The stories, The Scarlet Letter, Twelve Angry Men, The Awakening, The Great Gatsby, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest all share one fact in addition to being original American literary works: they share the common theme of “the outsider,” a person who goes against the rules of society to do what he or she believes is right. America has continually evolved over the centuries, but many people hold personal biases that seem to go against positive change in society. Even though our society has changed, it does not mean that all people have changed. Although society seems to have evolved as our nation has grown, the archetype of the outcast in American literature from the 19th to the 21st century continues to possess a common characteristic: these figures are outcasts because of people’s deep seeded bias opinions and failure to see the society around them from a different perspective. Starting in the 19th century, Nathanial Hawthorne, through his novel The Scarlett Letter, showed society that a strong religious bias had existed in America since the seventeenth century. The outcast in the story, Hester Prynne, shows that going against the religious views of adultery to change the view of it altogether made her a symbol of strength. The village views her as a disgrace because of their religious bias. As Hawthorne notes, “Measured by the prisoner's experience, however, it might reckoned a journey of some length; for, haughty as her demeanor was, she perchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her, as if her heart had been flung in the street for them all to spurn and trample upon” (52). Because of their prejudice, the entire town turns out to see Hester paraded through the streets like a criminal. People surround her, but she is totally alone. Hester does not let this foul treatment bother her, and even though she is an outsider, she wants to prove to her society that she can make a difference. Her feelings are best summed up with the quote, “Here, she said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment; and so, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul, and work out another purity than that which she had lost; more saint-like, because the result of martyrdom” (Hawthorne 77). All the magistrates can do is force Hester to wear a scarlet letter; Hester is the one making herself endure the punishment by remaining in a community that runs on judgment. Over time, the scarlet ‘A’ becomes a symbol of her and her identity: “She was self-ordained a Sister of Mercy; or, what we may rather say, the world’s heavy hand had so ordained her, when neither the world nor she looked forward to this result. The letter was a symbol of her calling” (Hawthorne 155). Hester becomes a kind of nurse, almost a nun; she does not want to be one, but she feels it is out of her hands. Hester is forced to be an outsider by her community, but she stands above their biased judgment by helping others in her society despite their unfair treatment of her. Another story concerning a female outsider who goes against the accepted standards of her society is The Awakening, by Kate Chopin. Written in 1899, this story is about a wife and mother who refuses to be tied down by a title and social bias. The outsider, Edna, is judged harshly for her actions of trying to be independent. Her internal turmoil is shown by the statement, “Edna looked straight before her with a self-absorbed expression upon her face. She felt no interest in anything about her. The street, the children, the fruit vender, the flowers growing there under her eyes, were all part and parcel of an alien world which had suddenly become antagonistic” (Chopin 89-90). Society is now Edna’s enemy. She no longer wants to be a part of the social norm; she wants to live differently from the way society expects. She goes on to show the reader that she is a strong woman who just wants to find herself: “Even as a child she had lived her own small life all within herself. At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life-that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions” (Chopin 55). There are two Ednas, an Inner Edna and an Outer Edna, and the two do not match up. The Outer Edna conforms to societal expectations while the Inner Edna wants to be more than just a housewife. She eventually has a