[HPforGrownups] There it goes again! Objectivity out the window.

[Barbara Key]

No: HPFGUIDX 175271

> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67"
> <justcarol67 at ...> 
> wrote:
> > Either you like the Marauders,
> > empathizing with Sirius, who went after Peter
> Pettigrew to avenge
> > James and ended up spending twelve years in
> Azkaban and later 
> rattled
> > around his parents' hated house drinking and
> feeling depressed, or 
> it
> > turns your stomach every time he calls Snape
> Snivellus while snape
> > (who returns his animosity with cool sarcasm) is
> out risking his 
> life
> > for Harry and DD (and, as it turns out, Lily),
> atoning for his past
> > mistakes while receiving little praise or
> gratitude and no affection
> > (except, occasionally, from DD).
> 


How very strange. I seem to be living in a very small
HP world where my two favorite characters are Sirius 
Black and Severus Snape.

I howled with rage with Sirius died and I howled with
pain when Severus died. (Sidenote: I have started
calling him Severus. Since most people use Sirius's
first name, it only seemed fair)

JKR set us up to feel disgust and hatred for both men.
Both were accused of doing foul things. Both looked
evil. One turned out to be innocent of the crime for
which he was sent to prison. The other did something
wrong, repented it and fought the evil that he had
once joined. Both men died fighting that evil.

JKR showed how much she disliked Severus Snape in many
ways. Even his name is an attempt to make us dislike
him at once. Snape is only one letter away from Snake.

First, as you reread the stories notice how often she
doen't give him the title of Prof. She does this for
the other professors at Hogwarts, but not him. In the
same paragraphs where she talks about Prof Moody,
Prof. Sprout, etc., JKR will refer to Severus as
Snape.

Second, even though he is an adult, she keeps him
dirty. Harry describes him as skinny and having dirty
hair.

When I was taking a course on the recognition of
abused children, two of the characteristics of abused
children are their being underweight and being
continuously dirty. Parents who want people to stay
away and not like their abused children will actually
keep them from being clean. In society, people don't
like to be around anyone is dirty - it is seen as if
that person is less human than us. 

JRK keeps us and all the other characters away from
Severus by her descriptions of him.  But I got to see
through the description and found a man I liked -
lonely, sad, brave, guilt-ridden, brillant, and abused
by his own creator. 

I also liked Sirius - even in OotP. He was also
lonely, sad, brave, guilt-ridden ("if he had not
trusted Peter"), maybe not so brillant, but not abused
by his creator.

My world is small, but I like it.

Barbara