The lives of these threads sometimes seem parallel to those of the young and the restless in the days of our lives as the world turns on the edge of night.

Just for the record: I mentioned pariahs because I'm building a word web of exclusion for my kids to discuss at school in terms of 'the others' (!) in To Kill a Mockingbird, which we'll begin week after next. There are notable pariahs in that novel: Boo Radley, the Ewells, and (oh, woe be the day) poor Tom Robinson, to name the obvious. Because I teach 14- to 15-year-old students, their own vulnerability to feeling like outcasts, especially their freshman year, is keen.

Archetypes are grand and broad enough that the kids can see that the big problems and challenges in their lives have umbrella terms. This helps them see that the paths their trodding have been well-trodden before--and I suspect causes their feelings of isolation to at least have a name. And if you can name it--so they say--you can tame it...or at least try. I like pariah because it sounds dangerous somehow--like the piranha--only here the feeding frenzy is internal--the self attacking itself out of loneliness. But 'the other' I especially like, much moreso than outcast, because it sounds heavy like fog and somewhat like ether and somehow without substance. 'The other' sounds emotively right.

However, with the word web, the students will be able to choose words that appeal to their sense of otherness--and outside-edness. The Visual Thesaurus provides many 'other' synonyms. But you gotta pay for it. Drat.