outsider
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 discovery 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; ye
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 Illustrious Buddha taught about the world, he had to divide it into Samsara and Nirvana, into illusion and truth, into suffering and salvation" (Hesse 143). This is probably the best representation of someone breaking away from the world itself to find himself. Although, through out the novel Siddhartha is deterred from his quest for enlightenment, his focus is continually on his objective and is then raised to the almost unreachable state of Nirvana. In the book Jonathan Livingston Seagull, the main character Jonathan Seagull is faced with being an outsider. David Dunn had an opinion to help people who faced this, "None of us can live within ourselves; we must, if we are to be truly happy, have a sense that the world likes us and values what we can do, or appreciates what we have made of ourselves" (63). Jonathan Seagull was an outsider because of his refusal to accept the norms of his community. Robert J. Ringer touches on this when he says, "Avoid the inborn tendency to do some thing just because it's in style. While it may seem easier at the time, it can be very costly in the long run. Conf
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Approximate Word count = 971
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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