[HPforGrownups] Re: Why down on all the characters?/ Dumbledore

[k12listmomma]

No: HPFGUIDX 179452

> Shelley:
> what I have a hard time believing is the naming of the child after
> Snape. That is the much bigger leap of faith, imho, than Harry forgiving
> Dumbledore. Snape, in contrast to Dumbledore, is always pictured as 
> working
> against Harry right from the start, and unlike Dumbledore's actions that
> seem to have a purpose that Harry finally comes to understand, Snape's
> meanness and cruelty to Harry doesn't have a justification in the end.
>
> Lynda:
> But isn't that true forgiveness, to forgive someone who always worked
> against you, as Snape did Harry, in the realization that as wrong as his
> motivations were, and as much as he had against Harry, again for the wrong
> reason--that Lily chose James over him, because of Snape's being drawn to
> the dark arts, enough to name your child after them?

Shelley:
My point wasn't at all about the nature of forgiveness. My point was the 
believability of it in the context of the story JKR wrote. She spends a 
significant piece of the text having Harry mull over in his mind his doubts 
about Dumbledore. She has a scene where Dumbledore asks Harry's forgiveness. 
Thus, in that written context, it's a natural for the reader to agree with 
Harry's complete forgiveness of Dumbledore. But of Snape's redemption, all 
we have are endless pages, 7 books worth, of the tension between Harry and 
Snape, and suddenly, at the end, we are supposed to do this quantum leap of 
Harry forgiving Snape? No, I think it was Rowling's job to SHOW it to us, to 
make us understand why Harry did it, why Harry changed his mind. It's 
unreasonable to me just to say "well, Harry changed his mind, so just deal 
with it", because just saying "Harry changed his mind somewhere" doesn't 
make for a satisfying story, nor does it make for a GOOD story. The good 
author makes you feel it in your soul, the words on the page drive you to 
feel for the character, but in this epilogue, she does such a huge leap that 
I was like "what? No way". That's how disconnected that line was. She didn't 
show me Harry's thoughts, why he forgave Snape, she didn't show us why Harry 
thought that Snape even deserved it. Thus that forgiveness is very shallow 
and totally unbelievable. It would be like saying Sirius and Snape were now 
best friends and very chummy; none of us would believe that without some 
solid evidence of an event that changed things. I don't see Snape giving 
Harry the memories as enough of a significant event- sure it helped Harry 
understand what happened, but there is a HUGE gap between understanding a 
crime and forgiving that crime enough to name your child after the criminal! 
There was a gulf of hatred between Snape and Harry, and you just don't cross 
or repair that gulf with a wave of a wand, as Rowling attempts to do with 
simply saying Harry named his child after Snape. As I said, Snape's meanness 
and cruelty to Harry doesn't have a justification in the end, that it even 
is reasonable that it should be forgiven. It's totally unbelievable for 
Harry to just forgive Snape, and if Rowling was going to have Harry change 
his mind, she should have showed us it, not merely have Harry mane his kid 
after Snape so that we must conclude that it happened somewhere. That 
doesn't make a good story at all.