Snape detractors unsophisticated?

[leslie41]

No: HPFGUIDX 137767


I think that in terms of canon, those who believe in ESE!Snape 
really have the upper hand, in many ways.  

Snape. Kills. Dumbledore. All the major characters by the end of the 
book think Snape is evil. And the interviews Rowling has given 
indicate very clearly that she thinks anyone who believes that Snape 
isn't evil is holding onto some illogical hope. Something else that 
isn't mentioned here often enough here is that whatever impressions 
we have about the characters need to be filtered through the fact 
that these are books for children.  We are adults, and we read the 
books as adults, but my guess is that children on the whole truly 
loathe Snape, and would have quite a difficult time in the end 
accepting him as anything but loathesome.  They feel the same way 
about him that Harry does, I would think.  

There's subtle canonical evidence to support that Snape isn't evil, 
or at least that it isn't as simply as that, anyway.  This evidence, 
however, has to be teased out and explicated (some would say 
rationalized) at great length.  And from what I've seen there's a 
lot of spurious and extremely far-reaching and completely illogical 
theories about anything and everything concerning Snape.      

It's not that the ESE!Snape folks are lacking in sophistication, 
necessarily, or that they don't support their views with canon.  I 
think, truthfully, that many people like and admire Snape in many 
ways, and identify with him.  That colors a lot of what people 
think.  I want to admire Snape, and I think there is enough evidence 
in the books to support admiring him.  

But in the end, I don't like the idea that Snape is evil, because I 
don't really like the message it sends.  

Think about it.  Snape is ugly, poor, unpleasant both physicially 
and personally. He's that outsider in high school, the "greasy" guy 
with oily hair that everyone edges away from, loathed in school by 
all the cool kids and tormented by them as well. He grows into an 
equally greasy man with yellow teeth who spits when he gets angry.  
and is just a repulsive person overall, it seems.

How sad if he turns out to be truly evil, because then the message 
that's sent--to kids especially--is that the poor, ugly unpleasant 
person is bad, and in league with all the bad people out there.  
Ugly and poor physically equals ugly and poor morally. That, for me, 
would be sad.    

How much more thought-provoking would it be for Rowling to present 
children with this foul person, hated by the main character (a very 
attractive boy, by the way) who turns out to be good after all?  Who 
is capable of change?  Whose looks do not at all reflect his 
morality?

If Snape is in the end good underneath all that grease and spit, it 
would be a wonderful thing indeed.  Because it would illustrate the 
difference between generic "niceness" and prettiness, and true 
virtue. 

The beautiful, wealthy and "nice" people are not necessarily good, 
no matter how much we would like to believe they are. It's a 
complicated difference that children especially need to be attuned 
to.  Sometimes it's that seemingly unpleasant old lady in the 
unkempt house who turns out to be the soul of charity and decency, 
and it's the upstanding, handsome, friendly fellow who lives in the 
best neighborhood in town that turns out to be the child molester.  
In fact, in my experience, that is often the case.  

I have plenty of canonical reasons why I think Snape isn't evil.  
But this is the real reason behind why I don't *want* him to 
be.         

Leslie41