First time in my life I ever felt like the outsider—ever try that? I didn’t care for it?
-- Bill House (Book I / Bill House)

Importance: Chokoloskee is effectively an all white town; the only integrated black person is Henry Short and the only civilized Native American family is the Hardens. When Bill and Henry visit the Hardens for dinner one night, Bill is the only white person present. For the first time in his young life, Bill gets a taste of being an outsider. This is an imperative scene, as it confronts the white man’s entitlement and privilege as the majority and dominant voice in early American culture. This privilege is easily mistaken for innate superiority, as demonstrated by the racist and hostile attitudes white settlers’ express toward people of color throughout the novel. But as Bill notes here, being an outsider in not an inherent personal attribute—it is circumstantial and socially designed...