Why Snape doesn't have to be human

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 107550

Jim Ferer stated in a recent post that Snape is an example of 
someone with social phobia. I agree with this, but I think the 
social phobia stems from a basic  lack of empathy. It would be 
hard to function in a social situation if you couldn't pick up on 
what other people were feeling. Snape reveals this in OOP:

 "Well then, you'll know [Harry']'s so arrogant that criticism simply 
bounces off him" --OOP ch  24. If this is a sincere statement, 
then Snape is unaware of the effect his criticisms have on Harry.

If you think the mystery is *why* Snape has so little empathy for 
Harry, and that the solution to Harry's Snape problems is for 
Snape to become more empathetic,  then making him  
non-human is a cop-out, and I can see why people would find it 
disappointing.

 But if you think the mystery, or rather the problem for Harry,  is 
whether he can find a way to work with  a person who has so 
little empathy, and treats him so poorly as a result, then the 
question of  whether Snape was born with little empathy or  lost it 
as a result  of some trauma is less relevant. The solution for 
Harry would not depend on Snape changing, but on Harry 
changing his expectations of Snape.

Non-human origin would then simply be an elegant way of 
stating that Snape was born  the way he is, and there isn't much 
Harry can do about it.

I think that this bears very deeply on JKR's thinking about bigotry 
and prejudice. It is always easier to empathize with 
people who are like us. If  we do what is easy and prefer to 
co-operate only with people who show empathy towards us, we 
will always have a preference for people like ourselves and we 
will always have a bigoted society.

Pippin