Blog Post #2

The entire series I have thought that the take away message on Snape is that just because you think someone is bad, doesn't mean they are. Throughout the series, up until the Half Blood Prince, Snape always looks bad, but in the end it's always proven that he's not really bad. However Rowling has ruined that perspective, since Snape is in fact bad.

In the earlier books every time we think Snape is out to get Harry, it ends up being the opposite. In the Order of the Phoenix we find out that Snape is a member of the order, which proves again that Snape is a trusted person. We also find out that he is a reformed Death Eater and  Dumbledore trusts him enough to vouch for his character.

Of course this all changes when Snape kills Dumbledore.  When I first read it I really thought that it was all going to be a trick. I thought it was a set-up to make Snape look like he was in on it, but really he wasn't. Then the book ended without the big reveal. I didn't really know what to think.

I think that Rowling's is pointing out that just because someone is trusted, doesn't mean they can be trusted. In other words don't trust anyone.  She even plays with idea when Harry thinks Hagrid might have opened the Chamber of Secrets. She wants you to think that there might be a hidden agenda in everyone.

She plays the same game with Sirius Black. When we first hear about Black, he's  a criminal, who everyone fears. Then  later we find out he's not what we thought he was. She's able to make us first hate and fear Sirius and then by the end of the book we not only accept him as good, but we grow to like him.

Sirius also mirrors Harry's mother in the fact that he dies fighting for Harry. This is the ultimate change in character. Not only did he go from being hated, to loved, but then he loved Harry enough to give up his own life.

We learn with Black that we shouldn't judge a book by its cover just like we did with Snape. The only problem with Snape is that we eventually learned we should have judged him by his cover. Rowling also shows us in both these characters that wizards and humans are fluid. Just because we think we see something in them, doesn't really mean it's there. However, sometimes it is.