We've known Harry is heroic for some time, but he really takes things to a new level in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. Some of it is the standard stuff: Harry encounters dangerous situations that he has no right to escape from, and he escapes.
Pretty much par for the course for the last seven films, right?
Sure, but just when we thought we couldn't be surprised by how brave this kid is, he decides he's going to just sacrifice his life so Voldemort can be defeated. He just walks up and lets the dude kill him.
You see, Harry learns late in the game that he himself is one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, which means Voldy can't die unless he dies. So, in order to save man- and wizard-kind, Harry does what he has to do.
We're not sure what other seventeen-year-old would have the guts to do that, but, of course, Harry is definitely not a normal seventeen-year-old.
Questions about Courage
- So, decision time: Who's braver, Snape or Harry?
- Do you think Voldemort has any level of courage? Or is that just a weird question? Let's put it a little bit differently: Do you think he's ruled by strength or fear?
- Does anyone else's bravery surprise you in this film?
Chew on This
Voldemort talks a good game about strength and all that, but he's not courageous at all. In fact, his whole evil scheme for world domination is about fear: fear of dying. Doesn't sound very brave to us.
Snape is even braver than Harry, sorry. Harry was never attracted to the Dark Arts, so he never had that struggle. Snape was attracted to the Dark Side and overcame it. We'd say that takes some extra strength-level courage.