[HPforGrownups] Re: respecting Snape

[Kathryn Cawte]

No: HPFGUIDX 101627




> >As I argued earlier - Snape is in a position of
> > authority and whether or not he personally has earned Harry's
> respect, Harry
> > is a student and should be respectful towards all his teachers.
> > > K
>
Christina

> Harry respects teachers like McGonagall who are strict but fair. He trusts
> her. Snape has been nothing but mean to him and you cannot respect someone
> for that. I agree he seems to have done well in his exams, especially if
> Snape leaves him alone to concentrate. I am really going to hate it if the
> end of the books come and Snape says "The past 7 years were all an act,
> Harry, I had to act that way for my undercover missions for Dumbledore. I
> really do like you." That just won't work for me. I admit that after
> re-reading SS and beginning on CoS again that there is something about
Snape
> we are missing. He was all set to be the bad guy in SS but ended up being
a
> good guy. That surprised me. I'm looking forward to more Snape surprises.
> But liking him or respecting him - I don't think so.
>
K

I've said this three times already but in the vain hope that someone might
actually pay attention this time I'll try again. I said that Harry should be
respectful towards Snape *not* that he should respect him. Feeling respect
for someone isn't something you really have control over any more than you
can choose to like someone, but being respectful towards someone is a
totally different matter. Harry has no control over Snape's behaviour but he
does have control over his own and being rude and disrespectful merely shows
that he still has a lot of growing up to do. While I doubt Harry being
polite and well mannered would change Snape's behaviour one iota it would at
least mean that one of them was acting like a 'grown-up' (and while Harry
isn't an adult in the technical sense he is old enough to understand that
the way he acts towards Snape is rude).

And changing the subject slightly (felt I should put that in because on
rereading it looked like I was trying to relate this to the subject of
respectful behaviour and I don't mean to) - while Snape is far from nice to
Harry and co I really don't feel that much sympathy for them. Snape's mean
certainly but it's not like he goes around randomly hexing the kids. He's
mean, so what? Deal with it! If I was on the Hogwarts' faculty and one of
the kids complained to me about Snape I'd have a real urge to tell them to
grow a spine.


Snape feels he has good reason to dislike Harry and so is mean to him.
Harry feels he has good reason to dislike Snape and so is a rude little brat
around him.
Are we seeing a pattern here? Regardless of whether they are right about
having good reason to dislike each other (and for the record I think Snape
doesn't have as much reason as he thinks) both of them are of the opinion
that if they dislike someone it gives them the right to be as unpleasant as
possible (well actually Snape could be a lot more unpleasant if he wanted
and with a little imagination I'm sure Harry could too but they're as
unpleasant as they can reasonably expect to get away with). I guess you
could say that makes them both more honest than the average person since
they don't bother to hide their feelings behind a facade of politeness, but
frankly I think it just makes them both ill mannered. Just because Snape is
mean, doesn't mean Harry has to be and vice versa. Snape's meanness doesn't
excuse Harry's rudeness any more than Harry's rudeness excuses Snape's
meanness.


And on a last note - do I expect Harry to like or respect Snape? No not
really, but that doesn't mean that there aren't things both to like *and*
respect about Snape.

K