Snape & Harry

[dzeytoun]

No: HPFGUIDX 101427

Kneasy:
> The hurt you mention is deliberately placed there by JKR; she's 
admitted as
> much. In one interview she tells of a mother who wrote to her 
saying that
> she  didn't like her children reading such things. JKR responded 
saying that
> in that case they'd better  not read any more of the books, because 
Harry 
> was going to continue to suffer. There must be a reason for all 
this hurt
> you dislike; unless of course  JKR has sadistic tendencies and 
enjoys putting
> Harry through the mill.


Now, now.  Let's try not to be nasty.  Everyone knows that JKR put 
that in the books, who else could have put it there?  And no one 
expects that Harry Potter will suddenly turn into Pollyanna.  All 
that is being said is that Snape's attitude and remarks are deeply 
hurtful.  It really doesn't matter whether he is playing a part or 
not.  It also is beside the point what his motivations are.  His 
remarks and attitude are deeply hurtful, period.

It may turn out that Snape is playing a part.  I personally deeply 
doubt it.  I think all the evidence points to the fact that he 
genuinely hates and despises Harry, and Dumbledore, as the Headmaster 
himself says, underestimated the depths of Snape's feeling.  I may, 
however, be proved wrong.

It may turn out that some students react well to Snape's methods.  We 
don't know.  The idea that he is an excellent Potions master and his 
students do well is pure speculation.  My own experience as a teacher 
is that very few students react well to such methods, and the result 
is almost always poor learning and deep emotional pain.  But it may 
turn out that Snape is an exception.  Snape certainly gives the 
students experience in dealing with nasty, unkind people, who make up 
a distressingly large percentage of the population.

It is to remember that even JKR admits that Harry's suffering is 
extreme and extraordinary.  She has also expressed on several 
occassions amazement that anyone would actually defend Snape.  Is she 
correct?  Who knows?  Literature has a life of its own beyond the 
author's intent.  But while we are discussing what she has and has 
not put in, let us remember that she acknowledges the hurt that Snape 
does, and she does not seem to be very sympathetic or forgiving 
toward him, purpose or not.

Dzeytoun