Snape's Worst Memory (and the purpose thereof) (Was: Hyperbolic Chapter Titles...)

[hannahwonder at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 81345

Golly:  
You hate Snape less? I don't.  He's still a 36 year old man who picked on an 11 year old because he had a grudge with said kid's father.  (snip) Snape was a jerk and STILL IS.  Nothing has changed. He's just now more sympathetic to some.  But really he was that before.

In a later post on the same topic: 
1. It links Harry and Snape with similar pasts.  The difference being that Harry has and will choose to be a good person.  Snape has not.  

All about choice...  

(snip)

2.  It tells us something about James, making him less an idol and Snape more sympathetic.  I can't say I was surprised but it was very well drawn.  



Hannah: 
I can't agree that Snape is a jerk, nor that he chose not to be a good 
person, and my reasoning behind that is exactly your number 2 reason for the purpose of the memory: changing the previous (and rather more narrow) perception of the character. I felt the memory was included because, yes, it drew 
similarities between Snape and Harry and made Harry sympathize with the younger Snape. This makes Snape and his relationship to Harry much more complex and, I think, much more interesting. 

My one fault with character development in the series is the one-demensional 
qualities of some of Harry's adversaries. IMHO, this includes Malfoy, 
Bellatrix, and particularly Professor Umbridge. To me they appear to just be /all 
bad/, in a way that's harder for me to believe humans are. Similarly, Dumbledore's being wholly good is less likely or relatable for readers, though since OOP we have seen him to be fallible.

This is what I think makes Snape such a great character: one can't target him 
as a good guy or a bad guy -- we (or, rather, Harry) don't know which he is 
yet, or if he ever can be classified as either. He does act rather like a jerk, 
as Golly said, to Harry and Neville and can be really horrible to them, but 
he is in the Order, Dumbledore does trust him, he did save Harry's life in 
PS/SS, /and/ he listens to Harry and checks on Sirius after Harry tries to tell 
him about the vision (He's got Padfoot in the place where it's hidden) in 
Umbridge's office.

I'm so glad for the penseive scene because it makes me interested in how 
Harry is eventually going to deal with how he feels toward Snape: how can he 
reconcile Snape's rudeness and his responding anger with the sympathy/guilt he 
feels for Snape being tormented as a child by Harry's father? How can a reader 
reconcile it? I, for one, cannot,  and that makes me all the more eager for book 
6. :)

Hannah