The Outcast
The Outcast
The character archetype of the outcast is described as a figure that is banished from a community for some crime (real or imagined). “The outcast is usually destined to become a wanderer” . Society often times shuns people deemed different, making them feel like an outcast. This can be positive or negative, depending how the individual reacts to it. Being viewed as an outcast could inspire a person to resist popular opinion and encourage them to do great things in their life. While for others, it could cause them to retreat within themselves, preventing them from living a happy life or even causing their death. The archetype of the outcast in represented in the story “The Red Convertible”, by Louise Eldrich, through the character Henry, in the story “A Worn Path”, by Eudora Welty, through the character Phoenix and in the song “Mad World” through the singer or narrator.
“The Red Convertible” is the story of brothers Henry Junior and Lyman, members of the Chippewa tribe that live on a reservation, separate from the rest of society. On impulse, the brothers buy a red Oldsmobile convertible and go on a road trip. “We took off driving all one whole summer” . They wandered around Montana for half of the summer sharing good times. They picked up a Native-American girl named Susy who was hitchhiking and drove her home to Alaska, before returning home so that Henry, who had enlisted in the Marines, could start his service in the Vietnam War. This was a very controversial war and the fact the U.S. lost, caused a great loss of pride and confidence in the American people. Instead of giving the returning veterans welcoming home parades, American shunned them. “Then a torrent of fiction, films, and television programs depicted Vietnam vets as drug-crazed psychotic killers, as vicious executioners in Vietnam and equally vicious menaces at home” . Because of these perceived crimes, people shunned the vets making them outcasts. They denied them a place in society.
The character archetype of the outcast is described as a figure that is banished from a community for some crime (real or imagined). “The outcast is usually destined to become a wanderer” . Society often times shuns people deemed different, making them feel like an outcast. This can be positive or negative, depending how the individual reacts to it. Being viewed as an outcast could inspire a person to resist popular opinion and encourage them to do great things in their life. While for others, it could cause them to retreat within themselves, preventing them from living a happy life or even causing their death. The archetype of the outcast in represented in the story “The Red Convertible”, by Louise Eldrich, through the character Henry, in the story “A Worn Path”, by Eudora Welty, through the character Phoenix and in the song “Mad World” through the singer or narrator.
“The Red Convertible” is the story of brothers Henry Junior and Lyman, members of the Chippewa tribe that live on a reservation, separate from the rest of society. On impulse, the brothers buy a red Oldsmobile convertible and go on a road trip. “We took off driving all one whole summer” . They wandered around Montana for half of the summer sharing good times. They picked up a Native-American girl named Susy who was hitchhiking and drove her home to Alaska, before returning home so that Henry, who had enlisted in the Marines, could start his service in the Vietnam War. This was a very controversial war and the fact the U.S. lost, caused a great loss of pride and confidence in the American people. Instead of giving the returning veterans welcoming home parades, American shunned them. “Then a torrent of fiction, films, and television programs depicted Vietnam vets as drug-crazed psychotic killers, as vicious executioners in Vietnam and equally vicious menaces at home” . Because of these perceived crimes, people shunned the vets making them outcasts. They denied them a place in society.