Liking Snape (Was: Parenting Harry)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 120322


Juli wrote:
> I love Harry and I cry when he cries and laugh when he
> laughs, but do I think Snape is a SOB? ABSOLUTELY NOT.
> He'a just not your typical guy who loves Harry and
> treats him like a Hero, Snape isn't always nice, I
> think we all agree on that, but is he evil? no way.
> Does he hate Harry? I don't think so.
> 
> Snape is just like so many characters, he may not be
> the lovable guy you always fall for, but eventually
> you start to like him, I know I have. I like Snape
> just the way he is, I'd hate it if all of a sudden he
> starts hugging Harry and Neville. And I'm not going to
> stop reading the books.


Carol responds:
I realize that I'm not typical in my response to Snape, which is only
slightly ambivalent and generally favorable. I think that his "abuse"
of Harry is minimal and does Harry no lasting harm, and that while he
does take pleasure in it, he also believes that he is doing Harry a
service, either preventing him from becoming arrogant like his father
or trying to force him to follow the rules to keep him out of danger.
That is, almost certainly, one of the roles assigned him by
Dumbledore. It's no accident that Snape is prowling the halls at all
hours in every book.

Snape teaches in the only way he knows, as he has himself been taught.
As I've said many times, there are no schools of education in the WW,
and political correctness has barely raised its head in the form of a
single well-meaning Muggleborn know-it-all named Hermione--and the
calm personal tolerance of Albus Dumbledore. Snape reflects the values
of the WW in his views on everything from werewolves and to
discipline. Course content matters; the students' emotional well-being
is not even considered.

At any rate, I was thoroughly outraged by Umbridge's brutality, but
Snape's sniping is a life lesson that the students had better learn to
cope with while they're still in school; they'll be facing much worse
in the outside world even when the war is over. (As a side note, IMO,
we modern Muggles do our children no favors when we overprotect them
and teach them to value their "inner beauty" rather than to respect
authority and the rights of others.) Harry has to be aware of his
limitations in order to overcome them.

At any rate, what makes Snape intriguing, for me, is that despite his
Slytherin instincts, he is siding with Dumbledore against his natural
friends and allies. Consider his upbringing before Hogwarts (so far as
we can guess from the glimpse we've had of his parents and his
precocious knowledge of hexes); consider how the values he had been
taught at home would have been reinforced in Slytherin. How
unsurprising that a boy like that, especially a highly intelligent and
talented one, would have been recruited by the Death Eaters. But how
strange, how astonishing, that while still a very young man he would
have rejected Lord Voldemort and turned spy for Dumbledore "at great
personal risk." A courageous Slytherin! A cunning and ambitious
supporter of Dumbledore! Snape, in my view, is a fascinating mixture
of contradictions, and both his courage and his loyalty to Dumbledore
are admirable particularly given what we know of the typical Slytherin
mentality (self-preservation and the end justifies the means).

JKR has said that we should not take Snape at face value, that there
is more to him than meets the eye. I, for one, am very curious to
discover what she means by that.

Carol, who needs to get back to her Christmas cards, which as usual
will arrive on approximately the Third Day of Christmas if she's lucky