Hero types was Re: Another Snape thread/ Snape as hero

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 152012

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at ...> wrote:
>
> 
> > ... I know Harry as  hero of a genre (...) has come up. But 
> > has  anyone ever considered that we might end up with several 
> > literary types of heroes? 
> > 
> > Is the series big enough for that?
> >
> 
> Pippin:
> It's long been a pet theory of mine that we have three literary
> types of heroes in HP. 
> 
> We have Harry, the epic hero. ...
> 
> We have Ron, the romantic hero. ...
> 
> Then we have Snape, the anti-hero. Anti-heroes fly in the face of
> *almost* everything that heroes stand for -- they will never be 
> held up as an example to small children, ... they usually have a
> mysterious  past that turns out to be shady or criminal, ...and 
> disillusioned. They don't resemble heroes in any way -- except 
> that when their internal code demands it, they will risk 
> everything to save a weak or innocent person from harm.
> 
> Pippin
>


bboyminn:

Absolutely Pippin, I think you are right on track. In moderm 'myth'
nearly every hero has his companion 'anti-hero' as in Luke Skywalker
and Hans Solo. 

I will add another point to the discussion. One can act heroic without
being considered or classified as a hero. I think this will be Snape's
ultimate fate. Some heroic act or acts will show us that he was on the
right side, but that doesn't erase everything he has done in his life;
he was a Death Eater, he did kill Dumbledore, etc.... 

Circumstances may come about in which we see some heroic aspects in
Snape's killing of Dumbledore. That is, for the greater long term
good, it was the necessary thing in that moment. While, at some point
in the future, using hindsight, we may see the heroic nature of that
act, we will never consider Snape a hero for doing it. 

I think it is possible that at some point in the distant future the
wizard world will come to understand the nature and need of Snape's
action intellectually, I don't think emotionally, they will ever
forgive him.

So, the central point is that it is possible to act herioc without
actually being the hero. 

Don't know if that helps but there it is.

Steve/bboyminn