Being an outsider is being someone who is not accepted within the majority community, being someone who is not adequately understood and different than what the mainstream concept of "normal" is. In the film "District 9" there are literally millions of outsiders, these outsiders are the aliens (or Prawns). One way this movie demonstrates what it is to be an outsider is by the hostility between humans and aliens. From the time that the aliens touched Earths ground they were outsiders. The customs of these aliens were different than that of a human and this caused tension between the two species. Riots started because of how badly humans wanted the aliens to be segregated from their species. Once the aliens became segregated from humans they became even more of an outsider. They lived in the slums of the Johannesburg separated from the humans by many miles. The aliens were not accepted within the majority community (human community) because the humans did not adequately understand them. Since the aliens were living in the slums they were also considered "lower class" citizens, and history has shown that in many cases those of the "lower class" are not fully accepted within the majority community.
Aliens in this movie were not understood in many ways and all of these ways cause people to be considered outsiders in real life as well. These aliens spoke a different language than any human language and this caused issues during the initial time period of them being on Earth. Neither alien nor human understood each other until many years later when each species seemed to understand each other fine. That ties in with our classes past reading "How To Tame a Wild Tongue", speaking another language or having a different accent is seen negatively in a separate community.
Wikus was also an outsider in this movie because of a tragic event that happened to him. He came in contact with a chemical that caused him to start transforming into an alien. When this happened a rumor went out that it was caused from him having sex with an alien. Other humans found that to be "different" from what is normal and could not understand why some one would do such a thing. Since he had become misunderstood and different he became an outsider from the human community.
From these examples it can be seen that the film "District 9" defines being an outsider as, "someone who is not accepted within the majority community, being someone who is not adequately understood and different than what the mainstream concept of "normal" is". The aliens lived differently and spoke differently causing them to be outcast from the majority community. Wikus was misunderstood with the misconception that he had sexual relations with an alien, which also caused him to be outcast from the majority community.
(Part 2)
Both the film and the discussions affirmed my belief of what it is to be an outsider. When I first read the prompt of this assignment I immediately began to think of what I believe it means to be an outsider. When I came across my answer I realized that it was the same in the movie. Our fellow classmate Peter Gienger said the following, "This film presents an important idea that identity changes from things that happen to us and can even force us to become dis-communitized (othered or outsidered)". He was speaking of Wikus' change from human to alien and how this caused him to become an outsider, which affirms my beliefs. Audra West said, "I see many perspectives about what it is to be an outsider. The main character is devastated by the fact that he is now different from what he was, he is angry that his own friends, family, colleagues, and every human being has turned against him. We also see a sense of commradery and loyalty form between outcasts". Audra also believed that Wikus became an outsider because of his change.
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