[HPforGrownups] Harry's story , NOT Snape's (was Re: "An old man's mistakes")

[lady.indigo at gmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 138956

On 8/28/05, lupinlore <bob.oliver at cox.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> JKR has implied pretty strongly that she's following the standard 
> patterns of coming of age/hero's journey literature. Whether that is 
> a good idea or not is another question, but I think we can take her 
> at her word. That means the story is about a Hero's growing up, and 
> in the end facing his challenge alone with HIS OWN DECISIONS being 
> the crucial component of the outcome. 


Interesting that you should say that because (I've been waiting for a good 
time to bring this up) I think a lot of Snape's continuing problems have to 
do with Harry being an utter idiot towards and about him. The instant he 
discovered that his father was a lot of things that Snape had always claimed 
he was, Lupin's "well, we were very young then" nonsense or no, the *first 
thing* Harry should have done was gone to Snape and both apologized about 
poking into his very private things and said "What my father did was 
unforgiveable but I am not my father." It's a lot of his own failings and 
pride that has allowed this relationship to fester into something even worse 
than what he began it to be. (Though Snape has a huge part in this too, 
certainly, and I don't excuse his bitterness or cruelty towards all of his 
students in the least.)

> 
> The problem with Good!Snape, particularly the Dumbledore'sMan!Snape 
> variety of that theory, is that it effect reduces Harry to a puppet. 
> The really important choices, in these scenarios, are those that have 
> been made by Dumbledore and Snape. Dumbledore, through his awesome 
> and far-seeing plan, and Snape, through his wrenching sacrifices, 
> have engineered Voldemort's doom by cementing a traitor at 
> Voldemort's right hand, and Harry is simply the first domino that 
> will set the process in motion at the final confrontation.


Frankly, up until now Harry has BEEN a puppet to everyone around him, 
including Dumbledore, when it comes to the bigger picture as opposed to the 
villain of the day. In HBP it was particularly apparent - "Go this, do that, 
why aren't you being a manipulative little spy FASTER, Harry?!" - and the 
final book is going to be particularly interesting in the fact that now, for 
the first time, Harry really is on his own and acting with his own 
initiative. Thus Harry will have some choices to make where Snape is 
concerned, and those must be dealt with on more than a 'you betrayed us, now 
die' level for it to feel emotionally satisfying to me personally. The 
contrivedness, in my mind, comes from reducing Snape to a black-and-white 
battle, especially in light of what helped him become who he is.

If Rowling is putting too much focus on Snape then it's her own error, but 
he's the emotional arc that's going to drive this ending in the fist place. 
It's the questions in his character - how cruelty breeds cruelty (and 
Snape's cruelty to Harry is fueling our hero's anger in turn), how we judge 
each other, the potential for redemption (Pettigrew can always deal with 
this topic, sure, but frankly I don't care about Pettigrew and I've found 
few other people who do either) - that will have to be what Harry learns at 
some point. He's already made the 'right vs. easy' choice and seen it made 
many times over. It's the question of Snape that's going to make the 
difference, that will have to make the difference. Which means that there is 
still a question. If the answer to his mystery is just that he looked evil, 
acted evil, fell into evil, remained evil, was evil - that's what will 
disappoint me, if that's Book 7's only approach. Rowling's puzzlement over 
Snape's popularity worries me because it implies that she doesn't really 
understand the resonance what she herself has written.

- Lady Indigo


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