Thoughts on Severus: how does he fit in?

[John Paul Smith]

No: HPFGUIDX 176698

Hey Group,

I'm new and noticed that you talk about the role of Snape a bit
and I wanted to re-examine in the strata of modern literature as
a whole as I think he is the most important literary figure in
the books and we will more than likely see him emulated down the
road.

My overall thought after reading Deathly Hallows is as follows.
With all of the HP series, Rowling uses timeless archetypes to
fill out her stories.  If you take the obviousness of Star Wars
you can see this quite clearly. Take the SAT Route: Harry Potter
Series is to Star wars as:

Harry = Luke Skywalker (the young hero)
Dumbledore = Ben Kenobi (learned master)
Hagrid = Chewbacca (loyal retainer)

And so on and so forth, etc, etc. However, and what I have been
racking my brain about is "Where does Snape fit in this equation?"
Not Star Wars mind you but as an archetypal character? I have been
racking my brain about him and I can't seem to locate one. The
closest I come is close to an anti-hero but it doesn't quite fit,
does it? A good example of modern anti-hero is Travis Bickle in
Taxi Driver. But Snape always does the right thing throughout
the course of the books. Maybe not his past history, but through
the series he does, yes? So he is good, but he can't allow people
to know. Why? Therein is the issue I think.

Anyways, just thought I'd share. Given the popularity of the
books, I think we will see this come up again and again in the
not so distant future.

JP Smith
Graduate Student
University of Southern California