“The Outsider” brings many ideas about belief and identity to light. It peers into its characters’ minds and portrays how their doubts and fears govern their actions. Throughout the novel, the antagonist exploits people and turns them into monsters they never wished to become. Stephen King’s depiction of The Outsider mimics the primary villain in his other hit horror novel “It.“
Themes
Most themes in “The Outsider” drew parallels between monsters and humans. The novel defined the characteristics of a creature driven by pure evil and showed how he thought he was not evil because he could not change his nature.
The Loss of Disbelief
The loss of disbelief is an integral part of “The Outsider’s” story as it shows how people lost their skepticism of the supernatural. Detective Ralph Anderson was a skeptic who always disbelieved anything supernatural as he attributed everything to the systematic functions of the universe.
However, Ralph discovers the supernatural, and his disbelief in it costs an innocent man his life; this leads him down a rabbit hole of guilt, one he cannot shake off throughout the story.
Disbelief proved a powerful weapon for The Outsider because he utilized the lack of acknowledgment of supernatural forces to commit his crimes. He also depended on the shock from cognitive dissonance, using it to force people to do his will; this was evident in Jack working for him out of insane fear.
Identity
Individual identity is crucial to the novel because it provokes one to question the existence of supernatural entities capable of causing untold mayhem. Terry faced a foe that used an undefeatable weapon: total identity theft. He could not defend himself from any accusation as the technologies used to catch criminals worked against him.
What if a person’s originality could be stolen and used against them? What if they cannot defend themselves because all the evidence places them at the scene of an incident? These questions induce a specific feeling of horror that “The Outsider” banks on to tell its story.
Fear
Fear was a crucial weapon used by The Outsider to manipulate others into doing his bidding. He induced the feeling of overwhelming fear by shocking his victims with so much information that they had no other choice than to accept his superiority. An example is Jack, who became an antagonist because of the fear instilled in him.
Triumph of Good Over Evil
Synonymous with his book “It,” Stephen King showed how good wins over evil and how the innocent always has the last laugh. “The Outsider” portrays dedication and the will to do what is right. The story defines how evil can always be defeated when people unite amid overwhelming odds.
Preserving Childhood Innocence
Also synonymous with themes from “It,” preserving childhood innocence is a theme that resonates in “The Outsider.” Childhood innocence is portrayed as beliefs one has as a child, including the supernatural, and the story of “The Outsider” represents that.
An example of childhood innocence portrayed in the novel involves Ralph narrating how he discovered worms in a perfectly healthy-looking Cantaloupe. Ralph knew that such an event was abnormal and that something supernatural had to be involved. He discarded the idea but later admitted to it after discovering evil entities like The Outsider existed.
Key Moments
- Ralph interrogates a group of witnesses after a man finds the body of an 11-year-old red-haired boy, Frankie. With his interrogation of witnesses, Ralph’s suspected that the man responsible for the rape and mutilation of Frankie was Terry Maitland, the coach of the boy’s little league. Ralph fails to question the witnesses properly, and it comes to haunt him later.
- Ralph publicly arrests Terry and notices the clear annoyance on his face. Terry tells Ralph he is innocent, and his lawyer, Howie, backs it up with an alibi of him being in Cap City at the same time Frankie died. The first discrepancy Ralph should have noticed.
- Frankie’s mother dies of a heart attack, and Ralph is left in confusion over the entire issue of Terry when another bombshell of him being in Cap City on camera shows up. Ralph starts doubting everything here.
- Ollie, Frankie’s brother, shoots Terry on the day of his arraignment, killing him. Unfortunately, Terry’s death destroys any means for investigating Frankie’s death. Also, Ralph kills Ollie.
- Grace gets a visit from an entity with a Play-Doh face and straw for eyes; this is her first encounter with the evil entity.
- Though on administrative leave, Ralph keeps investigating Terry’s case. He discovers that Terry was in Dayton at the same time the van used to abduct Frankie was abandoned by a 12-year-old. Ralph started learning something had to be wrong.
- Jack Hoskins, Ralph’s colleague, returns from vacation and goes to the barn, where a figure touches him, giving him burns on his neck. The entity later forces Jack to work for him.
- Grace dreams of the entity and sees a face and inscription on his hands with the words CAN’T and MUST.
- Alec, Howie’s private investigator, hires Holly Gibson to investigate Dayton, and she discovers it is all supernatural. She learns the creature’s name is El Cuco, a monster that takes pleasure in taunting and smearing its victims fat before assaulting them.
- Holly travels to meet a group comprising Marcy, Terry’s wife; Jeanie, Ralph’s wife; Howie, Alec, Sablo, and Ralph to tell them everything. Meanwhile, The Outsider orders Jack to obey him with the promise of healing his cancer.
- The group, excluding Jeanie and Marcy, travels to Texas after discovering the next victim is Claude Bolton. The Outsider orders Jack to travel and wait in advance to kill them. The Outsider seemed weak because he had to make others do his dirty deed.
- Jack ambushes the group and kills Howie and Alec, leaving Sablo injured. Ralph kills him.
- Holly kills El Cuco. She does so with ball bearings in a sock; this leaves one to wonder if the monster is all that powerful.
- Terry is acquitted, and Bill Samuels resigns; a tragic but happy ending.
Style, Tone, and Figurative Language
“The Outsider” employs epistolary writing and a thrilling tone to tell a story of the fight between puny humans and an ancient monster that steals people’s identities to commit heinous crimes.
Style
As with previous novels, Stephen King adopted the epistolary form of writing in “The Outsider,’” bringing the best of every world to his writing. He utilized the third-person omniscient perspective and gave an excellent description of events, making characters and their interactions as realistic as possible. Stephen King also used concise detailing to accurately connect micro events to the major ones in the story; this made the plot flow fluidly.
Tone
“The Outsider‘s” tone is horrifying and thrilling. The story makes the reader feel on edge and draws them to the characters in the story using gut-wrenching event descriptions and immersive writing. The novel also conjures emotions of hate, sadness, and anger as events unfold shockingly. By the end of the story, the reader is left with a horrifying sense of dread at the possibility of their identity being stolen and used for unspeakable horror.
Figurative Language
The figurative language used in “The Outsider” showed an exquisite use of metaphors, similes, and personifications to portray the narrator’s tone in a way relatable to the reader.
“The Outsider” uses metaphors, like when Ralph calls Terry a monster. He did so because that was the only word that could quantify a person who mutilated and sexually assaulted an innocent boy.
The novel uses many similes to make comparisons that display the severity of events. Examples include Ralph’s interview with Ritz. During the interrogation, Ritz exclaimed how terrible he felt after discovering Frankie’s mutilated body. The scene was so gruesome that it shattered him.
Key Symbols
The symbols in “The Outsider” explain the concept of evil and show how society struggles to defeat it because of how deeply rooted it is.
The Outsider
Though a character in the story, The Outsider represents the evil in every society. The close resemblance of the creature to antagonists from other Stephen King novels like Pennywise from“It,” shows that The Outsider represents the terror that arises from evil when there is disbelief.
Cantaloupe
Ralph continually remembered the story of the cantaloupe with maggots when he was a child. The cantaloupe represents the supernatural and childhood. Ralph knew that the cantaloupe could not just have maggots and look perfectly healthy. He knew there had to be something that made such an anomaly occur, but he shunned the thought. However, after learning of The Outsider, his mind opened to the possibilities of the supernatural.
Channel 81 Tape
The Channel 81 Tape represents the confusion between good and evil in the presence of nuance in the story because it brought evidence that proved Terry’s innocence even though there was also incriminating evidence against Terry. It also stood as a pivotal point of belief in the supernatural as Ralph started pondering on the prospects of the bizarre.
Bill Samuel’s Cowlick
Samuel’s cowlick represents the lack of maturity. Though Bill Samuel was a well-established lawyer, he still had a sense of immaturity and a lack of taking things seriously. Bill Samuel’s immaturity led him to try cutting himself off from Terry’s case when he discovered it would be rocky for him.
Overall, “The Outsider” is a brilliant piece of literature that captivates readers with every single action occurring. The story flows fluidly, and every character seems intentional and well thought out.
