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Outsiders Outsider

Decent Essays

What is an outsider? According to Merriam-Webster, an outsider is a person who does not belong to a particular group. Most people are outright judgmental in all societies judging on their own characteristics, actions, cultures, and standards. In the South around the 1930s countless people, African Americans especially, were targets of judgement and harassment on what they could not control about themselves or how they chose to live. In Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the people of Maycomb had a genuine fear of the unknown and the outsiders of the story are subjected to suspicion and ridicule. There are frequent outsiders in the novel, nevertheless some jumped out and taught you something about how to live and what's important in life; these characters include Arthur Radley, Scout, and Mayella Ewell.
Arthur Radley is an outsider to the rest of the community of Maycomb for two reasons. For example, Arthur Radley has many stories and legends surrounding him and his family. His family is a very quiet family that likes their privacy and avoids the outside world. The legends say that his father made him stay indoors. The children and people of Maycomb do not see him as a citizen in their town they see him as a monster and connect him to feelings of fear. "Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained – if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood

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