[HPforGrownups] Would Harry forgiving Snape be character growth for him? Re: CHAPDISC: HBP 29,

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 164178

> Alla:

> Now Harry being right about Snape, well, for example it may end up
> being subtheme of the sort to Love and forgiveness IMO. I mean, it
> is not like it would be shown that by being right about Snape ( if
> he is right of course) Harry has some extraordinary powers of
> perception of something. If Harry is right about Snape, it is just
> **happened**, Harry took that lesson from Snape's interactions with
> him, Snape showed his nature to Harry, Harry did not seek out to
> find what Snape nature is IMO, not till Snape showed his nastiness
> to Harry in all his glory.
>
> Does that make sense?
>
> It can also be a theme of Hero being wiser than his mentor
> eventually, yes.
>
> After all, for all JKR denying comparisons with Star wars, she does
> say that she works in hero journey  genre as well, where wise mentor
> has to die, where hero has to be alone, etc.
>
> And Luke journey for all huge differences with Harry's is a Hero
> journey as well.
>
> And while it is a **very** loose analogy, I believe it works.
>
> Luke turns out to be, you know, **right** about his father, about
> good being in his father and his mentor, you know, wrong.
>
> Does Star wars become any less compelling story, because the hero is
> right and his mentor is not? Not to me.
>
> Now, of course this is a backwards analogy as to result, but the
> principle is the same, so I think it may work quite well.

Magpie:
I don't.:-) Because in HP, Harry wouldn't be wiser than Dumbledore.He's 
based his belief that Snape is working for Voldemort not on wisdom but on 
anger. Understandable anger, but anger that makes him *unwise.* It makes him 
look for evidence that supports what he wants to be true, and it doesn't 
come from his heart or the still portion of his mind, but his angry desire 
for Snape to be wholly evil. (And also on his anger at things Snape has 
done, like kill Dumbledore right in front of him--everybody believes Snape's 
evil after that.)

If Harry was right about Snape it wouldn't be because Harry has a feeling 
for these things--if Snape had been the same person and been nice to Harry I 
doubt Harry would have thought this way about him (he didn't with 
Fake!Moody, for instance). His wisdom would just be that he really doesn't 
like people who treat him like dirt.

The other importance difference is that Luke, unsurprisingly, is the one 
with Dumbledore's view--the view that is more hopeful and sees human beings 
as more complex and redeemable. It's fine for the hero to surpass the 
mentor, but he needs, imo, to stand for something bigger than the mentor if 
he's going to do it, like Luke did. The risk Luke takes is more in keeping 
with his power being love, I think, than would be a Harry who was right 
about Snape, but didn't spend the rest of his life angry over it.

-m