Evil Snape

[Renee]

No: HPFGUIDX 154260

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at ...> wrote:
>
> >
> > Nikkalmati:
> > Example: his certain belief in his own POV leads him to
misrepresent to the
> > Order what DD told him about why Snape left LV.  HBP 616 "Snape
passed  
> > Voldemort the information that made Voldemort hunt down my mum and
dad.
> > Then Snape 
> > told Dumbledore he had not realized what he was doing, he was 
really sorry
> > he'd done it, sorry that they were dead." We know DD told Harry 
Snape came
> > to him with some story long before the Potters were killed, so
that  is a
> > distortion in Harry's thinking.  
> > 
> > 
> > Sherry now:
> > 
> > Is that actually deliberate misleading, or is it just the anguish
of just
> > having seen Dumbledore die and not seeing or saying things
clearly.  It's a
> > long time since I read HBP, but didn't he just find out this juicy
bit of
> > info that night, before going off with Dumbledore?  I never
considered it to
> > be deliberate, but more just the natural way things get tangled up
in the
> > immediate aftermath of a sudden and shocking situation.  Harry had
certainly
> > been through a hell of a lot that night!
> > 
> 
> Pippin:
> No, it's not deliberately misleading, but it's still arrogant and
wrong. 
> Crouch Sr. didn't think he was putting an innocent man in prison when
> he sent Sirius off to Azkaban without a trial. He was just so
certain of 
> his assumptions that he didn't see any point in letting them be 
> questioned. I'm sure that is  part of the point Rowling is getting at: 
> that many  more people do evil by carelessly assuming they are 
> right than by deliberately setting out to do wrong. 
> 
> The very fact that we want Harry to be right so much shows us why it is
> not time for him to be right yet. After all, which is the braver and
more
> interesting hero, the one who takes up the torch and strides confidently
> to victory, or the one who takes up the torch, stumbles, and reaches the
> finish line by the skin of his teeth?
> 
> Pippin
>


Renee:
You're right, Harry's wrong to misrepresent Dumbledore's words, but I
still fail to see why this is arrogant. Harry ignores the possibility
that he's missed something, that Dumbledore's assessment of Snape was
correct, not because he's an arrogant prick who thinks he's always,
right, but because he insists on believing the worst of Snape. I'd
rather call this bias or prejudice. Harry is also judgmental (and not
just in this scene) and needs to learn to reserve judgement until he's
got all the facts. But to me, that's not the same as arrogance. I've
looked up a dictionary definition of the term, and I don't think it
describes Harry Potter: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/arrogance