Outsiders in Three Great Literary Works

             Being an outsider is the only way one can truly discover one's true self. To find yourself you must spend time with yourself. An outsider, unlike people who belong to a particular group, isn't defined by the group, but instead defined by their individual character. So to really know or to fully understand one's self you must break away from the ways of the majority so they can discover their own place in the world. In accordance with that, Elizabeth Telfer wrote "Aristotle may still be right in saying that everyone ultimately seeks the good as he sees it, but only if "the good" can cover both what the seeker thinks will be pleasant and what he thinks is good objectively" (50). In the books "Never Cry Wolf," "Siddhartha," and "Jonathan Livingston Seagull," a character does exactly that.
             In the book Never Cry Wolf, the author, main character, and narrator, Farley Mowat is faced with the idea of being an outsider. Mowat was amongst nothing of any familiarity. Mowat wrote in his book "As I looked about me at the stark and cloud-topped hills, the waste of pressure-rippled ice, and beyond the valley, to the desolate and treeless roll of tundra, I had no doubt that this was excellent wolf country" (Mowat 23). He was virtually alone; yet, during this time of social isolation, he was able to really see himself. He was able to see all the things one tries to hide from themselves when among people of impression. Through his isolation, he was able to see and fix the faults hidden from view, which would have never been found and rectified without his experience of isolation in the Canadian wilderness.
             In the book Siddhartha, the idea of being an outsider enters this story as well. Siddhartha discovered that the only way to relieve suffering is the extinction of desire.
             When one achieves enlightenment one achieves Nirvana, which is the breaking away of all psychic ties with the world. Herman Hesse wrote in Siddhartha "When the Illu...

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Outsiders in Three Great Literary Works. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 03:42, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/67078.html