Outcasts

=Outcasts = Jennifer Tran

====A child sits alone on a playground, watching his classmates play games; somebody had announced that the boy didn't want to join in even though he actually wished he could. Too shy to speak up, he is socially separated from his peers despite the fact he has done nothing wrong. Even though this seems like a scene from a movie, many children and adults endure situations similar to this in real life, and these events often affect the actions of the left-out or left-behind. An outcast, shunned by others, looking in from the outside, can either funnel his or her emotions into a negative outlet or can use the experience to fuel a positive reaction, depending on how he or she views the situation. ====

==== For many, being an outsider or being refused social acceptance can be traumatizing; it may start from childhood but can play an important role in decisions later in life as well. In __Criminal Minds__, the episode "52 Pickup" discussed how being outcasted as a young boy can have an almost destructive impact on a person's adult life. The psychological ordeal the man in the episode had suffered caused him to become a serial killer, exacting revenge on the women who reminded him of the girl that led others to shun him when he was small. Another fictional character, Maleficent from __Sleeping Beauty__, resents the fact that she was not invited to the palace when a princess is born to the king and queen and attempts to kill the young princess as retribution. Although the story is a fantasy, resentment and fury caused by being left out is quite realistic. Rage - anger at peers, anger at family, anger at school, even anger at the whole world - is often a reaction that outcasts sometimes have, and they lash out at others. However, fury is more difficult to emphasize with, and these outcasts aren't always recognized. These examples are extreme, but not "fitting in" truly can traumatize people, especially kids; almost every week headlines on the news read "14-Year Old Girl Commits Suicide: Is Bullying the Cause?" and in reality, social rejection unfortunately leads to harmful actions time and again. ====

====Not all outcasts, however, take their experiences in a negative way; just as an audience is able to understand more than the characters within a play can so an outsider can gain knowledge from "looking in" from his or her position. For example, Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter series was labeled "weird" by the other students due to her strong beliefs and different tastes. Even though she is sometimes bullied, Luna never wavers in her opinions and becomes a character that readers cheer on. As Harry and his friends find out, Luna is much more insightful than her peers realize despite her social awkwardness. Misunderstood, Luna always makes the best of any situation she is in and is able to take advantage of the fact that she is an outcast. That strength and perseverance that some outcasts have is another thing that brings them into an almost revering light. Howard Pyle's famous character Robin Hood was an outlaw looked down upon by the upper class and nobility and shunned from the towns and competitions. The work that Robin Hood undertakes, however, cheating the rich out of their money to give to the poor, is such a benevolent task that we cannot help but hope that Robin Hood succeeds. His skill and lack of fear of being cast aside by society also makes him a hero for other outcasts and multiple characters in the book. In both examples, the "outsiders" are able to disregard hatred and cruelty dealt by others and hold their heads high without needing social approval; these actions help depict these outcasts, who gain from the position they are in, in a positive light. ====

====The way outcasts approach their circumstances alters the choices they make and how society views them. In Euripides' __Medea__, the main character Medea is an outsider in her husband Jason's country. When Jason decides to desert her as well, Medea kills him and their two sons in a fit of rage. Because she could only see her situation through angry eyes, she did not make a logical, reasonable decision, which in turn caused others to view her in a negative light. If Medea had seen the events in a better light, she would not have made the savage choices that she did, and society would have at least let her stay instead of exiling her. Another example of this is Scar and Simba in the __Lion King__. Both were shunned or exiled at one point of the movie: Scar, before he took the throne, and Simba, when Scar banished him. Scar, when he was shunned by the other animals in the kingdom, was jealous of the pride and honor that his brother Mufasa got as king, so he killed his brother to take over. The negative emotions he felt towards the social rejection had a direct influence on his actions, which then changed how everyone thought about him; ====

==== Scar's wish for revenge and death towards his innocent brother brought about the hatred and contempt the animals felt when Scar overpowered everybody. Scar's foil in the movie, Simba, is made an outcast as well, exiled from the pride after his father dies and he is accused of a murder he didn't commit. Simba, although upset at first, later views his situation with a sense of justice and making wrongs right; ==== ====he goes back to the savannah to restore things to their original conditions. Although both are outcasts, Simba is seen as the animals as "good," and Scar is seen as "evil," because of the way they approached their social banishment - Simba persevered through his exile and decided to reveal the truth, while Scar wanted only to get his revenge on those who took all attention away from him. If the characters in these examples had all held opposite outlooks on their being outcasts, the impressions they made on other characters, readers, and viewers would be significantly different. ====

====An outcast stands, misunderstood or shunned by other characters often because of things he or she can't control. However, an outsider to society, that boy alone on the playground, can either gain from the situation he or she is in or become a person more looked down upon; it all depends on the path he or she takes. ====

- **__Works Cited__**
 * Euripedes. //Medea.// New York: Dover Publications, 1993.
 * Frazier, Breen. “52 Pickup.” //Criminal Minds.// Dir. Bobby Roth. CBS. 26 Nov, 2008. Television.
 * Pyle, Howard. //The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood.// New York, NY: Baronet, 1990. Print.
 * Rowling, J.K. and Mary GrandPre. //Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.// New York, Scholastic, 2008. Print.
 * //Sleeping Beauty.// Prod. Walt Disney. 1959. DVD.
 * //The Lion King.// Dir. Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff. By Irene Mecchi and Jonathan Roberts. Perf. Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons. Walt Disney Pictures, 1994. DVD.