King Lear starts as the obvious prime insider in the society that exists in the play along with the rest of his family. Ultimately, the event that separates Lear from a character such as Oedipus is that it was destiny for Oedipus to end his life as an outsider, while Lear was banished by humans. This is the first step to Lear’s insanity. The initial shock of going from the supreme leader to the lowest part of society as a banished citizen causes Lear to start questioning why this unfortunate lifestyle has put itself on him. He says “I am more sinned against than sinning.” This shows how much of a solid grasp he has on society. However, this understanding of the truth is what leads him to insanity. The more he examines his situation, the more insane he becomes. To address The Big Question of how one becomes an insider or outsider, in Lear’s case, it was his inability to please everyone. Lear tried to split his Kingdom three ways, which eventually led to his demise because there were too many he tried to please.

Oedipus

Throughout the life of Oedipus, we see the evolution of one a man who was born into a position of power. This fact that he was going to be a future king merited him an "insider" position. However, once the curse that Apollo created was put force, Oedipus immediately lost this position because he represented a threat, thus becoming an "outsider" position. An intriguing aspect of this situation is that Oedipus hadn’t yet even been able to make decision for himself. He was an insider and outsider without actions. As Oedipus lives life, he gradually (and with some luck) becomes an insider once again, but this time trough his own actions of solving the riddle. He leads a strong kingdom while king and represents perhaps the epitome of an "insider" to society. This lifestyle is seized in an instant after it is revealed that the king had indeed completed the curse and married his mother and killed his father. Just like that, the powerful king descends to rock bottom of the "outsider" role. Things that can be learned from Oedipus' story is that perhaps what make one an insider or outsider are generally not actions taken by an individual, but destiny and luck rather that determine one's presence in society.

Why this question?

This summer after reading The Shipping News, I started to ponder why Quoyle was such an outsider, particularly while growing up? I wonder whether or not people are just born naturally as being "part or the crowd" or "against the grain." Throughout the novel, Quoyle started developing more social skills and he eventually almost becomes the head man at his business. However, Quoyle was still known as being fat, weird looking, and odd. So this causes the question to develop into whether or not people become an outsider based on looks or personality. I am looking forward into digging deep into this whole concept of being an insider an outsider throughout the school year, and hopefully by the end of it I will have a grasp on this big question.

Da Big Q

How does one become an "insider" or an "outsider"?