Sirius revisited

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 104417

SSSusan:
> Carolina's post [104382] has also gotten me into the mood to 
> actually come back & defend Sirius a bit!  She wrote:
> 
> > Sorry to dissapoint you and Jen but I can't consider Sirius 
being a
> > dog a good proof here, just by the kind of dog he is. He's a big 
> > black dog, and that for me has always been the image of a hell 
> > dog. Of course, only talking of symbolism here.

> SSSusan:
> I recognize your absolute right to respond to the symbolism any 
way 
> you like, but I do wonder whether lots of owners of black labs 
> wouldn't have a *very* different reaction to Sirius-as-big-black-
dog 
> than this.  I know I didn't think of him at ALL as a hell dog.

Jen: I had another thought on this, in response to Carolina's post.

Even if you don't like Sirius the character, there's a certain 
literary symmetry in POA that gets trampled if you don't buy that 
Padfoot is meant to symbolize good. 

We're introduced to Scabbers and The Big Black Dog and are led to 
believe that Scabbers is good, meek, sickly, etc. The Black Dog is 
the Grim, portending death with certain sinister implications. So 
then in the Shrieking Shack we find out the roles are actually 
reversed and Scabbers is the Rat, and betrayed his best friend, and 
Padfoot is the loyal Dog, still trying to avenge his best friend's 
death.

I think that's a nice parallel, but it's lost of Sirius is 
determined to be other than he appears.

Jen