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Essay about The Struggle of an Outsider

Decent Essays

Throughout our readings this semester, the theme the outsider has been present. The outsiders in these selections have all had similar roles. One of the main roles was subjection that developed from the feeling of unequal standings. This subjection silenced and forced many from the mainstream.
The Native Americans were outsiders to the Europeans. The Europeans had different beliefs and ideas about life which they forced upon the Native Americans. Suddenly with the arrival of Europeans, Indians became strangers on their own territory. They lose the stability which came with knowing the simply pleasures that surround them. They could not longer listen to wind or feel the sun’s touch but they were forced to fight just to keep a place on the …show more content…

In this way, many Native Americans were “disfranchised from all rights” (Apess 485). As a result of the domination by the Europeans, many Native Americans were forced far away to small crowded land. In these ways, the Native Americans were forced to a different role where they could only imagine what it felt like to belong, to be an insider . African Americans in our reading were also subject to being outsiders in society. Once again race was a factor in producing these outsiders. David Walker describes the state of African Americans at this time as “wretched and more cruel (they being an enlightened and Christian people) than any heathen nation” (753).Zora Neale Hurston is a perfect illustration of an outsider. From a child, she had been surrounded by only one background and then suddenly at 13 “suffered a sea change” and was sent into this new world (Hurston 2159). She came face to face with her color and the “fast brown-warranted not to neither rub nor run” (Hurston 2159). She felt color most when “thrown against a sharp white background” (2160). This feeling that Hurston had when in mist of different people came from her past experiences that had been pressed against this new background. This different scenery changed her in many ways. She completely transforms from “Zora of Orange County” to “a dark rock surged upon, and over swept” (Hurston 2160). Many African Americans like Hurston were subject to acts of injustice because of their

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