More Human than Human

Often in fiction, the protagonist encounters one or more characters who are radically different from he or she and thus they are labeled as the other. In both L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn this other is conceptualized through the eyes of the child. However, in the cases of Dorothy and Huck, their views become subverted by authoritative figures, which attempt to install their own views of the other upon the child. It is only by freeing themselves from such dictatorial preconceptions of the other that these children are able to form their own views of the other. Yet, both Huck and Dorothy respond differently to there encounters with the foreign. Huck is able to free himself from authoritative mindsets and form his own depiction of the other, where as Dorothy fails in any attempt and only propagates the views of the other that have been bestowed upon her.
The first sentence of The Adventures of Huck...