Daniela Yevdaev, Period 8, 6/3/22

Daniela Yevdaev                                                         Period 8, 6/3/22

Make a list of literary outsiders.

Pick a character from the list. What made him/her/them an outsider? Was there anything admirable about him/her/them? Did his/her/their self-loathing create any effect on his/her/their appeal?

** Disclaimer! I read The Secret History years ago so this is not as in depth as it could have been!**

When first posed with this question in class, I struggled for a bit trying to find a character that I felt fit the criteria of a “literary outsider.” I jumped between books that I have either recently read or those that I have read ages ago but have not gotten out of my head since. By the time hands were starting to rise around the class, my list consisted of only a handful of names. Harry Potter (as well as Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all three of which can be argued as being the “awkward outlier” in their trio, each on different grounds). Marianne Sheridan and Connell Waldron, both from Normal People (drawn to each other because of the characteristics that set them apart from the rest of society in Carricklea). And that was about it. It was only when I started listening to others share their own characters was I able to actually think of someone who I believed fit the type perfectly: the narrator and main character of The Secret History, Richard Papen.

When Richard goes to a college in New England, he finds himself in the company of characters that can only be described as romanticized intellectuals. A society of five, they spend their days devoted to their Greek studies, so absorbed in each other that they don’t deem it necessary to acknowledge the presence of others on campus. However, once Richard shows up, the audience is allowed a glimpse into the inner workings of the group. In any other book, our narrator would not necessarily be lumped under the term “outsider.” He is someone who is for lack of a better description, a typical boyish character. Someone trying to set himself apart from his family and their future for him. Someone who craves newness, representing the American value of self-reliance and discovery. He is a typical coming of age character type and in any other novel, Richard would have had a character arc where he established himself in a career field that he wanted for himself and ended up with a group of life-long friends as well as a romantic love interest. The reason why Richard is even mentioned in this blog is because of his normalness in the face of those that are extraordinary.

Throughout the book I viewed him as someone who did not belong with the rest of the group, a tag-along. The other five have established themselves as intelligent and adored by Julian, their mentor, while Richard is new and starting from scratch so I viewed him as someone who was not necessarily “worthy” of being a part of the group. “He had no idea what was going on, he was melancholy, he struggled to fit in…” (Selina Zheng). In my opinion, a group like one made up of Henry, Camilla, Charles, Bunny, and Francis would not be so open to invite someone like Richard into their midst. But in this novel he is not only invited into the club but he is also the narrator, making the audience feel as if you are missing part of the picture because of his place in the group. 

However, according to Selina, that normalness and likeness to the typical reader is what gives him his appeal as a character. When I mentioned my initial dislike for Richard’s character, she pointed out that him being the narrator is what allows us readers to see these characters accurately. Anybody else would have either embellished or toned down the characters/events but with Richard you get a frank view of what happened. His ability to be an outsider amongst them is what allows us to see the extravagance and beauty of the others. He allows them to shine in their own light throughout the story, never stealing the spotlight and giving them a space to be who they wanted to be around him because he was not yet truly established into the group (a fresh start in a sense). The building up of the characters through the eyes of someone who is “normal” compared to the five of them allows the fall to be even more dramatic. Richard’s slow realization of their actions as well as their feelings surrounding everything that happened lets us as readers really understand the truth of the society.