Snape--Abusive?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 115046


Valky wrote:
> That's not fair Casey! Harry *really* did want to acknowledge what 
> Snape did. He *was* grateful, but Snape never exactly gave him the 
> chance to show it. 
> The next time Harry sees Snape after he discovers that Snape saved 
> him their eyes meet and Harry *knows* Snape still hates him as much 
> as ever so he keeps his distance. 
> It's not fair to say that Harry did not want to acknowledge it when 
> clearly he didn't because he couldn't. 
> Whether he wanted to or not doesn't come into it, but I sincerely 
> believe Harry would have walked right up and thanked Snape 
> personally had Snape ever appeared open to it.

Carol responds:
Hi, Valky. I distrust that word "knows" every time I come across it.
(Or rather, the word "knew.") "Harry *knew* he was going to die, for
example. Or he "knew" Snape was going to poison him. A teacher poison
a student? He'd end up in Azkaban or soul-sucked by Dementors. He
"knew" Snape hated him? How could he know that? He can't read Snape's
mind. It's that limited omniscient narrator again, presenting what
Harry perceives as if it were the objective truth. One of these days
I'll make a list of the times the narrator uses "knew" for something
that later turns out to be untrue. We know that Harry hates Snape. We
know that Snape either dislikes Harry or appears to do so (because of
James or because Harry all too frequently breaks the rules and gets
away with it). But we don't know that he hates Harry. Odd how often
he's tried to save his life if that's really the case.

Also, to address a point that Alla made, we don't really *know* that
Snape's criticism of Harry (and Neville) is "constant" rather than
"occasional." We see only a very few Potions classes per year, those
that stand out most clearly in Harry's mind. Those in which nothing
interesting happens (no snide exchanges, no spilled potions) are not
reported.

Carol