HP as Morality Play (was Re: Harry learning from Snape )

[dzeytoun]

No: HPFGUIDX 114772


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "cubfanbudwoman" 
<susiequsie23 at s...> wrote:
> 
> Dzeytoun:
> > I sense that you see in this (and I may be wrong) a kind of 
> > Christian parable with Harry being a sort of martyr/Christ 
> > figure.  Certainly that is one way to interpret things.  
> 
> 
> SSSusan:
> Well, yes & no.  I happen to find many Christian themes & images 
> within the books, yes, and they please me.  But one of the things 
> that I find cool about JKR is that she's written these books in 
such 
> a way that they're NOT screaming "Christian books!" at people, 
> making them feel that if they're not interested in such things, 
> there's nothing within for them.  
> 
> Besides, even if I happen to find things that seem "Christian" to 
> me, those things *aren't* exclusively "Christian."  I mean, what 
> I've been arguing is that I believe Harry will likely find a means 
> of setting aside his dislike, anger, hatred, disrespect [choose 
your 
> term of preference] for/towards Snape in order to focus on 
> what "matters more" to him:  working for the Order, learning all he 
> can to prepare himself to face down Voldemort, working for the side 
> of Good [or for the greater good, if that term appeals more].  I 
> believe he will do this, rather than focus on what might seem 
> more "just," personally, which would be to continue to be hateful 
> and angry towards Snape, to continue to defy him, to continue to 
not 
> try very hard in his classes in order to somehow show Snape that 
> he's not going to take his "abuse."  
> 
> This type of decision, to put one's own self lower on the priority 
> scale than the greater good is *NOT* a Christian-only tenet.  In 
> fact, I'm thinking it's a pretty widespread way of seeing things, a 
> very common part of many people's value systems.  I would say that 
> taking the more "selfish" route of demanding to be treated in X 
kind 
> of way, with that being more important than ANYTHING else [as 
you've 
> said], is a much more *uncommon* view.
> 
> By the way, I do want to mention that nowhere have I argued that if 
> Harry manages to set aside his hatred and "I'm not going to do what 
> HE says" attitude regarding Snape, because he's made a conscious 
> decision that the Order and the defeat of Voldy are more important, 
> that that means he suddenly respects Snape.  I *hope* for a 
grudging 
> respect eventually, for the things Snape has risked & the things he 
> has done on Harry's behalf, but he HAS been a jackass to Harry & 
> Neville in class, and I don't expect Harry to instantly develop 
> respect for the kinds of tactics he has used.  I merely ["merely," 
> as if it'll be easy! :-)] want Harry to CHOOSE to become mature and 
> outward-focused, to CHOOSE to be above snarkiness, pettiness and 
> personal vendettas.  Yes, doing so would be a "Christian" move in 
> one world, but it would also be considered "right" in many, many 
> other moral belief systems.
> 
> Siriusly Snapey Susan

Yeah, I guess that's true.  A lot of it, I suppose, comes down to 
basic differences of personality and experience.  The very idea of 
doing what you propose has always struck me as so totally ludicrous 
that it isn't even worthy of consideration.  And my experience has 
universally been that to act in the way you propose (and I've seen it 
tried, many times) only creates worse situations that are much harder 
to deal with.  Therefore I have never seen that behavior as mature, 
only foolish, unworkable in the longer run, and in a way selfish, as 
it amounts to avoiding the situation and leaving an enormous mess for 
somebody else to clean up later.

I wouldn't bet that we'll ever see a resolution of the Snape/Harry 
conflict in Canon, and if it goes the way you propose I would say its 
enormously poor writing and worth throwing all seven books out the 
window.  Or, to put it another way, I strongly suspect the 
only "resolution" will come after the death of one or the other.  
Anything else just wouldn't be very true to the characters.  Of 
course, after OOTP, my faith in JKR's ability to remain true to her 
characters is minimal.

Dzeytoun