The Deathly Hallows; Love, Sacrifice, and Loss.

Originally, I had planned to do my theme essay on the novel The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Well, of coarse when I checked it last night the whole thing had been deleted, and I was forced to re write it on Harry Potter at one in the morning. I chose this secondary book, because I know the story-line by heart, and love it. 

Have you ever lost someone you love? Or had to give up your dreams to do the right thing? Loss and sacrifice are two very different things, but can have very similar affects. In the seventh and final volume in the Harry Potter novels, the main characters (Harry, Ron, and Hermione.) are forced to leave their homes, leave their loved ones behind, and begin searching for items that may or may not even exist. Only when they are slowly torn apart from each other do they realize the importance of friendship, loyalty, love, and courage, the main theme’s in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows along with the losses and sacrifices we they make.

Loss is an emotion that one cannot even begin to describe. Weather it is with death, losing touch with someone, or even (As stupid as it may sound.) the end of a relationship. It leaves a gap in your body that simply cannot be filled. I personally remember the death of my Gross-Oma Alix. (Which is German forGreat-Grandma Alice.) I remember after the phone call my father received the phone call about her death, and he told me, all I could do was just sit there with nothing. It felt as though I had been plunged into a tank of cold water, and the water was slowly beginning to boil. I didn’t know her very well, but she was sill family, and I loved her. In the Deathly Hallows, Ron (One of Harry’s best friends.) loses his brother, Fred, in the battle for Hogwarts. (Hogwarts, being the school they all attend to learn magic.) Reemus Lupin, and his wife Tonks (Friends of Harry’s.), are killed in the battle as well alongside Fred. However, before they died, they had a child together, and this just made the guilt heavier that Harry had to carry. I have personally experienced the pain of loss, and believe me when I say, no magic like the one taught at Hogwarts can ever fix the feeling of emptiness you feel. I have felt what the characters have felt in this theme, and I can relate to them more than anyone knows. However, sacrifice can be just as painful, if not more, than loss.

As I had mentioned before, loss and sacrifice are two very different things. In the Deathly Hallows, Hermione (Harry’s other best friend.) is born into a family of “muggles.” (Muggle, meaning non magical person, or mundane.) Knowing the Second Wizarding War is well on its way, she is forced to cast a spell on them, causing them to forget that they ever even had a child. She knew that if Lord Voldemort’s (Lord Voldemort is the main Antagonist throughout the series, and is often referred to as “The most dangerous wizard of all time.) followers found them, they would be tortured and killed. Imagine, being forced to leave everything behind, your home, family, and the only life you’ve ever known in order to save everyone else in the world. Only out of love for her parents did she leave them, and it was with great difficulty. I can only imagine what it must be like to do something that courageous (Courage, being one of the other dominant theme’s not only throughout this book, but the entire series.) and selfless. It was only out of sheer love (Every Harry Potter book has some sort of love theme or love theme undertones to it.) that she was able to do what she did in leaving everything behind. Only with the last themes of love, friendship, and loyalty, was not only she, but everyone else throughout the book able to have a fighting chance against Lord Voldemort and save not only the Wizarding World, but ours as well.

When you hear those words mentioned above, love, loyalty, and friendship, what do you think of? The first thing that pops into my head are my friends Sarah Wiedimann and Claudia Burns. Always there for me and each other, and willing to help with anything at anytime, just like with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. We do love each other, just like they love each other. Love is not just confined to family and the person you are seeing/married to. Love is an action, which is beautiful displayed in the Deathly Hallows when Harry goes to face his death. When he tells them that he is about to end his life to save everyone, they immediately insist they go with him to be with him. He says no to them, saying he loves them too much to let them do anything like that. If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is. In that moment, they all showed the themes of love, courage, loyalty, and friendship. My friends and I are the same way, and we love each other in the same way Harry, Ron, and Hermione love each other, and we would jump in front of a bus for each other. In the novel the Hunger Games, the theme of friendship is present as well. It was through Katniss and Peta’s friendship and loyalty that they were able to win and survive the Hunger Games. This was shown when they were told there could only be one champion, and they did not want to go on without each other, so they began to eat poisonous berries that they knew would kill them. However, right before they were about to chew the berries, the Judges came on the microphone and screamed for them to stop, and that they had both won the Hunger Games. Throughout many books such as Harry Potter and the Hunger Games. The theme of friendship is the dominant theme, because it is with our friends and family that we succeed the most.

Though these themes of love, sacrifice, loss, friendship, loyalty, and courage may always not be seen in the Deathly Hallows, they are always there like a hidden message. In life I have noticed this as well, though things may not always seem their brightest, and as though light has always gone out, as long as we keep those themes in our life, everything will be ok, and life will go on. Though they were slowly being torn apart, Harry, Ron, and Hermione kept these themes in their lives, and that is what gave them the strength to stay together, 

Predicting Wuthering Heights

Our Language Arts teacher commissioned to write a piece about predicting the ending to a novel we're reading. Well, me being the person loving romance I am, I decided to write it on the novel Wuthering Heights. It has everything I look for a story, romance, drama, mystery, and death. I personally can't wait to finish this story, because I can finally see if my prediction was correct or incorrect. 

In 1801, Mr. Lockwood (A rich man from the south of England.) decides to rent Thrushcross Grange in the Yorkish Moors of the North of England for rest and recuperation. Life seems peaceful and relaxing upon his arrival in the moors, however, soon after his arrival, he decides to visit his Landlord at his farmhouse-manor, Wuthering Heights. Upon the four mile journey to Wuthering Heights, Mr. Lockwood reflects upon the peaceful quiet and admire the beauty of the moors. Upon his arrival at Wuthering Heights, he meets his landlord for the first time, Mr. Heathcliff. Though he may have the appearance of a gentleman, Mr. Heathcliff has something off about him. He dresses in a lord’s fashion and speaks like one, he has the appearance of a Gipsy with black hair and olive colored skin.  It is not that he is cruel or unkind to him, but he is more neutral and unfeeling towards him. This is where Mr. Lockwood begins to discover the secrets of Wuthering Heights, and the tragedy that happened there.

With the awkward uncaring attitude Mr. Heathcliff has toward Mr. Lockwood, this makes everything all the more uncomfortable when they are snowed in, and Mr. Lockwood is forced to spend the night. Not being a long staying guest, he is  only a small bedroom at the end of the second floor corridor. In this room, there are strange carvings on the wood panels of the walls, and he finds a diary inscribed with three different names. Catherine Earnshaw, Catherine Heathcliff, and Catherine Linton. Pondering these three “Catherine’s” he slowly falls into a deep lulling sleep, and is abruptly awoken the following morning, and is sent home. Curious as to know who these Catherine’s were, he asks his feeble old housekeeper as to they are. She then explains that they are the same person, and that Catherine Loved two men in her brief lifetime. With this, she begins to tell the tale of Wuthering Heights.  

With Mr. Lockwood discovering the truth about Catherine, this was as far as I have read in the story. With the basic knowledge I have from the amount that I have read, I can begin predicting what will happen next. From what I know about the story, I am able to know that this story is a romance, drama/tragedy, and somewhat of a mystery. Mr.Heathcff was alone at Wuthering Heights, and the room with Catherine’s diary was in disrepair. So, from what I can inference, Catherine either died, (Judging from the Drama element of the story, this is the most likely event.) or because of the other name “Linton,” I can assume that Catherine has left Heathcliff for Mr. Linton, or that there was some sort of love triangle between the three of them.

With the first option in the book (Where Catherine dies.) it has the element of tragedy and romance involved. With the whole subject of love and loss, it can be connected to many of history’s stories. Just look at “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe. In the story, it states that his wife has died, and he is fraught with grief. Only when the raven tells him he will never love again as he had with his wife, (Lenore.) does he truly realize what he has truly lost. But the saying goes that it is better to have loved then lost then to have never loved at all. Even in the real world, people lose loved one’s. Queen Cleopatra of Egypt married the Dictator of Rome, Julius Cesar. Their love has been made into countless movies and books. However, only after his murder by the senate of Rome does Cleopatra realize what she has truly lost. In the end, everyone must die, but when you are truly love  by someone, and they lose you, it can drive a person mad. I suppose the same can be said with the second course of events in Wuthering Heights, the love triangle option.

Books, stories, and movies have been popular since the beginning of recorded history, and recent history. If the love triangle option does happen in the book, it could be the reason Heathcliff had the neutral, unfeeling, almost nasty attitude. In the book, the love triangle would be that both Heathcliff and Mr. Linton both loved Catherine, except she chose Mr. Linton (Thus the name in the diary.). It reminds me of a little story almost every person in the free world probably knows; Twilight. In the Twilight saga, the main premises of the story is that you are either a Vampire, a Werewolf, or a Human. Moving past that, Edward, a Vampire, and Jacob, a Werewolf, both fall in love with a human girl (Named Bella.). In the end, Bella must choose to either choose Edward or Jacob to love or be with, and leave the other out in the . However if sparkling blood suckers, or big dog people are not your cup of tea, I can respect that, because it’s not really mine either. However, another story with the love triangle element is yet another story known to most of the free world; The Hunger games. In it, the main character Katiness (The Catherine/Bella character in the story.) falls in love with her friend Gale, and Peta (The Heathcliff/Linton and Edward/Jacob characters in the story.). In the end, she is forced to pick between them. As I’ve said before, the whole premises of a love triangle is a much loved topic in stories.

With these two themes of Catherine dying, and the love triangle, Wuthering Heights will be a spectacular book to read either way. In the end however, I believe that the love triangle will be the most likely course of events, because when Mr. Lockwood found the diary with the three different last names in it, it was a giveaway that she would have a love triangle. Who knows, maybe she’ll have the love triangle, and then die before she is given the chance to choose. Either way, Wuthering Heights will be dramatic and tantalizing book to finish, and of what happened there.