Of Sorting and Snape

sistermagpie sistermagpie at earthlink.net
Thu Aug 16 01:15:14 UTC 2007


No: HPFGUIDX 175539

> Magpie:
> > -m (who thinks the superficial similarties between Harry and 
> > Snape's lives for than anything point up how very fundamentally 
> > different they are--Snape is Billy No Friends due to a 
combination 
> > of his circumstances of birth and life and his personality (which 
> > is influenced by same); Harry is a cool middle class kid 
> > temporarily stuck living with idiots until he goes to Hogwarts.)
> 
> Dana: 
> Well I disagree because essentially many of us do not have loots of 
> friendships in life that really count just one or two people that 
are 
> truly our best friends and Snape did have a friendship that 
mattered 
> that lasted for years until one desire clashed with another and he 
> could not have it both ways. I also do not agree that your 
> personality or the circumstances of your birth define your chances 
in 
> life, they will always be an influence but you are not defined by 
it 
> if you chose not to let it define you. Your personality grows by 
the 
> many experiences you encounter in life and by learning from your 
> mistakes you become a better person. Not facing your mistakes is 
what 
> keeps you from moving on because you can't learn anything if you 
> never acknowledge something as a mistake you made. If you make a 
> mistake you reflect, learn, pick yourself up and start anew. 

Magpie:
I may have given the wrong impression with my sig line. I agree that 
everyone has the opportunities for change--Snape systematically made 
choices that made him more miserable. He had a lot of opportunities 
for better relationships that he rejected.

My point at the end was just that when people talk about the 
characters being alike because of certain similarities in their 
lives, they just don't see alike at all because of the way they're 
characterized. Harry and Snape are both uncared for as kids, 
apparently, but a big part of the appeal of Harry is that while he 
might be living in a fairy tale awful situation, he's also fairy tale 
resiliant. He deals with his life like a normal kid who knows he's in 
a bad situation. (I was fascinated going back and reading the opening 
chapters where you can see that despite his worse circumstances, 
Harry's complaints about the Dursleys are practically designed as 
just an exaggerated version of a healthy kids' complaints.) Once he 
gets to Hogwarts he's the normal kid he is. He's not handicapped at 
all socially. So I just meant I can't look at stuff like Harry 
feeling embarassed or us being told he's dressed in baggy clothes and 
is kept from having friends by Dudley and say that's like Snape. I 
don't feel a bond over that the way some people seem to see it. 

This is not to say that Snape couldn't have made better choices or 
that he was doomed by his background.  

-m






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