An Outsider In Ball State University's Parade

In An Argument for Being a Poser, Liz Armstrong describes the crucial dilemma every young person faces about their identity, and to which subgenre do they belong to. Armstrong argues that such question can be both totally ridiculous, and actually very important; which leads to beginning of the process of discovering “who you are.” Furthermore, she describes the fictional subculture that you chose for your escape; within your chosen subgenre you don’t have to pretend to be different, and people understand you. In other words, your chosen subgenre is your place of escape, it is the place where acceptance and freedom is present. Besides, the fact of looking for a hidey-hole, she informs us with a life changing situation at the age of 16 years old. She describes the experience as being life changing, the kids she came across were simultaneously were role-playing and professing as being someone which they weren’t part of. Consequently, Armstrong used that moment to adapt to new change, which she describes as “not dressing up or being normal again.” She describes herself looking like a punk one day with a spiked collar, a crushed-velvet mini skirt the another day. Thus, for that reason she couldn’t fit in with honor students, nor the art kids. She couldn’t fit in with the honor student because for them she was too weird, but for the art kids she couldn’t draw. For this reason, she went from being a straight-A student to a what she describes a poser. Furthermore, Armstrong argues

Oftentimes, in the public, people have to be “normal” to be successful and accepted. Author William Saroyan believes that society steers people to be conformed and fit in, but he wants people to be able to be diverse. In the short story “Gaston,” Saroyan shows that carving a unique path can turn out to be erroneous. Through symbolism and contrast, Saroyan conveys the theme that society does not always accept people’s differences.

We witness cases of alienation in the texts The Scarlet Letter and A Streetcar Named Desire, which are presented mainly in the female protagonists Hester Prynne and Blanche DuBois. However, although both characters experience isolation from their respective societies, it is my contention that the causes for their isolation are different. While Hester’s isolation is largely societal, Blanche experiences two different kinds of isolation. Blanche’s isolation is societal with regards to her expulsion from Laurel, whereas her

Citizens of Pleasantville have certain knowledge about themselves and society, but because there is no exposure to differing ideas, individuals are stuck with the same opportunities and values. A specific example of this includes the community’s view on gender roles: men hold power as the head of society and women stay at home to cook and clean. There are no opportunities to change this structure, as the communication of ideas is restricted to what is known and not to anything new. The town leadership fears a true deviation from the accepted social order, and as a result, the citizens of Pleasantville conform to this system to prevent conflict. While this lifestyle provides harmony and order, conformity actually limits society from growing and enhancing. On the other hand, when individuals start voicing out their opinions, new ideas challenge the false peace that society had in their conformity. After Bud and Mary Sue introduce different and rather contradictory ideas, like sex, color, and individuality, people start pursuing their own passions as individuals, rather than as a whole society. With all these changes, individuals burst into color when choosing to leave “pleasant” behind for the freedom to express personal

Everyone has felt left out before, and would’ve loved to fit in. But as the price of fitting in really worth it? Three authors-- Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., and Kij Johnson-- all use this feeling in their stories. In “All Summer in a Day”, by Ray Bradbury, Margot lives on Venus after moving from Earth, and remembers the sun, which her peers do not, and have been waiting all their lives to be able to see and remember the sun. The story, “Harrison Bergeron”, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Takes place in the year 2081, and everyone as equal due to the handicaps forced upon upon the people to eliminate all superiority. Kij Johnson’s story, “Ponies”, as a gruelling story of Barbara and her alicorn, Sunny, as they are invited to a cutting out party with

In a social environment, a community’s perception of a person greatly impacts an individual. In The Awakening by Kate Chopin and The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, we see two different societal perceptions of life through the female protagonists, Edna and Esperanza. Both Cisneros and Chopin use their protagonists to highlight how much of an effect society has on an individual. Through them we get a glimpse of communal impact on the protagonists as individuals, the developmental mindset of the characters, and how each character responds to societal perception of what’s acceptable and what’s not, as each embark on their own “awakening.”

An ‘outsider' is an individual who is ostracised by society. This notion is conveyed by the characters in S.E Hinton’s novel ‘The Outsiders”, featuring two rival groups - the Greasers and the Socials (Socs) - who are divided based on their socioeconomic status, and Kathryn Stockett’s novel ‘The Help’, which portrays the hardships of African-American maids as they try to survive in a White Man’s world. In Hinton’s novel, Darryl Curtis (Darry) and Johnny Cade—outcasts in their gang, The Greasers— and Stockett’s Minny Jackson and Skeeter Phelan—outcasts in their individual societies— perfectly exemplify the concept of an ‘outsider’.Through the portrayal of characters and tribulations they face, composers explore the irony of the 'outsider' paradigm

The Southeastern Conference Football teams are stacked with top tier championship teams. To name a few of those top teams, you have Ole Miss, LSU, Florida and Auburn amongst many more great teams. All teams are worthy of National Titles. These teams aren’t to be compared to the best team in all of the SEC, The Alabama Crimson Tide, the top rated team across the College Football League. Alabama Crimson Tide Football has the most dominant team in all of the SEC.

In Laurence Ralph’s Renegade Dreams, the citizens in Eastwood are susceptible to isolation due the physical injuries and social injuries. My main argument is, the physical injuries and social injuries have impacted their daily lives and have made some residents isolated from others around them. The theme of isolation plays a role in throughout the book as the residents use isolation to motivate themselves and pursue their dreams. This dream is curated from different residents such as Justin Cone, Blizzard, and the gangs (Divine Knights). In the essay, the topics covered are the stories of the characters and the context of isolation in motivating residents to achieve their dreams. This idea can be explained through the ethnographic data, in text citations, and the stories of the characters.

“There is no place like home,” Which could not be more true for the most of us, is a famous quote from The Wizard Of OZ, a movie about a girl who finds herself in a world different from hers, wishing to return to her farm in Kansas. Along the way, she discovers many things about herself that she never thought she was capable of. Although her time in the Land of OZ was just a dream, it sends powerful messages. Not only that there is no place like home, but that in our dreams we realize who we are. The outside world never sees who we truly are or what makes us happy. We feel a need to conform to society and act how other people act, so that we don’t stand out. Why wouldn’t people express themselves for who they truly are? Bird Clarkson, a man on a mission, seems to ask a similar question. Clarkson, a faculty member in the Communication and ARTS Department at Central Michigan University, entered a piece in the ArtPrize 2016 competition in Grand Rapids (MI) named The Wizard of Ozomoness. It is an interpretive dance play of sorts that is meant to get kids or people alike to express themselves and let them know that their dreams can come true. The piece we chose was the backdrop of the Emerald City that is meant for this play and we evaluated how its appearance and representation of a dream world further emphasized the meaning of the piece. We proved this by interpreting its physical attributes, with interviews with people observing the piece and with a

The arrival of an outsider into the town creates change which threatens the ambitious and the corrupted, as belonging and revenge are pursued. The Dressmaker is a film, directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse, which explores the idea of an outsider using multimodal texts, along with intertextual references, to further emphasise her message to the audience’s point of view. An outsider can either be defined as “a person who does not belong to an organisation or a competitor thought to have little chance of success. ”[1]

The fourth chapter of Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club, “The Moon Lady”, illustrates two themes significant in most people’s lives. Staying inside the social norm can be pretty hard and straying outside of it leads to getting some pretty strange looks. Sometimes trying to be standard makes people different than they really are. Then they become unidentifiable to others. The themes in “The Moon Lady” connect to each other: Ignoring social conventions leads to being treated as an outcast and not everyone is who you believe they are.

Oskar, a young soul, is living in, what seems to him, a life alone; his father, his best friend, passed away in the terrorist attack of 9/11/01. He decides to travel his city and find the answers to his problems on his own, yet the answers he’s looking for are closer than what appears. Jonathan Foer’s message to the audience is this; pay attention to your past experiences because the answers to your future journeys may lie within your past. Foer utilizes the descriptions of Oskar’s adventurous and inventive character to further our understanding of his journey throughout New York City. Foer also includes depictions from Oskar’s everyday life, such as pictures of the object he holds dear to him and visualizations of what he is

A universal theme conveyed in The Contender is that life is filled with obstacles; one must become a contender in order to be successful in life—as Mr. Donatelli, Alfred Brook’s trainer remarks, “Everybody wants to be a champion. That’s not enough. You have to start by wanting to be a contender” (Lipsyte 35). Though the viewers will definitely grasp the meaning of the word contender throughout the film, it is of utmost importance for them to learn its exact definition on the first scene. A contender is a person who “[struggles] to surmount a difficulty or danger” (Concise Oxford American dictionary).

Changing school, home or city also means that you have to conform to some standards of societal norms. All of us are grown up with different faiths and upbringing, and the same goes with a big city, which owns its own standards and tradition. However, whenever something changes in your life a problematic question will arise and you will begin to wonder what normality is and what the most well-mannered is to execute. “Living With Strangers” is an essay by Siri Hustvedt, where she through the genre and her own experiences explains her attitude to “PRETEND IT IS NOT HAPPENING” situations. The text relates to an issue, which is relevant to many people, especially for those who lives in a big city.