Bullying WAS: Re: Prodigal Sons

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 140853

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "M.Clifford" <Aisbelmon at h...>
wrote:

> Going off on my own sort of tangent here, I don't think that people
change. The intimation is certainly touted plenty, but I don't think
that makes it true. What others call change in a person I call
change in the person's perspective and understanding, the person 
themselves remains the same. I think that Vivian and I are alike in 
reading Snape as essentially the same person throughout it all, and I 
agree with Vivian on that because I think JKR also builds her
characters 
upon this philosophy. Snape's mean vindictive behaviour is not the
tragic
legacy of his lonely childhood, it's his real personality. His
childhood, his torment, is fuel for that fire, but the spark is in
Snape himself. 

Pippin:
Um, then there's really no point in JKR telling us to choose what's
right over what is easy, is there. JKR talks about the animal side
of us in her interviews. I think she's getting at the idea that all
of us have instincts to be cruel because it *is* sometimes 
necessary to hurt others for their own good -- the Dursleys have
failed Dudley by their unwillingness to punish him. That
instinct is very strong in Snape -- but he's not a horrible person
because of that. He didn't choose his brain. He's a horrible
person only when he lets that instinct run away with him. 
Maybe you mean that Snape can't change that, in which case
I agree with you.

But I think he can learn to control it, though maybe not as 
well as someone in whom that instinct is weaker, or better 
balanced by the instinct to be fair.

But mostly it's under control -- even among the Gryffindors,
whom he treats worst, it's only Neville who's really afraid of him,
and that fear is not realistic, IMO. His boggart was not Snape
gloating over dead Trevor. It was Snape about to draw his wand.
Unless Neville has some unrecognized abilities as a seer,
that was not based on anything but his imagination. And Snape
is not responsible for what other people imagine he might do.

There's no question in my mind that his instinct does run away 
with Snape sometimes. But that doesn't mean that he can't decide 
that he would rather be the tail among the lions  than the
head among the foxes (or the serpents). Serving Dumbledore
wouldn't make Snape into an angel, and I don't think he is one.
But I think he is Dumbledore's man.

He chose to stay with Dumbledore after Voldemort was first
defeated. Dumbledore wasn't his only option for staying out
of Azkaban. He could have made a deal with Crouch instead.
He could have gone to Durmstrang and studied the Dark
Arts and still have returned to Dumbledore for protection
if Voldemort stirred again, just as Karkaroff was invited to
do. 

Pippin