An Analysis of The Other in All of Us, As Evoked by E.R. Burroughs' Tarzan

An Analysis of The Other in All of Us, As Evoked by E.R. Burroughs' Tarzan

Human nature is one of self-awareness. Because of that awareness, it is necessary for us to define ourselves by looking at the world around us and deciding what groups we fall into, and what groups we do not. Those groups we feel a part of become a safe haven, and those groups we feel separated from are seen as foreign, exotic, dangerous, or even subhuman. “The Other” must exist for human beings to define themselves individually. Our recognition of our differences in relation to others gives us our humanity and our individuality. But our curiosity about The Other still remains. Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel, Tarzan, is a discourse on our fascination with otherness: our reactions to “the other,” and our desire to discover how the other sees us. Burroughs’ has structured the novel so that readers are forced out of their traditional roles, taking on those of The Other. In so doing, readers see things about themselves that were invisible to their individual selves, but obvious to outsiders. Burroughs avoids using this technique to reveal any great truths about society, choosing rather to entertain and amuse, but through entertaining his readers, he cannot help but give them a vehicle for rediscovering themselves.

In Tarzan, there are two main kinds of “other,” two worlds, juxtaposed. Tarzan and his jungle constitute one world; Jane and “civilization” constitute another. Orbiting these two main worlds, are several moons, such as the Mbonga village and the mutineers. Tarzan might even be considered a moon, since there is no one like him, and he belongs to no group but his own.

Tarzan’s jungle world would likely be foreign to most rea...

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...girl, but found a new sense of self and identity, as does the reader.

Burroughs has taken the readers on a journey away from themselves and into a place they could never go alone. He takes them outside of themselves, away from all that is safe and predictable, and gives them a chance to be reborn as an “other.” And in remaking the reader into an “other,” the reader is naturally given the opportunity to see society, and perhaps even his own little corner of society, through new eyes. He warns the reader to remember the feelings evoked by Tarzan and to be true to his new self. It is not only the places or events described in Tarzan that make it so enduringly entertaining; it is the chance to see our own lives as something unique, unusual, and significant.

Works Cited:

Burroughs, Edgar Rice. Tarzan: The Adventures of Lord Greystoke. Ballantine Books, 1972.