Being An Outsider Analysis

In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” society shapes and influences Scout and makes her see the reality of social hierarchy and discrimination in society. For instance, in the text it states, “If there’s just one kind of folks, why can’t they get along with each other? If they’re all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? (Lee 304). Literally speaking, this quote tells us that despite everyone being the same, there is still hate towards others, and discrimination is still present in their society. This quote may suggest and show how Scout is influenced by society and changed into someone more mature, and can now see the disparities and understand the discriminations shown in her society. Another example states, “There’s four kinds of folks in the world, there’s

Arthur Radley experiences social prejudice throughout the novel, hence, he is marginalised by the people of Maycomb. He is firstly portrayed as a mysterious character through the rumours of the towns. On pg9 various sentences such as, “Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom. People said he existed but Jem and I had never seen him. People said he went out at night when the moon was high and peeped in windows. When people’s azaleas froze in a cold snap, it was

Social expectations are a strong aspect of the town of Maycomb in To Kill a Mockingbird. Many outcasts are created using these expectations. In the story, the Radley’s are viewed as a very odd family and when the main character and narrator, Scout, reveals the

Atticus is appointed to defend a black man named Tom Robinson who has been accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman. She is a member of the Ewell family, who is looked down upon by Maycomb society and referred to as "white trash." Atticus knows that Tom has almost no chance because he is black and will be tried by an all white jury. Nevertheless, he wants to help him reveal the truth.

Arthur Radley is present in To Kill a Mockingbird even from the beginning. In the first few pages, Arthur is portrayed as he was. This being the way that Arthur used to behave, which is slightly shrouded in mystery, due to Scout Finch, the narrator, not being alive at the time. During the beginning narration, it states, “Nobody in Maycomb had nerve enough to tell Mr. Radley that his boy was in with the wrong crowd” (Lee 10). The phrase, “Nobody in Maycomb had nerve enough” clearly means that everyone in Maycomb knew who Arthur was, or at least knew the group that he hung out with. It is evident that Arthur had gotten himself mixed up with the wrong group of people, which means that he could have been a good kid. He most likely just gave into peer pressure and couldn’t find a way out of the situations he found himself in, that is, if he wanted to. It is later proven that he truly was a good kid, as said by Miss Maudie Atkinson, Scout’s neighbor. Miss Maudie said, “I remember Arthur Radley when he was a boy. He always spoke

This can be seen when Atticus announces to the judge, “I have nothing but pity in my heart for the chief witness for the state, but my pity does not extend so far as to her putting a man’s life at stake, which she has done in an effort to get rid of her own guilt” (Lee 271). Atticus is almost positive that Mayella is trying to cover up what she did, but Atticus does not poke around too much. Atticus reveals what is necessary to help his case and nothing more. While Atticus could have targeted Mayella to get her to reveal more information, he simply infers what he thinks happened. Atticus is very fair to Mayella in the fact that he doesn’t destroy her reputation by continuing on further with his idea of the way things went one night when Tom was at her house. Atticus believes that Tom and Mayella need to be treated equal, regardless of whether Mayella is going to hurt Tom or not. Atticus says that he has no sympathy for Mayella, but the rest of the book says otherwise. This shows how Atticus treats everyone equally, whether it be Tom Robinson, Mayella, or even the

Have you ever felt like an outsider? “The Outsiders” is a book that takes place in the 1960’s Tulsa, Oklahoma where two groups of teenagers the “Socs” and the “Greasers” are constantly arguing and fighting. Which group is more of an outsider? Is it the Socs? The Greasers? Or something else entirely?

Mayella Ewell is living in a racist southern community in the 1930’s. During this time no one was treated the same because of their skin color or if they were intelligent. Mayella has one thing that makes her powerful, her race. Laws back then was harsh. Between white and Negroes, both were wrong and mean to each other. Whites had more power than the Negroes because of the history it has behind them. They were not considered to be equal citizens. Atticus even knows the trial should not be happening, he knew the jury was going to side on with Mayella because she’s white. As Atticus is closing his argument he says, “[The Ewells]....have presented themselves to you, gentlemen, to this court….confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption-the evil assumption- that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women…”as said in chapter twenty. Mayella only goes through all of this because of her father.

Aside from tugging at the heartstrings of his listeners, Atticus discusses ethos with the characters of his opponent and the accused. First, he described Mayella’s mentality in the matter. As stated above, she had lived a difficult life and, consequently, this had shaped her character into a desperate one. She possessed a desperate character and when paired with a

The next form of Prejudice, social, is illustrated in many instances throughout the novel. Mr. Radley is intolerant of others in his own way. This is reflected by the way he treats Boo. When Arthur was convicted, Mr. Radley promised to look after him whereas the other boys in the gang were sent away. The boys who were sent away received a good education but Boo was punished by his father and began to be thought of as an outcast. Prejudice in Maycomb is also due to the snobbish and intolerant attitude towards those of a lower class. The second example that illustrates this form of prejudice is that the Ewells are outcasts; they live on the outskirts of town. “Maycomb Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once a Negro

When Atticus asks Mayella ‘who are your friends?’ (p.245) she is perplexed by the question demonstrating to us how she must be ‘the loneliest person in the world’ (p. 256). Furthermore, Lee clearly explains to us she is accustomed to being treated poorly as when Atticus refers to her as ‘ma’am’ and speaks to her politely she believes initially that he is ‘mockin’ me’ (p.243). Reflecting on how Mayella is trapped in her improvised, friendless state with nobody who respects her, we realise it would not have been difficult for her to become fixated on and fantasise about Tom Robinson, as he ‘was probably the only person who was ever decent to her’ (p.257). We are also able to understand why she lies about Tom raping her during the trial when we take into consideration that Mayella is living in fear of what her drunk and abusive father, Bob Ewell, would do to her if she was truthful. As she has already been ‘beaten savagely’ (p.272) and possibly raped by her father, after she ‘kissed a black man’ (p.272), her trepidation is unsurprising. By climbing into Mayella’s skin and walking around in it we see Lee is helping us to learn the importance of considering people’s circumstances before judging their actions.

Fracis Ford Coppola’s “The Outsiders” (1983) is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by E.Hinton published in 1967. There are many theories that can be found throughout the movie, victim precipitation theory, differential association theory, strain theory and labeling theory are the most prevalent. The story takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma and revolves around the story of a 14 year old Greaser named Ponyboy Curtis. The town is split into two conflicting adolescent groups, the Greasers and the Socs. The Greasers are of lower class standings with harsh upbringings, poor kids from the wrong side of town (north) and are considered delinquents. The Socs, are privileged kids living on the south side who have an easy life where everything

During the story Atticus is appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a Black man accused of raping a young white woman, Mayella Ewell. Even though many of Maycomb’s citizens disapprove, Atticus agrees to defend Tom in hopes he could give some justice to Tom. Later in the plot it is made abundantly clear that Mayella did not have relations with Tom, and was only trying to cover for her dad, Bob Ewell, who had beaten and raped her before, but before this information was found Tom was convicted and murdered. The trial and conviction serve as high points in the story because soon after the readers learn Tom is convicted purely based on his color of skin. “In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins” (Lee, page 251-252). The written discrimination put a black man behind bars based on false information and nobody blinked an eye. The lesson that Scout learns is applicable to all types of prejudice because people who are different from ones self may feel separated and that in order to hold ones power, processions, and status, privileged races or people much like Bob Ewell will justify their behaviors in order to keep the other races

When people are growing up, being normal was the way to be cool. Everyone wants to be like everybody else and that’s the way it goes. What children and many adults still don’t understand is that being different and having diversity is a good thing. It is ok to be different, especially in today 's society. Being able to acknowledge that diversity and disability in everyday life and seeing the good in it will help bring together our society. For my next three paragraphs i 'm going to discuss what it was like to be an outsider, when I experienced diversity and an experience I have had with disability

Considering the theoretical issues in qualitative research, the insider-outsider issue has arisen as a debatable topic for some scholars (e.g. Kanuha, 2000; Dwyer and Buckle, 2009) recently. Historically, social researchers used to agree with ‘separation of facts and values’ and interdicted employing values to assess the truth that led research becoming objective (David and Sutton, 2004: 17). In an objective research, the researcher should objectively eliminate his/her personal ‘gaze’ in course of the survey. In another word, researchers should act like an outsider and all common attributes should be shared by research participants. Acknowledged by Fay (1996), in term of understanding the researched group, it would be more beneficial when the qualitative researchers acted as outsiders in the researched group. Fay further proposed that the outsider-researchers might be more sufficiently conceiving experience from the participants/researched, likely to recognise broader perspective, noting more on what is happening; on the other hand, insider-researchers are frequently intertwined with their own knowledge (Fay, 1996). Regarding the three chosen studies, Mandiuc (2014)’s study is considered as an example of outsider researcher because she did not clearly explain whether she had any experiences of motherhood and/or on prostitution.