BOOK: The Chamber of Secrets
CHAPTERS: 11
SYNOPSIS: The students join the new dueling club where we find out Harry has a gift.
POSSIBLE DISCUSSION TOPICS
* Snape's Reaction to Harry being a Parselmouth
* The Sorting hat's statement to Harry, "You would have done well in Slytherin"
It's the little things that matter - I like how JKR makes Harry a little bit sad that no one cared if his bones had grown back or not. She really gets tweens. How old was her daughter when she wrote this?
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think Snape goads Harry so much? Why does he constantly pit him against Malfoy?
SPOILER
Is it all for show? Is he trying to stay on the Malfoys' good side? Is he trying to prepare Harry for the future? Is he just that vindictive?
SPOILER
ReplyDeleteI really think he's just incapable of liking Harry, no matter what he does. Harry is the culmination of the worst failure of his life (not getting Lily) co-mingling with his biggest humiliation (his torture at James's hands). We know that Snape isn't exactly a guy with great moral fiber to begin with so it's not surprising that he would take out his own feelings of inadequacy on a small child, particularly one who so much resembles his parents.
I think, in the beginning, the way he pits Harry and Malfoy together is really just a plot device to add dramatic tension and doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot in the long run. I do think it's interesting that half the stuff he accuses Harry of being (arrogant, bullying, stupid...) are really traits Malfoy posesses in spades.
Snape also possesses those traits. If you look, most bullies are really cowards underneath it all, and are mean to everyone around them in the hope that no one will ever discover their shameful secret...their cowardice. Snape, Dudley, and Draco all fit this mold.
ReplyDeleteI love it when someone (Ron?) asks wouldn't it be a great thing if Lockhart and Snape killed each other off. One of my favorite lines in the book.
Romana
To my way of thinking, Snape can't abide Harry because of his history with Harry's father AND his mother; too much history to ignore.
ReplyDeleteI think the biggest reason he pits Harry and Malfoy against each other is this: Malfoy is the only Slytherin with enough brains to even be close to the same category as Harry. Tell me; have you heard of any other Slytherin with intelligence? Marcus Flint looks like he has Troll blood in him, Pansy Parkinson is stupid, Crabbe and Goyle can hardly string two words together...who else IS there? Because of Snape's history, it would gall him more than words could describe to allow Potter to win at ANYTHING, even jack straws!