Snape's plant imagery

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 124287


kempermentor wrote:
> 
> So I'm re-reading Snape's Worst Memory when I come to passage that 
> happens immediately after Harry 'falls' into the memory.  Harry is 
> looking for Snape.
> 
> "And there he is, at a table right behind Harry.  Harry stared.  
> Snape-the-teenager had a stringy, pallid look about him, like a
plant left in the dark."  (OoP, soft, 640)
> 
> 'Plant' not 'weed'.
> 
> Like a plant left in the dark.
> The plant, a symbol of life, is Snape.
> Left in the dark, left out of the light.
> Left to survive in the dark rather than thrive in the light.
> 
> Snape-the-adult tells Umbridge he's worked at Hogwarts for 14 years.  
> Assuming he got the job shortly after embrassing the light that
means he has spent more of his life living in the dark (or with the
dark) than he has in the light.
> 
> Perhaps the plant is still adjusting to life with light. 
> 
> Just something that caught my eye.
> 
> -Kemper

That image caught my eye, too, and it seemed to suggest neglect on the
part of the adults in young Severus's life--his parents, his head of
house, maybe even Dumbledore. I think the boy Severus had enormous
potential, as indicated by the many hexes he knew before even coming
to Hogwarts and by the detailed answers on his DADA exam. Yet
apparently only the much older Lucius Malfoy saw the boy's potential,
and, if I'm not mistaken, led Severus to believe that his abilities
would be recognized and rewarded by Lord Voldemort. Of course this is
just speculation, but that's what the image of the pallid, neglected
plant suggests to me, and I find it very sad. Even now, though he's no
longer round-shouldered and has learned to carry himself with dignity
bordering on arrogance, he's still pallid, still craving recognition.
At least now he seeks it from Dumbledore and not LV.

But the absence of light may also, as you suggest, indicate that he
was raised to believe in the values of the Dark side, which would
explain his early interest in the Dark Arts and his belief (as a
teenager) in the pureblood ideology. Maybe Dumbledore recognized both
the talent and the neglect and tried, after the so-called Prank, to
guide him belatedly toward the side of light. That would explain not
only the adult Snape's loyalty to Dumbledore but DD's own statement
that the young Snape (aged about 21) *returned* to our side.

One more thing about the plant image. It seems to suggest compassion
on Harry's part, a kind of empathy for another neglected boy. How sad,
how ironic, that Snape himself misjudged Harry's reaction to his
younger self. But maybe he'll see something similar in the "weedy"
Theo Nott?

Carol, who's pretty sure that JKR intended the reader as well as Harry
to feel compassion for young Severus