Good Slytherins was Re: looks determining character

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 139785

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Sherry Gomes" <sherriola at e...>
wrote:
> >vmonte:
> JKR needs to show a Slytherin that is on the good side.
> 
> >CathyD:
> One word: SNAPE.
> 
> vmonte:
> One word: Nope! 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sherry now:
> 
> I have to agree with Vivian on this.  In fact, when the character of
> Slughorn was introduced I thought, aha!  At last, our good Slytherin
> character.  
<snip>
On the other hand, if Snape turns out to be good, he's almost
too noble to be a worthy example of Slytherin.  Out for himself 
Snape would be another manifestation of the ultimate Slytherin, 
but a good and honorable Snape would almost seem to be more 
Gryffindor than Gryffindor!  (tongue firmly planted in cheek!)

Pippin:
Mcgonagall claimed that all four houses had a noble history. Just
as there are parselmouths among the great and good, there may 
yet be Slytherins.

I don't think the typical Slytherin is as self-centred as the
Slytherin ideal, just as the typical Gryffindor isn't as altruistic
as Harry. I've puzzled over whether the Sorting Hat's "Or perhaps in
Slytherin/You'll make your real friends" was supposed to be ironic. 
But in HBP Dumbledore says he is surprised that Draco would let 
Fenrir into the school "where his friends live" We know from his 
conversation with Voldemort that Dumbledore doesn't take that 
word lightly.

It seems that Dumbledore doesn't assume that Slytherins
aren't capable of friendship. But according to the Hat, it's difficult
for Slytherins to make real friends outside their House, though
Godric and Salazar were once close.

I am beginning to think the difference as a whole reflects a cultural 
misunderstanding rather than something innate. Though certainly
Voldemort has been robbed of his capacity to love and Harry some
how dealt an extra portion, that does not seem true of Slytherins and 
Gryffindors generally. The Slytherins may not be, on average,
innately more selfish than the Gryffindors. They may simply reflect a
culture that's more accepting of open self-interest. 

Gryffindors attempt to keep their self-interest decently cloaked,
for example McGonagall's sly insults to Trelawney or Lupin's
sly insults to Snape as opposed to Snape's open disparagement of 
Lupin. To Harry it seems  Snape is  so mean-spirited that he's 
unable to control himself, but it may be that he  comes from 
a culture that doesn't see any virtue in pretending that 
mean-spiritedness doesn't exist. 

These kinds of differences exist in real life. I remember reading
the introduction to a collection of stories by the Yiddish author
Sholem Aleichem, in which the translator explained that she had
had to soften the language which the characters used to trade
insults, because an English-speaking reader would never
believe that people who spoke that way to each other could
really be friends.

In other words, for Harry to discover the good Slytherins, he may
have to learn to think about Slytherin behavior in a different way.

Pippin