Part of a Rubix Cube

          Being an outsider is like a rubix cube.  While there are many colors that need to work together to make a completed cube, so are there many factors to what makes us feel like an outsider.  All throughout history, we see people who are segregated from a group because of who they are and/or what they stand for.  It can be anything from just the color of their skin or hair to what religion they practice or even what nationality they are.  Time and time again, these outcasts continue to be cast aside for these and many other bases because someone didn’t agree or like them.  The film Rabbitproof Fence expresses what an outsider is by giving us a look into how the domineering group perceives the outcast, and affirms the idea that unless we fit the mold of that group, castaways we will continue to be.      

          Society has always had turmoil between groups, one always being seen as beneath the other.  In the film, the Aborigine is looked at as dirty and wrong by the European white man.  Mr. Neville, the legal guardian put over the Aborigine’s, perceived them as a race that needed help from the white man to escape the harmful effects of being primitive and uncultured.  He thought that by removing the half-cast children, from their homes, he was “helping” them become cultured and live a worthy life.  People can often think they are doing a good deed by stealing the identities of the outsiders and forcing their ideas and views, the right views in their minds, upon them.  The outcasts are then forced to decide between two things.  They can choose to succumb to the people that are telling them who they are is wrong and change their identity or they choose to fight against the hatred and separation and stand strong in their own self.

          Going against the grain of the dominant group is always a challenge because the stronger group preys against the weaker one, thinking they can get away with it.  This movie upheld that challenge by the lack of resistance from the Aborigines to the Government.  While the children were clothed and fed and treated with a certain amount of kind restraint, they knew what was going on and why they were being taken from their homes was wrong.  Yet they did not resist.  So often outcasts will just go with the flow of the oppressors, continuing to follow the status quo, and not cause any trouble.  No one wants to “cross the line” for fear that an iron fist could come down upon them.  People want to avoid more suffering and pain and move into a way of life of just going through the motions, looking for hope in a positive outcome.  While we all think that no one would sit by and let this happen to them, so many people do this and end up being the victim.       

          Before watching this movie, I believed that most outcasts are outcasts because they choose to be ones.  However, this movie showed me that being an outcast is not necessarily a choice, but is more about the people that are around you.  There are no set rules that define what group is right or wrong, but if someone senses that a group is vulnerable enough, the stronger group will gain a sense of power over the weaker.  Forcing their ideals and standards on the weaker group, they effectively change the sense of identity the weaker group has.  While the main character in the movie chose to rise above the system, most of the others chose to follow in the footsteps of their predecessors.  They kept the same conforming situation going on and on, repeating histories blueprints for one group’s demise because of another, continuing to be seen as a castaway.