Snape, Harry, Dumbledore, and flaws in the books

[dzeytoun]

No: HPFGUIDX 105569

A lot of threads lately have been devoted to explaining mysteries of 
the relationships among Snape, Harry, and Dumbledore.  These 
relationships are fascinating, but also puzzling and inconsistent.  
To a large extent we are lacking a lot of information we need.  We 
are also hampered by the tight Harry-centric POV JKR uses.

However, and this isn't going to make me popular, I think a lot of 
the explanation for why these three act the way they do is, well, 
that they HAVE to act that way for the plot to go the way JKR wants 
it to.  The fact is that, good a writer as JKR is, characterization 
is her severe weak point.  She just isn't very good at explaining 
what makes people tick.  Look at the trio.  After five books we STILL 
don't really know much about what kind of people Ron and Hermione 
really are, and why they make the decisions they do.

True, a lot of this is due to POV.  But an awful lot is also because 
JKR sometimes commits the cardinal sin of writing, she lots plot 
dictate character instead of the other way around.  A lot of the 
seeming inconsistencies and flaws really ARE inconstistencies and 
flaws.

In this case why does Dumbledore let Snape act the way he does toward 
Harry?  Because it's needed for the plot.  Dumbledore IS NOT a 
Machiavellian puppet master.  Snape and Dumbledore ARE NOT engaged in 
some tag team good cop/bad cop arrangement to teach Harry about 
life.  Snape IS NOT secretly a good guy who abuses Harry and Neville 
for their own good.  Dumbledore IS NOT some secret evil genius out to 
manipulate Snape, Harry, and everybody else for some nefarious end.  
JKR wanted a good, kindly wizard headmaster to be Harry's mentor and 
an nasty, difficult teacher to be his nemesis.  Therefore, that's the 
way she writes things.  This creates contradictions and flaws.  And 
that, by and large, is ALL they are.

We want things to make sense.  But the story often doesn't.  And why 
should it?  Life usually doesn't make sense.  Theories about Snape 
and Dumbledore conspiring together to teach Harry about life are the 
same as theories about how Oswald had help on the grassy knoll in 
Dallas.  That is they are conspiracy theories aimed at reducing the 
complexity of things to some controllable, understandable set of 
motives and decisions.

And yes, I realize I'm being inconsistent in saying that JKR has 
flaws in the story on one hand and the story's are like life on the 
other.  A foolish consistency and all that.

Now such theories are a heck of a lot of fun.  But at the end of the 
day, they almost never reveal anything much.

Dzeytoun