M.L. (Ming-Ling/Tama-Neko) ming_ling@hotmail.com
Http://www.ming-ling.net
Originally written: March 21, 2000

NOTE: This was a paper I submitted for my English 4W final at UCLA. I absolutely 
do NOT want this paper published anywere else. This paper is only being 
displayed on my page because I mentioned in my fan-fiction series, "Rose Petals 
and Cherry Blossoms" [http://www.ming-ling.net/ccs/] that one of the characters 
was reading _Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone_ for one of his college 
classes, and that this idea is not far-fetched at all. My English 4W class 
discussed the book for several days before we finished the course and wrote our 
final papers on Huck Finn and Harry Potter. And it was very enlightening and fun.
Who says higher education is boring?

Finding Acceptance
	
	Everybody lives surrounded by a community. Communities define the 
standards of what is acceptable, wrong, and expected of its members. It also 
provides a social and moral backdrop for people to base their actions on. The 
communities from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's 
Stone, and A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings have created unpleasant 
environments for the main characters to live in. Because of this, Huck Finn, 
Harry Potter, and the angel become outcasts, living outside the bounds of their 
societies. Acceptance by a community is often a motivating factor, and this 
forces some of the characters to find a better life in smaller, separate 
communities.
	Different members of Huck's community expect different things from him. 
The adults, especially Miss Watson and the widow Douglas, want Huck to stop 
acting so wild and carefree and settle down. The boys, including Tom Sawyer, 
want Huck to be a member of their robber band. The boys have made their own 
miniature community, and Huck, who doesn't fit into the adults' community, is 
desperate to fit in with his peers. "They talked it over, and they was going to 
rule me out, because... it wouldn't be fair and square for the others... I was 
most ready to cry; but all at once I thought of a way, and so I offered them 
Miss Watson - they could kill her" (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 21). However, 
both the adults and boys expect of Huck to follow their beliefs, especially 
regarding slaves or former slaves. They all believe that slaves are below them 
and have little use outside of working in the fields or in homes. Tom Sawyer 
constantly plays jokes on Miss Watson's slave, Jim. Miss Watson herself was 
thinking of selling Jim because she would get a lot of money for it. 
	Huck does not share their views; he sees Jim as a fellow human being, and 
later a trusted friend. Huck asserts that he won't tell anyone that Jim has run 
away, saying, "People would call me a low down Ablitionist and despise me for 
keeping mum - but that don't make no difference" (Huck Finn, 55). Huck is 
willing to risk his community's criticism because he is already starting to live 
outside of it. He makes the choice to go down the river with Jim, voluntarily 
leaving his society and becoming an outcast. Huck finds a new community on the 
river, consisting only of him and the runaway slave. They both accept each other 
for who they are, and this acceptance cements their growing friendship.
	Huck is not completely free of the larger community. Whenever he returns 
to land, he must face the values and beliefs of the general public. Although he 
prefers life on the river and the raft, he still returns to the shore time after 
time. At other times, the community comes to him on the river, whether passing 
by the large raft and its men or meeting up with the duke and the dauphin. The 
need to be part of the larger community is so strong that Huck is unable to 
completely sever his ties to the land. In the end, he reunites with Tom and goes 
along with Tom's plan to rescue Jim. This agreement to follow Tom shows how Huck 
still wants to fit in with his peers, and is willing to let Tom take the lead in 
order to be accepted again. 
	Harry Potter is also an outcast of his society, although not by choice. 
Like Huck, Harry's community had strict expectations of him. His aunt and uncle 
expected him to be an invisible entity in their home, while his cousin Dudley 
saw him as a punching bag. "At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that 
Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter... and nobody liked to disagree with 
Dudley's gang" (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, 30). He has no friends 
anywhere, because Dudley won't allow it. At home, he is treated like a servant, 
living locked up away from the rest of the world. He is not a part of his 
family's community and is not allowed to take part in the larger community 
surrounding him.
	However, Harry soon becomes a member of the magic community, going to the 
wizard's school of Hogwarts. This society is almost the opposite of what Harry 
is used to from the Muggle community. The people of Hogwarts are generally 
helping, and the atmosphere is a nurturing, educating, and loving one. He makes 
many friends, including several close ones, who accept Harry for his special 
abilities. This acceptance makes the school seem like a paradise for Harry. 
"Professor McGonagall had come around... making a list of students who would be 
staying for the holidays, and Harry had signed up at once. He didn't feel sorry 
for himself at all; this would probably be the best Christmas he'd ever had" 
(Harry Potter, 195). He fits in so well that he would much rather stay at 
Hogwarts than go home. This new community helps Harry grow into a strong and 
brave person, allowing him to realize just who he really is.
	Like Huck, Harry cannot break the ties to his community, but Harry has 
much less choice in this decision. Harry returns to the Muggle community because 
Hogwarts is not a year-round school. Still, he has learned many lessons and is 
able to stand up for himself. He tells his friends from Hogwarts, "They don't 
know we're not allowed to use magic at home. I'm going to have a lot of fun with 
Dudley this summer" (Harry Potter, 309). He has learned that he doesn't need to 
accept everything others give to him. Ironically, this knowledge of both his 
strength of character and magic makes him even more of an outcast in the Muggle 
community. His uncle, aunt, and cousin are terrified of Harry now, and are even 
less accepting of his new ways. 
	Expectations of the community in A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings are 
also very strict. The public expects a heavenly and divine messenger, and they 
are highly disappointed when all they see is a dirty old man living in a chicken 
coop. Angels are supposed to perform miracles, but those of the old man "showed 
a certain mental disorder, like the blind man who didn't recover his sight but 
grew three new teeth" (DiYanni, 390). Instead of fixing things, all the angel 
can do is help in smaller, less important ways. The community refuses to accept 
the old man because he does not fit any preconceptions of an angel. He is 
instantly an outcast, and the people throw stones and old food at him, treating 
him like a sideshow in a carnival.
	However, being accepted is not a concern for the angel. Instead, he 
passively and patiently accepts everything the community does to him. He is 
described as having infinite patience and as being "the only one who took no 
part in his own act" (DiYanni, 390). The angel does not fit in and makes no 
attempt to redeem himself in the eyes of the community. This lack of action 
causes the community to loose interest in him, and they eventually disperse. 
Once the pressures of the larger community have worn off, a smaller community 
forms around the angel, Elisenda and Pelayo, who first rescued the angel, and 
their son. Only the child, unburdened by any previous ideas of what an angel 
should be, fully accepts the old man for who he is, playing with him in the 
chicken coop.
	Unlike Huck or Harry, the angel breaks his ties to both his small 
community and the larger one surrounding it. This is easy for the angel because 
he was never fully a part of either community. In the home of Elisenda and 
Pelayo, the two parents only tolerated him even when their son fully accepted 
him. He is often an annoyance in the parents' lives to the point where Elisenda 
"shouted that it was awful living in that hell full of angels" (DiYanni, 391). 
They see the angel more as their responsibility than as their companion, and 
many of their acts are out of gratitude for the money the angel has brought them. 
The angel was never accepted into the larger community at all, and never tried 
to be. Instead, he hides himself from everyone until new feathers grow in, 
allowing him to fly away almost unobserved.
	Being accepted into a community can be a factor determining many choices, 
but only if a person has always lived in that community. For both Huck Finn and 
Harry Potter, leaving the larger community temporarily is both great fun and 
enlightening, but they both return after they complete their adventures. In 
contrast, the angel only stays in the community for a short time, and was never 
considered a part of it. This allows the angel to leave as soon as the 
opportunity presents itself. The key factor to wanting the acceptance of a 
community is habituation. An outsider has few ties to a community, and these are 
easily broken. On the other hand, if someone is used to living in a certain 
society, he will more likely want to continue living there even if he is not 
accepted or is treated unfairly.

Originally written March 21, 2000. This paper is not to be published under any 
circumstances outside of the author's site, http://www.ming-ling.net
This paper is (c) 2000, M.L. Remember kids, plagiarism is evil. If you wish to 
contact me about this, please email me at ming_ling@hotmail.com