Harry vs. Charlie
Charlie is poor, lives with his parents and both sets of grandparents and rarely has any means of acquiring material goods, not that they are of much importance to him. He eats cabbage soup when he eats anything at all. But he loves his family and has learned to accept his existence. Because of his life of poverty, Charlie has an overdeveloped set of values. He is forthright, honest to a fault and has a respect for order and authority that is foreign to other children, specifically the ones who win the Chocolate Factory tour contest with Charlie.
Harry shares Charlie’s courage and values, but unlike Charlie, those qualities land Harry in trouble more than it sets him apart from other children.
Harry has no parents. Anyone who wants to play the part of Harry’s father figure usually ends up dead. Harry is also far from impoverished, even though his fortune does little to affect his values. In that regard, Harry and Charlie are philosophically opposed. Charlie’s values are molded through his poverty. Harry’s values are unaffected by his wealth.
Both seem to arrive at the same place despite their economic status. Harry and Charlie share similar values in their makeup, but that’s about where their similarities end.

Harry vs. Frodo Baggins
Frodo from “The Lord of the Rings” is the reluctant hero given an impossible task. He must destroy the ring, the one ring that grants its wearer unimaginable power, but also leads the bearer on a path of self-destruction and obsession. Frodo succeeds, although loses a piece of himself, both figuratively and literally, in the process.
Harry is given a similar task. But unlike Frodo, Harry willingly accepts his mission, find the Horcruxes and destroy them. He does so bravely, without question and to a degree blindly.
Both accomplish their tasks. Both learn that trust, friendship and love are the greatest powers to possess. No ring or Hallow can replace the treasures found in family and friends.
But they both achieve their goals by very different means. Frodo must struggle with his fears and doubts to arrive at his destination. Then he almost self-destructs in the process.
Harry has been manipulated through his journey almost from the very beginning. Dumbledore, Harry’s most trusted, most influential companion along the way turns out to be his greatest manipulator. It is only by chance that Harry survives the final attack by Voldemort. And unlike Frodo, Harry is given a choice between life and death, with death presented as the more pleasant option. It is certainly the most peaceful and holds a greater promise.
Frodo fights for his life, and for the life of all to follow. For Frodo, death means failure. His final battle, with Gollum, ends in pain and suffering, even though the ring is destroyed and Middle Earth is saved. Frodo survives his final encounter with the ring and Gollum, but a part of him dies as well.

Harry vs. Alice in Wonderland
Alice asks to find a world of nonsense and finds it. Then she embarks on a frustrating journey trying to makes sense of her nonsensical world.
Harry finds a similar world of nonsense in his magical settings. The Ministry, Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, all the places Harry’s visits in his magical world are unfamiliar and sometimes unsettling. But unlike Alice, Harry adapts to his new surroundings. Alice makes the mistake of trying to have her surroundings adapt to her.
Part of Harry’s character is that he is an adolescent boy trying to find acceptance. This is true of any boy Harry’s age. That he is looking for acceptance in a wizard world is of little significance. It could happen anywhere for a 11, 12, 13 year old boy who is trying to find himself.
Alice has no such struggle. Her adventure starts as a cure for boredom and ends with the moral: Be careful what you ask for.
Alice asks for trouble and gets it. Harry makes no such requests. Yet trouble often seems to find him. Alice and Harry are placed in similar settings, strange and foreign. But each navigates through their settings quite differently. Harry desperately wants to fit in and to a degree disappear. Alice wants a world free of sense and design. But when she sees it and experiences it, she has a quick change of heart.

Harry vs. Huck Finn
Huck and Harry share a number of similarities. “The Deathly Hallows” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” read similarly as well. It probably wasn’t by design. It would be hard to accept that Rowling modeled her British boy wonder after an icon of Americana, and one that is so deeply rooted in simpleness. Huck and Harry share the same sense of bravery and courage. Their journeys are eerily similar. Rowling’s use of dialect is a similar tool used by Mark Twain. The major difference is that Rowling had to create some of her own dialects, parseltongue for example, whereas Twain had existing ones to utilize.
Huck’s trip up the Mississippi River is much like the hopscotch camping trips Harry, Ron and Hermione make through “The Deathly Hallows.” The only thing missing in “The Deathly Hallows” was Dobby playing the role of Jim, although Hermione does an adequate job of filling that gap.
Huck’s journey begins aimlessly and ends at a destination of self-discovery. Harry’s journey at least begins with a purpose and goal. But his route starts as aimlessly as Huck’s. Harry and his friends are left wandering in search of Horcruxes and Hallows through a cloud of confusion and frustration.
Huck wanders along the Mississippi River searching for an escape, but ends up battling his own beliefs and fears that create confusion and conflict in his conscious.
Harry and Huck are both pawns in their journeys. Harry is different in that he never expects that he is the pawn. Huck has little trouble accepting his place in society, be it pawn, bishop or king. And Huck gets a chance to play every role genuinely. Harry is under the illusion that he controls his own destiny, but in the end, it is revealed he never had control of his own fate.
Huck may never have been in control of his fate either, but it didn’t bother him. Pawn or king, it was all the same to Huck. That is their major difference. Harry struggles to control his fate. Huck has no such desire, to the degree that he cares more about the fate of Jim than his own.
But through their struggles, Huck and Harry become the same self-less character. When Harry realizes his fate, he accepts it. By luck, he survives his impending doom. Huck has no sense of self-lessness, but the way he treats Jim turns Huck into one of the most self-less characters of his time. Both are fighting for the greater good. Harry just has a better sense of his purpose. Huck doesn’t care and doesn’t want his existence to have any purpose.

Harry vs. Winnie-the-Pooh
This is a stretch, but Harry and Winnie-the-Pooh have one thing in common that cannot go unnoticed. Both are the tabla rasa, the clean slate. Winnie-the-Pooh only had to pull this off through two books. Harry had to do it through seven. And in the seventh book, the reader sees how much of a blank slate Harry really is.
Winnie-the-Pooh has no desire to discover his identity. It not something a bear of very small brain dwells on. Keeping Winnie-the-Pooh pure and unaffected is not much of a challenge.
But Rowling was able to keep Harry pure and unaffected through seven books, through challenges of emotions, trust, desire and survival. In the end, Harry remains true to his heart and overcomes his greatest threats. It is a quality that he reveals to goblins, the Malfoys, even Voldemort. Harry is not influenced by greed or power. They have little value to him, much like Winnie-the-Pooh has little need for those things. Good friends and a pot of honey are all anyone needs to be happy.
Harry knows that from the start and never loses sight of it.