Harry and Voldemort's former identity, Tom Riddle. Harry enjoys relative popularity and support from his peers in the world of Hogwarts, but prior to learning of his wizard identity, he was miserable and shunned within his mother's family who took him in after his parents were killed by Voldemort. Tom Riddle was an unpopular orphan, and never achieved any level of support or popularity until he sought the power of the dark arts, and then, he achieved magnetism and charisma through coercion and fear.
The success or failure of our lives is often based on our response to how others react to us. Because Harry defied death when Voldemort tried to kill him along with his parents, he never had to work on achieving heroic status. With the support and love of others, and that sliver of the very powerful Voldemort within, Harry was almost certainly "doomed" to succeed.
The big underlying question for Harry is the same question we all have to ask ourselves--are we willing to destroy the pieces of ourselves that seek to undo us in order to triumph? In the Harry Potter series, Albus Dumbledore reveals to Harry that Voldemort has created seven horcruxes, or pieces of his soul, that are hidden and spread out all over the place. Voldemort cannot be destroyed unless all seven of these horcruxes are destroyed. A horcrux is a magical name for something simple: a horcrux is a flaw or foible that prevents us from achieving our ultimate triumph.
Insecurity, doubt, sloth, jealousy--horcruxes. They hold us back. They keep us from trying. They whisper to us in a slithery tongue that we can't achieve our dreams. They seek to destroy the triumphant life we want for ourselves.
Until we go after our own horcruxes--however many there are--and destroy them, one by one, we will never be able to overcome the destructive nature within ourselves. The Voldemort in our lives wins. The orphaned Tom Riddle never gets to be Harry Potter.
It isn't until the last half hour that the true hero of the story is revealed to us. Of course, Harry defies death a second time and Voldemort is turned into ash, but he's not the hero.
Severus Snape is the secret savior of Hogwarts, Harry and the whole lot. The dark, taciturn professor, who appears to be in cahoots with Voldemort throughout the series, has been living a very well hidden duplicitous existence. For deep and enduring love of Lily Potter, Severus goes against his dark nature and aids Albus Dumbledore in keeping Harry safe. The deep wound of losing Lily to James Potter never leaves him, but even in his hurt, anger and deep sense of lifelong rejection, he loves her enough to keep her son alive by ingratiating himself with Voldemort and displaying loyalty to him in order to help fate along. In the end, he allows everyone to believe he himself is evil, and he sacrifices himself for the greater good. In the end, his dark image becomes a redeeming beacon of light for Harry, guiding him to do for love what Severus has done--give his life for it.
Severus Snape took control of his own horcruxes and mastered them. He knew who he was and what he was meant to be. He loved Lily. Harry was the embodiment of Lily. His triumph over his horcruxes allowed Lily and his love to live on in Harry. And they allowed him to become something he otherwise never could have been. The dark, taciturn, unpopular Snape became the shining, glowing Severus. Like Harry, he is marked by light.
Expelliarmus! Disarm your horcruxes. Disarm your self-destruction. And set your triumph free!
http://youtu.be/3_slOp6yhjQ
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