JKR's Characterization

[Matt]

No: HPFGUIDX 114753


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "scoutmom21113"
<navarro198 at h...> wrote:
> 
> Having read a number of very strong posts from Snape/Sirius
> –philes/–phobes, I would like to ask one question – has
> anyone else noticed that many of the characters are really 
> caricatures?  
> 
> The Dursleys made Harry sleep in a closet; they send him a 
> tissue for Christmas; a teacher is repeatedly "sadistic" 
> toward particular students without comment from school 
> authorities; Gilderoy Lockhart (need I say more?).  These 
> are just a few examples, but IMO the characterizations are 
> a little over-the-top. 
...............
> The magic of JKR's storytelling is that we have all come to love 
> these characters (good and bad) and think of them as real.  

Somewhere in the depths of Yahoo!, there's a post of mine suggesting
that Rowling's most impressive gift is the ability to bring life to
these impossibly caricatured stereotypes, and to turn them into
characters who read as "real."  

-- Matt