To Kill A Mockingbird

Outsider: A person who does not belong in a particular group, set, or organization.

There is a lot of outsiders in "To Kill A Mockingbird" The two main ones (besides Boo Radley and Tom Robinson) are Atticus and Scout. "To Kill a Mockingbird" takes place in a fictional town called Maycomb, Alabama, from 1933 to 1935, during the Great Depression. Amid those years, people in Alabama were generally considered to be racist because of how they treated people of color, which led to Tom Robinson's conviction of rape. Scout and Atticus refuse to conform to social norms and, in doing so, contribute to their status as outsiders.

Scout is a girl who does not wear dresses. She, much to her aunt's dismay, wears overalls, runs around in the dirt, and physically fights her brother, all like a boy. When Scout's aunt comes to visit, she tries to get Scout to become ladylike, to wear dresses, and not play outside, but Scout refuses and is considered an outsider to her aunt and her aunt's friends. "Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn't supposed to be doing things that required pants." (p.g. 85-86) Scout's aunt is very particular about how people should act and inflicts her opinions on her 6-year-old niece.

Atticus is a very considerate man who values everyone's life no matter their social standing and how people perceive them. This wonderful virtue sadly contributes to his outsider status because he tries to defend a black man named Tom Robinson who is falsely accused of raping a white woman. Francis, Scout's cousin, once said at Christmas, "I guess it ain't your fault if Uncle Atticus is a n****r-lover besides, but I'm here to tell you it certainly does mortify the rest of the family." Even Atticus's family disapproves of his defending black people, which really shows how ostracized he is in his community.

The interesting thing about Scout and Atticus is that they choose to be outsiders; they choose to fall out of their stereotypes. Some outsiders don't have the ability to change their outsider label, like Boo Radley and Tom Robinson, because of skin color and such. Scout could easily wear dresses, be ladylike, and completely ignore her true self, but she doesn't, and that's what makes her an outsider. It's the same principle with Atticus; he could not be his true self and hate on black people, do 'normal' things for middle-aged men, but he doesn't, and that's what makes him an outsider (and a good respectable person).