looks determining character

[hickengruendler]

No: HPFGUIDX 139670

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "hekatesheadband" 
<sophiapriskilla at y...> wrote:
 
> 
> But I think the Harry filter is at least as much a factor
> here as it is with the unpleasant characters. The Harry-Narrator 
voice
> doesn't use words like "fat" to describe people he likes, another
> stroke of realism: people in general are inclined to think of
> overweight friends as "heavy-set" and overweight enemies as
> "disgustingly fat," or the like.
> 
<snip>
> 
> So I suppose the overall impression, at least as it strikes me, is
> that beautiful, ugly and in-between people are found in equal
> proportions on all moral sides. It's just that Harry's memory and
> perspective, like anyone's, tend to minimise his friends' bad traits
> and maximise his enemies'.
> 
> -hekatesheadband
 
Hickengruendler:

I think it's more than that. IMO, it's the narrator trying to 
influence the readers. My evidence for this is, that the choice of 
words is already the same, before Harry really gets to know them. 
Molly Weasley is simply described as round the moment Harry sees her 
for the first time at King's Cross. That's before he gets to know her 
and before she mothers him. Compare this with the description of 
Dolores Umbridge (who I think is a great villainess, by the way) 
during the hearing. Even before she opens her annoying mouth, she is 
already described in very unflattering and nearly grotesque terms. 
This is not Harry's bias here. It's the narrator "helping" the 
readers to decide whom to like or whom not. Of course it's not always 
the case. Especially those characters whose true motivations need to 
be a kept a secret before the climax, like Quirrell or Tom Riddle, 
are either average or pretty good looking. But I stand by my opinion, 
that while it is pretty often the case in the books, that good 
looking people are worse than they seem to be on first glance, it's 
very seldom the case, that the ugly looking people are better than 
expected. Snape, who looks exactly like the classic villain, was an 
exception to this, even though he certainly is not a pleasant person. 
I do think that him turning out to be the villain he currently seems 
to be, would take away some of my pleasure in the books.