What if other teachers behaved like Snape?

[LadySawall at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 101158

In a message dated 06/13/2004 3:53:34 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com writes:

(Snip another pro-Harry, anti-Snape oration by...)
Darrin
-- AND SNAPE IS STILL THE ADULT!!!! 
---

Jo Ann:

All right, look.

Adults aren't perfect.

Neither are fifteen-year-olds.

They've both had it rough.  They're both scarred.  We know in excruciating 
detail what Harry has suffered pretty much throughout his entire life, because 
we've been reading along.  We don't know everything that's ever happened to 
Snape, and therefore we can't make a point-by-point comparison which would tell 
us whether his life was better, equally bad, or worse than Harry's.

They've both behaved like brats, on numerous occasions and to varying 
degrees.  Each has some valid reasons to dislike the other--if not in the beginning, 
then certainly by the time of OotP.  Yes, Snape started the whole thing, but 
Harry regularly contributes to it.  They both have the power to bring it to an 
end, or at the very least to turn down the heat.  Neither chooses to exercise 
that power--I suspect because neither one really wants to.

Comparing their behavior in the present time is an apples-and-oranges 
proposition.  We don't know for sure what Snape would have done at age fifteen in the 
same situation, and we can't be certain that Harry at thirty-six(ish) will be 
any better adjusted or more responsible than Snape is now.  (Given his 
downhill slide throughout OotP, and Sirius' death, I expect things to just get worse 
in the next book.)

They both have redeeming qualities.  We know more about Harry's because we 
ride around inside his brain.  Perhaps we'll see more of Snape's later on.  Or 
maybe we won't--we can't know until more books are published.

Various people, both in the story and in RL, have their own reasons for 
liking or forgiving each character.  Many people on both sides have valid points.  
They are coming at it from different life experiences which, in turn, have 
given them different values and priorities.  Thus they inevitably reach different 
conclusions based on the same evidence.

*Regardless* of whose fault it was--irrelevant, I say!--the memories are out 
of the Pensieve, the lessons were ended, and Sirius is dead.

Can we please move on?

Jo Ann


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