Sometimes, I feel like I spent the first part of my life wishing to be a teen-age boy, and the second part condemned to being one.
S. E. HintonRead
Your mother is not crazy. Neither, contrary to popular belief, is your brother. He is merely miscast in a play. He would have made the perfect knight in a different century, or a very good pagan prince in a time of heroes. He was born in the wrong era, on the wrong side of the river, with the ability to do anything and finding nothing he wants to do.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on how individuals can feel out of place in their circumstances, highlighting the impact of time and context on a person's identity and aspirations.
The quote by S. E. Hinton suggests that people may feel misfit because they are in an environment that does not align with their true potential or desires. It conveys a poignant message about the arbitrary nature of circumstances and how one's abilities may not find expression in the prevailing context or society, leading to frustration and a sense of being lost.
Themes
IdentityContextPotentialMisfitFrustration
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about following one's passion, this quote can illustrate how feeling out of place can inspire a search for one's true calling.
More from S. E. Hinton
All quotes →That's why people don't ever think to blame the Socs and are always ready to jump on us. We look hoody and they look decent. It could be just the other way around - half of the hoods I know are pretty decent guys underneath all that grease, and from what I've heard, a lot of Socs are just cold-blooded mean - but people usually go by looks.
S. E. HintonRead
Anything you read can influence your work, so I try to read good stuff.
S. E. HintonRead
Things were rough all over, but it was better that way. That way you could tell the other guy was human too.
S. E. HintonRead
I had it then. Soda fought for fun, Steve for hatred, Darry for pride, and Two-Bit for conformity. Why do I fight? I thought, and couldn't think of any real good reason. There isn't any real good reason for fighting except self-defense.
S. E. HintonRead
...but I've never regretted it. You can't regret experience.
S. E. HintonRead
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There is, in fact, a manly and lawful passion for equality which excites men to wish all to be powerful and honored. This passion tends to elevate the humble to the rank of the great; but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom.
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Sense perceptions can be and often are false and deceptive, however real they may appear to us. Where there is realization outside the senses, it is infallible. It is proved not by extraneous evidence but in the transformed conduct and character of those who have felt the real presence of God within.
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...nothing on earth can stop man from feeling himself born for liberty. Never, whatever may happen, can he accept servitude; for he is a thinking creature.
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