“The Outsider” portrays how a lack of acknowledgment can lead to a fear that destroys someone. The story dives into the constrictions of the human mind and shows how these limitations force people to succumb to the overwhelming presence of an unknown force.
Belief and Disbelief
A person did what a person could, whether it was setting up gravestones or trying to convince twenty-first-century men and women that there were monsters in the world, and their greatest advantage was the unwillingness of rational people to believe.
Holly Gibson – Macy’s Tells Gimbels: July 25th, Chapter 1
Stephen King portrayed the lack of belief and how that affected serving justice in “The Outsider.” The quote above explains the rigidity of humanity towards accepting a concept they have no clue or control over.
The Outsider used the lack of belief as his greatest weapon because he knew that people would never consider the possibility of a supernatural entity that could transform into others and commit a gruesome crime.
I would like to believe in God,” she said, “because I don’t want to believe we just end, even though it balances the equation—since we came from blackness, it seems logical to assume that it’s to blackness we return. But I believe in the stars, and the infinity of the universe. That’s the great Out There. Down here, I believe there are more universes in every fistful of sand, because infinity is a two-way street. I believe there’s another dozen thoughts in my head lined up behind each one I’m aware of.
Jeannie Anderson – Footsteps And Cantaloupe: July 18th-July 20th, Chapter 4
The quote above shows the paradoxical nature of belief and disbelief. Jeannie Anderson realized that the supernatural was only visible if it appeared to you, and she knew it was real because she saw it.
However, encountering The Outsider created doubt in her as she had always refuted the idea that the supernatural was real. Jeannie knew that El Cuco changed everything she believed in, and it made her postulate that there was a God who would have enormous control over everything.
Strip away the metaphors, Jeannie had said, and you are left with the inexplicable. The supernatural. Only that’s not possible. The supernatural may exist in books and movies, but not in the real world.
Jeannie Anderson – Footsteps And Cantaloupe: July 18th-July 20th, Chapter 16
Though Ralph’s wife, Jeannie, told him to have an iota of belief in things he could not explain by mere logic, Ralph still found it hard to bring himself to acknowledge the existence of a supernatural force.
Though he had an atheistic point of view, the main reason for not wanting to recognize supernatural forces was the guilt he knew would be present with admitting that a higher force did exist. He knew that believing would mean he was responsible for Terry’s death.
Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.’
Stephen King – Footsteps And Cantaloupe: July 18th-July 20th, Chapter 4
The world works with rigid rules that create what we know as the possible and impossible. With this line drawn, we can have an existence satisfied by these rules. However, what happens when the line we believe to be solid fades away? Ralph’s line of the possible and impossible faded into oblivion, forcing him to accept the hard truth of the existence of El Cuco.
The only problem is that it’s nuts. Out to lunch. If you actually believe in El Cuco, Ms. Gibney, then you are el cuckoo.
Bill Samuels – Macy’s Tells Gimbels: July 25th, Chapter 10
Bill Samuels’s unwillingness to believe in The Outsider gave Ralph and the rest of his group a thought time. They needed him so Terry could be acquitted. Eventually, Bill gave in and retired.
Reality and Change
Reality is thin ice, but most people skate on it their whole lives and never fall through until the very end. We did fall through, but we helped each other out. We’re still helping each other.
Ralph Anderson – Flint City: (After), Chapter 8
The quote above talks about a concept that has stayed relevant in society: change. Stephen King portrayed the change of ideologies in “The Outsider” by making a scenario where ideologies change with a single event.
The element of change was The Outsider himself, an entity that could have never existed by mere logic. Ralph realized his encounter with the evil shape-shifting monster force altered his logic-based belief.
Reality is indeed thin ice and relativistic depending on how one views it once influenced. “The Outsider” showed this concept with eloquence.
People are blind to explanations that lie outside their perception of reality.
The Outsider – The Marysville Hole: July 27th, Chapter 21
It is hard to change and accept a change that contradicts your belief, but what do you do when that change perfectly fits into the doubts you have had all along?
Ralph never wanted to answer this question as he knew the existence of a being like The Outsider would make him directly responsible for the death of Terry. He turned a blind eye to accepting someone else was responsible for Frankie’s murder, and his denial cost an innocent man his life.
Dreams are the way we touch the unseen world.
Holly Gibson – Flint City: (After), Chapter 3
Dreams are a gateway to the vast unknown world of the subconscious. Can a dream be true, or does it exist for the sole purpose of the mind letting go of all doubt? “The Outsider” indirectly asked this question.
It was no dream she said. Dreams fade. Reality doesn’t.
Jeannie Anderson – Macy’s Tells Gimbels: July 25th, Chapter 6
There is a thin line between dreaming and reality in “The Outsider.” Jeannie knew that what she experienced was not a perceived feeling. Reality stuck out like a sore thumb, and her encounter with The Outsider scared her as she realized it was not a premonition.
Fear
Although, even in his shock and bewilderment, he understood that his life would not be going back to normal for a long time.
Terry Maitland – The Arrest: July 14th, Chapter 5
Even though Terry knew he was innocent, there was no way to convince anyone he was innocent at the moment of his arrest. The aura of disgust people felt towards him scared him because he knew it would affect his family.
My fear is that, even if I can get you out of the machine, the shadow of the machine may remain.
Howie Gold – Sorry: July 14th-July 15, Chapter 15
Even though Howie believed in his innocence and knew there would be people that did too, he realized that the number of people that knew the truth was far lower than those who thought Terry killed and raped a young boy.
Betrayal
He realized something else, as well. He was angry, probably angrier than he’d ever been in his life, and as they turned onto Main Street and headed for the Flint City police station, he made himself a promise: come fall, maybe even sooner, the man in the front seat, the one he’d considered a friend, was going to be looking for a new job. Possibly as a bank guard in Tulsa or Amarillo.
Terry Maitland – The Arrest: July 14, Chapter 7
Betrayal makes one angry, and Terry was in a position to feel every string of betrayal and anger towards the man who had shattered his life by leading a public arrest on him for a crime he did not commit. Though Terry did not know Ralph also acted as a result of feeling betrayed by the man he trusted with his son, Terry felt revenge was his best alternative.
Freedom
But he felt an increasing sense of dread, a growing certainty that he was never going to see his wife and son again. Or daylight. It was amazing how fast a person could miss the daylight. He felt that if they did get out of here, he could drink daylight like water.
Ralph Anderson – The Marysville Hole: July 27th, Chapter 19
Freedom has been a basic need of every human, and in “The Outsider,” freedom became an insatiable desire. Ralph wanted freedom from being trapped, and he fantasized about that freedom. Trapped under a cave, the desire to see the light above ground became Ralph’s human instinct, and it showed just how valuable liberty is.
The Light of Good
There’s… a force for good in the world. That’s something else I believe. Partly so I don’t go crazy when I think of all the awful things that happen, I guess, but…also…well the evidence seems to bear it out, wouldn’t you say? Not just here but everywhere. There’s some force that tries to restore the balance.
Holly Gibson: Flint City: (After), Chapter 4
Facing an evil being that rapes and murders his victims is the stuff of nightmares. After fighting this creature, Holly tries consoling herself with the idea that because El Cuco existed, there was an opposite of him, a force of purity.
Bravery
That makes three of us, sweetheart. But we’ll do it. We’ll be brave. It’s what your dad would have wanted.
Marcy Maitland – Footsteps And Cantaloupe: July 18th-July 20th, Chapter 3
Amidst the fear of losing their father, Marcy held her daughters and told them to be brave for the future. She knew life would be tougher and wanted her children to prepare.
