Snape's plant imagery

[M.Clifford]

No: HPFGUIDX 124292


> 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.
> 

Carol: 
> 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,...edit... but that's what the image of the 
pallid, neglected plant suggests to me, and I find it very sad.
> 
> But the absence of light may also, as you suggest, indicate that he
> was raised to believe in the values of the Dark side,....

Valky:
I agree with you Carol, and Kemper, I am sure the plant imagery is 
used by JKR in the same way done so many other characters throughout 
the books, to say samoething huge about it while only literally 
saying something apparently insigificant. I like the way that both 
of you have understood it and I agree. 
Just one thing I would like to add.
Sirius' house of a dying person, Bodes sepulchral voice, I wonder if 
we might also think over how the plant left in the dark could have a 
more /literal/ meaning like these ones. I mean, is there an actual 
plant that might hae something to do with Snapes mystery, for 
example, the reason Dumbledore trusts him. Or could it be to do with 
Devils Snare? That's just and odd thought that came to mind while 
thinking about how right you both were.