Being An Outsider Is Universal

Is the experience being an outsider universal? This question often is thought of by people of all ages. An outsider can be anyone including someone who looks, acts, speaks, or presents themselves differently than what is normal. Everybody feels like an outsider at one point of their life, which is why the experience of being an outsider is universal. The experience of being an outsider is present in the story "By Any Other Name" by Santha Ramma Rau, as well as "The Dolls House" by Katherine Mansfield and "Sonnet, With Bird" by Sherman Alexie.

Being an outsider is a common feeling among people of all ages. Anything can make someone feel like an outsider, whether it is their age, gender, sexuality, or race. In Premila and Santha's case from

Because the Kelvey's were children of a washer women, they were treated as outsiders. An example of this is in paragraph 15 where it says "Even the teachers had a special voice for them, and a special smile for the other children when Lil Kelvey came up to her desk with a bunch of dreadfully common-looking flowers." This excerpt from the story shows that the Kelvey children were put on the outside, and treated like outsiders because of something they cannot

In the story "Sonnet, With Bird", the main character feels like an outsider because of his Indian heritage. An example of this is in part 7 of the poem where it says "Lonely enough to cry in my motel bed one night thinking, "I am the only Indian in this country right now. I'm the only Indian within a five-thousand-mile circle."" Because the main character had a different heritage than everyone else in England, it caused him to feel like he was an outsider. This excerpt showed how lonely he felt because of his difference. Another example of this is in part 6 of the poem where it says "As with every other country I've visited, nobody thought I was Indian. This made me lonely." This excerpt from the poem shows that the narrator feels like an outsider no matter what country he was in. No matter where he was, he was the only Indian which caused him to feel like an outsider. Many people believe that outsiders are people who have low self-esteem which makes them exaggerate what they think makes them outsiders, but everyone has things that can make them an outsider. The experience of being an outsider is universal, not just one or two people exaggerating their