Why Snape doesn't have to be human

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 107566

Pippin: "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."

Well said, but what Harry has to do if he's going to work successfully
with Snape is to find some other lever in Snape than empathy.  Snape's
reason and intelligence work fairly well, so Harry might try that. If
I was Harry, I'd confront Snape: "I would not treat anyone the way my
father treated you. I am not my father, Professor, and you are no
longer a student.  We must work together. It is time for both of us to
put aside our opinion of each other and concentrate on the mission."

Snape's lack of empathy is, in my opinion, secondary to his blinding
rage. The contrast to Snape's lack of empathy would be Voldemort's
primary, sociopathic lack of empathy.

JKR didn't just show us Snape being mistreated by James, she showed us
Snape the child cowering in a tense, unhappy, hostile home.  That
probably was a regular feature of Snape's childhood to be a strong memory.

All that – unhappy home, odd-man-out appearance and demeanor at
school, persecution – is a perfect recipe for the Snape Harry knows. 
Snape's clearly high intelligence just makes things worse for him,
actually.

Pippin: "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 could see JKR making Snape partly non-human in order to make his
personality more accessible, easier to understand, in a similar way to
Lupin's lycanthropy standing for a cause for bigotry,  but if she's
doing that, she's defeating her purpose by making it so obscure.  IOW,
if Snape was openly and known to be a vampire, (or part one) that
would be easier to follow.

Pippin: "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."


It's also a lesson in the consequences for the whole world of bullying
and persecution. That helped make Snape who he is.  Bullying and
persecution are first cousins to bigotry and prejudice.  It's too much
to ask James Potter to like Snape, but it's not too much to expect him
to give Snape his dignity.

Do you feel it's easier, especially for younger readers, to understand
Snape if he is a vampire or part-vampire, a kind of being the wizard
world ordinarily despises?

Jim Ferer