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As a white Deputy Commissioner of the Police Department in the colony, Scobie lives in the collision of Western and African civilizations. Under the background of colonialism, the Western civilization to which Scobie belongs is the mainstream culture. As an authority figure in the mainstream culture, why does Scobie become a marginal man in the white community? As mentioned above, marginality is not confined to different cultures and groups but it can also appear within the same social and cultural community. To solve the problem, we can get some clues from Scobie’s self-marginalization, in light of reasons and behaviors of his self-marginalization.

As Xu Xiaojun points out “Whether or not to be marginalized is the result of the individual’s own choice” (Xu, 2018: 46). For people who choose to be marginalized by themselves, they will voluntarily leave their original culture and automatically stand on the edge of their own culture. These marginalized people recognize the harsh social reality. They actively distance themselves from the dark side of their culture. In other words, the real reason of people’s self-marginalization lies in their aim to avoid the dark side of their culture.

In the novel, Greene gives a detailed depiction of the dark side of the Western civilization which is manifested by the behaviors of Western colonizers. The war and colonialism have put on the display of the colonists’ worst feature: moral degeneration. These western colonists either indulged in alcoholism, sleeping with black girls or flirting with their fellows’ wives. They even take bribes in some legal cases. When dealing with disputes in the colony, they judge cases not by the law but by the amounts of bribes they received.

1.2 Scobie’s Being-Marginalized

Scobie’s self-marginalization also invites others’ marginalization of him. He is marginalized to varying degrees by the westerners, the Africans and his wife.

Social groups set specific norms and standards based on common interests or goals. Participants in social groups often set their own identities within the group according to group norms. If the individual’s behavior violates the rules or shows strong differences in the community, this person will be pushed to a marginal position, and thus be discriminated against or even hated by the group (Yan, 2017: 20).

In a sarcastic tone, Greene uncovers the norm followed by the colonists: immorality. Immorality has become the basis for the westerners to survive in this colony. Such immorality is exposed entirely in the conversation between Scobie and the Commissioner. “The man before you slept with dozens, but it never bothered anyone. They thought up something different for him. They said he drank secretly. It made them feel better drinking publicly. What a lot of swine they are” (Greene, 2019: 9). “Unfortunately”, Scobie has a good reputation of morality which has gotten affirmation from the people around him. He is called ‘Scobie the Just’ by the commissioner. Father Rank also thinks highly of Scobie’s morality. Tallit said h本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。