James, a paragon of virtue? Snape, a paragon of virtue?

[vmonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 123376


Betsy wrote:
But is JKR really saying, "Don't worry about it folks. Snape's
still a baddie, James is still good. Please ignore everything
leading up to this point!" ? It doesn't make sense. Not when she's
worked so hard to turn the readers *away* from James and Sirius in
the scene setup. There must be more to it than can simply be judged
by who will say "mudblood" and who won't. And I wonder if JKR is
suggesting that perhaps there is more to a person than their family
background.

vmonte responds:
Well, let's go over the other times JKR was shown us events from the 
past. In Dumbledore's penseive memories we see the Death Eater 
trials, and we are introduced to Barty Crouch and son. JKR leads us 
to believe that Crouch Senior is heartless, and that his son may have 
been innocent. And how about Tom Riddle's diary? JKR also tricks us 
here by showing us Tom as though he is a wonderful boy who saved 
Hogwarts from the monster in the chamber. She also makes us believe 
that Hagrid is responsible for opening the chamber. 

We take what Tom Riddle tells Harry at face value. The real clue in 
that scene is when Dumbledore makes an appearance. He asks Tom 
whether there is something that he is not telling him--this is the 
clue to what is really going on in that scene.

So, yes, I do think that she is tricking us again. Snape's memories 
are only showing us a small part of a larger picture. 

Vivian