Bullies and Heroes (was Re: Snape's Worst Memory...)

[hannahwonder at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 81588

In a message dated 9/25/03 11:55:58 AM, persephone_kore at yahoo.com writes:
<< Now PK: 

I think we must be using "reconcile" differently here, because I found this very puzzling -- I admit that Harry is certainly feeling contradictory emotions, but I don't see any particular logical difficulty -- and not being quite as stuck in Harry's viewpoint as Harry naturally is, /I/ don't have any real emotional difficulty observing that both all parties involved have behaved abominably to each other and that in at least Harry's and Snape's cases this is emotionally understandable, though still not justified. 

(snip) >>

Now Hannah:
Perhaps reconcile was not the word I was looking for -- I meant more how 
Harry can figure out how he feels toward Snape overall, not just disliking him for when he's mean and feeling sorry for him when he was picked on. It can be 
very difficult to feel sorry for someone who is as mean to you as Snape is to 
Harry, thus the sympathy can /seem/ contradictory, even though the event for 
which Harry feels sorry for him and the events for which Harry dislikes him are 
separate. 

<<
PK:

In fact, I hope that what Harry will figure out is essentially what Golly said in a different reply -- that a person can be extremely unpleasant and even hate you and still be on your side
(snip)

 >>

Now Hannah:
I agree with you completely here. I didn't mean to say that Snape (or anyone) 
is incapable of being both awful to Harry and true to Dumbledore, more that 
it's hard for Harry to understand that, or understand how he feels about that. 
However, I oughtn't've said that it was difficult for a reader to understand 
this. I know that Snape is a nasty character albeit on the side of right, but I 
don't know very much about it beyond that. To see Snape as only the Mean Good 
Guy is unfair and one demensional. That is the reason I'm glad for the 
pensieve scene: it adds another level to Snape, making his whole existence more 
complicated and interesting. I like Snape because he is the Mean Good Guy, but 
also because it seems we will learn more about him than that.

Also, Julie said:

<<I felt with this line ["The world isn't divided into good people and death 
eaters."], JKR was cautioning Harry (and the reader) not to look at the books 
or the characters as clear cut representations of "good" and "evil."  >>

And I can only add to that: "good but rather unpleasant," one categorization 
I seem to be plenty guilty of! <g>

Hannah