Real characters & persuasive argument

[Amy Z <lupinesque@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50364

Erm, replying to my own post to fix my paragraphization (is there a 
word for this?).  I know I'm dealing with careful readers here--a 
paragraph break in the wrong place makes a world of difference. :-)

Amy Z

> So what does she do?  Does she say "He smiles at Draco [cite]" 
> and "He saves Harry's life"?  That wouldn't really explain, would 
> it?  She would have to talk about examples where Snape didn't 
appear 
> to be kind and say something about why those are misleading, or how 
> they don't come up so frequently as to outweigh her overall 
> impression.  Surely she goes through some kind of internal process 
> along those lines in order to reach her conclusion--somewhere in 
her 
> own reading process she has dismissed many of Snape's obvious 
> unkindnesses.  The same applies in this case.  

>We all reach different conclusions 
> about the characters.  I'm interested in how other people reach 
their 
> conclusions, and often come to see the characters differently 
because 
> of how others perceive them and their excellent explanations of 
those 
> perceptions.  But as a close reader of the books, I seldom do that 
in 
> response to posts that leave out many of the salient points I've 
> noticed.  No one is going to convince me that Snape is kind without 
> dealing with the evidence to the contrary; no one is going to 
> convince me that Harry is on balance inconsiderate without doing 
the 
> same.