62 pages • 2-hour read
The Outsider
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Part 9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 9: “No End to the Universe”
Part 9, Chapters 1-5 Summary
July 26
Ralph wakes early and finds Holly sitting in a lawn chair. She recounts an incident in which she found Bill looking up at the night sky, and he said, “[S]cientists are starting to believe that there’s no end to the universe” (477). Jeannie, who has joined Ralph and Holly, nods and adds, “[M]ore things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy” (477).
Holly uses a black light to take pictures of the corner of the room where the outsider sat while it talked to Jeannie. The pictures show spatters of organic matter. Holly theorizes that the outsider has to remain close to Claude Bolton in Texas, but it also projected an avatar of itself into the Andersons’ living room.
Ralph and Holly meet Howie and Alec at the airport in Cap City. They theorize that the outsider can absorb some of its target’s thoughts and memories, but not perfectly.
Part 9 Analysis
The quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet comes after the ghost of Hamlet’s father tells Hamlet that he was murdered. Hamlet’s friend Horatio remarks on the strangeness of the encounter, and Hamlet replies with the “more things in heaven and earth” line, suggesting that reality isn’t limited to the material. However, in the play, Hamlet goes on to vacillate between faith in the supernatural (his father’s ghost, his religion) and rationalism, trying to verify the ghost’s testimony with material evidence. His inability to choose one side or the other results in the deaths of all the major characters. Ralph is in danger of making the same error with the same outcome.
“No end to the universe” echoes the line from Hamlet in a modern, scientific context. In an infinite universe, infinite things are possible. Ralph sees the darker implications of an infinite universe; an infinite universe contains the outsider and probably things immeasurably worse.
Holly’s blacklight photos are the kind of material evidence that Ralph can cope with. He understands the concept of black light and has seen it work as an investigative tool. When her makeshift blacklight reveals organic residue, he has something concrete to grasp, but that also forces him to begin to accept the existence of a creature whose existence he can’t accept.
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