Choices/Snape as abuser, SKIP if not interested WAS :Re: CHAPTER
pippin_999
foxmoth at qnet.com
Wed Dec 9 01:07:11 UTC 2009
No: HPFGUIDX 188586
Pippin:
As far as whether Rowling wants us to hate Snape or forgive him, I think we might be missing the point. What she wants us to see, IMO, is how our judgement, like Harry's, is distorted by our feelings. As long as Harry hates Snape, he thinks Snape is capable of doing the worst things that Harry can imagine, regardless of whether there's evidence or not. OTOH, Harry has a hard time acknowledging, much less imagining, any misdeeds of the people he admires, even when they've crossed an obvious line and he's seen it with his own eyes. Or done them himself.
JKR demonstrates it to us over and over again: you can't hate anyone and still be fair to them. You just can't. Even if you are devoted to to the good side through and through and so brave that you would give your life for it. So, IMO, the ultimate choice in the books, and the reason that she says their theme is tolerance (and not courage), isn't between courage and cowardice. It's between hatred and fairness. As long as neither Gryffindor nor Slytherin is able to turn away from hate, the choice between the houses isn't the one that ultimately matters.
Harry ultimately transcends his hatred of Snape. He achieves a state in which he can imagine himself unscarred, undamaged, all his needs met and all his questions answered (except for the one he declines to ask). All despite his inability to console or heal the wounded child he once was (and which Voldemort will become.)
So, I think JKR is asking us, could we not also find a way to ignore the whimpers of the inconsolable child within us? We need not fear that it will leave us unable to respond to the needs of other children. It is those who cannot transcend their own childhood traumas who are unable to help Harry in that way. Snape, of course, but also Petunia and Sirius, not to mention Voldemort himself.
As for Harry, I don't think he speaks to Albus Severus about his middle name in a whisper because this is a huge secret. Albus shows no surprise, unlike when he hears that Harry could have been sorted into Slytherin. IMO, Harry whispers because he knows, from that first experience in Snape's class, how it would feel to be lectured in front of your classmates about something everyone would expect you to know.
Harry returned to the "real" world more sensitive, more able to withstand the desire to return cruelty for cruelty, even when he was pierced by the (finger) nails of his adversary. Harry had no further desire to visit revenge on the Malfoys or quarrel with them, or even force improvement on them, although they never thoroughly change their ways. He has learned that Nemesis is a false god whose worship leads only to moral paralysis.
Dumbledore was unable to hold Grindelwald to account for his crimes because he believed he would then have to account for his own. It was only when DD realized his task was not to punish Grindelwald but to keep him from doing more harm that he was able to act.
I know this post is getting long, but I'd like to add something about the role of Snape and the surviving Marauders. It seems to me that each of them is stuck at one of the stages of grief and is able, through interaction with Harry, to move on to the next stage before his death.
Wormtail is in denial. "I never meant for it to happen." He moves on to bargaining. "You owe me" Harry tells him.
Snape is caught in bargaining, so his move to anger is actually positive, though Harry, caught in the crossfire, probably would not think so.
Sirius is trapped by his anger. "I want to commit the crime I was imprisoned for" (My quotes are from memory here, so please forgive me if they're not exact.) In one of the saddest parts of the books, Sirius moves away from his anger only to find himself in the stage of despair at Grimmauld Place, and does not get the chance to move beyond it.
But that is why it takes courage to move through grief and recover from hatred. The path away from hate is a bitter one in canon, rewarding in the end, but there is no guarantee that one will survive long enough to reach it. Remorse, Hermione warns us, can destroy as well as heal.
It is only Lupin, who begins in despair and self-loathing, who is able to come to full acceptance of James and Lily's death. After recapitulating denial, bargaining, anger and despair in his little talk with Harry at Grimmauld Place, he finally ceases to mourn the Potters, and when he gives his life, it is for the sake of his own son's future, not because he owes it to James.
Pippin
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