Inside and Outside: Shelter, Confinement and Belonging
Inside and outside describe positions relative to a boundary. Shelter, confinement and belonging describe different relationships that a text may build around those positions. A closed door can protect a room from weather, prevent someone from leaving, or separate a private conversation from its audience.
The useful comparison begins with the boundary, the people or things on either side, and the passage between them. This page is part of the Comparative Metaphor Library, with companion articles on Being Stuck: Barriers, Loops and Waiting and Agency and Motion: Moving and Being Moved.
A boundary has more than one function
| Arrangement | What the scene establishes | What still needs context |
|---|---|---|
| Shelter | A boundary reduces exposure to something outside | What is being kept out, and whether the occupants want to stay |
| Confinement | Departure or movement is restricted | Who or what restricts it, and for how long |
| Exclusion | A person or thing is kept from entering or participating | Which entrance, activity or relationship is involved |
| Privacy | Access to a space, conversation or information is limited | Who controls that access and who is entitled to it in the account |
| Welcome | Entry is invited or accepted | Whether acceptance continues after arrival |
| Belonging | A relationship of membership, familiarity or attachment is described | Whether it coincides with physical presence in a place |
These are editorial distinctions for reading particular accounts. Several can coexist: a house may shelter its occupants while excluding a visitor, and a person can be physically present while describing themselves as an outsider. Record whose position the source describes.
Four documented expressions
Feeling at home
Cambridge records “be/feel at home” as an idiom for feeling comfortable and relaxed.[1] The expression can be used in settings other than a residence. Its conventional meaning therefore differs from simply being located inside a house.
For close reading, compare a statement of place with a statement of relationship. The invented sentences “I was in the room” and “I felt at home there” supply different information. The first locates someone; the second describes their experience of the setting. See Houses, Rooms and Hidden Spaces and People.
Being shut out
Cambridge distinguishes preventing physical entry from excluding a person or organisation from an activity.[2] This allows a useful comparison between a doorway and participation in a discussion. Physical closeness does not, by itself, establish inclusion.
The wording also leaves several possible mechanisms open. A locked gate, an omitted invitation and a conversation that proceeds without someone describe different events. The source needs to identify which event is at issue. See Fences, Boundaries and Borders, Locks and Keys and Echoes, Silence and Unheard Voices.
Behind closed doors
Cambridge records “behind closed doors” for events kept from public view or conducted without an audience.[3] This expression concerns access or visibility; it does not, on its own, establish what happened in the room or whether the event was improper.
A transparent wall, a soundproof room and a locked entrance would separate seeing, hearing and entering. These constructed comparisons show why “access” is worth describing precisely. See Doors, Gates and Thresholds, Houses, Rooms and Hidden Spaces and Mirrors and Reflections.
Being in or out of the loop
Cambridge's business entry connects being “in the loop” with membership of a group sharing knowledge, decisions or responsibility, and being “out of the loop” with exclusion from that group.[4] The boundary here concerns information and participation.
This also makes a useful contrast with “going around in circles”. The presence of a circular image does not make the idioms equivalent. One concerns inclusion in a network; the other concerns activity without results, as discussed in Being Stuck: Barriers, Loops and Waiting.
Houses in two named stories
The Three Little Pigs: a boundary that resists entry
In Joseph Jacobs's English Fairy Tales, the first two pigs' houses fail under the wolf's attack. The third pig's brick house withstands his blowing. The wolf's later attempt to enter through the chimney shifts the story from the strength of the walls to another possible point of entry.[5]
Comparison: the house's protective role is established by the relationship between the occupant and the pursuing wolf. An opening is not automatically an improvement: in this episode, an unwanted entrance threatens the shelter. The question is who seeks access and what the story says about that access. See Brick Walls and Doors, Gates and Thresholds.
Hansel and Gretel: welcome that becomes captivity
In the Project Gutenberg text of Grimms' Fairy Tales, based on translations by Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes, the children encounter an edible house and an apparently welcoming woman. Her hospitality conceals an intention to eat them. Hansel is subsequently confined behind a grated stable door while Gretel is made to work.[6]
Comparison: the apparent role of the place changes as the story reveals its occupant's intention. Entry, comfort, trust and freedom to leave are separate features. The house first attracts the children; the later confinement makes the relationship to its owner explicit. See Hansel and Gretel, Nets, Webs and Traps and Houses, Rooms and Hidden Spaces.
The two stories support a comparison of specific events, rather than a rule that houses are always safe or always dangerous. Identify the telling before comparing details: adaptations may alter who escapes, what the buildings contain and how the danger ends.
A worked comparison: the same closed gate
The following invented descriptions all contain a closed gate. Their additional wording changes its role.
| Wording | Relationship made explicit | A useful comparison |
|---|---|---|
| “I closed the gate to keep the animals safe.” | The speaker acts to maintain an enclosure for a stated purpose | Protection is attributed to the speaker's explanation. |
| “They closed the gate and would not let me leave.” | Another party restricts the speaker's departure | Being inside is connected with confinement. |
| “I waited outside until someone invited me in.” | Entry depends on an invitation | The passage describes access and expectation. |
| “I could open the gate whenever I wanted, but I stayed.” | The speaker describes an available exit and continued presence | Remaining is distinguished from an inability to leave. |
| “They welcomed me through the gate, but I still felt like an outsider.” | Physical entry and social experience differ | Crossing the boundary does not complete the account of belonging. |
A sketch of the gate alone would omit most of this information. When making a diagram or selecting an illustration for a passage, retain the text alongside it so that the image does not silently replace permission, intention or sequence with a simpler scene.
Perspective, scale and nested spaces
“Inside” depends on the boundary chosen. Someone may be inside a house, outside a particular room and within a surrounding garden. An open garden gate does not tell us whether the room is accessible. Specify which enclosure the description refers to before combining several passages.
Visibility also differs from reachability. A window can reveal a room while preventing passage through it. A distant island can be plainly visible while difficult to reach. These comparisons connect Containers, Islands, Castaways and Exile and The Hermit, Lanterns and Solitude.
Across languages, an idiom of membership may use a different image from the one chosen in English. Keep the original wording, conventional meaning and proposed translation together. Metaphor Across Languages and Cultures provides a comparison record for doing this without treating a language as a single cultural viewpoint.
Questions for reading and discussion
- Which boundary makes this position “inside” or “outside”?
- What passes through: people, objects, sound, light or information?
- Who controls entry, departure or visibility in the account?
- Does the passage distinguish being present from being welcomed or included?
- What changes when the viewpoint moves to the other side?
- Does the role of the place change as the story unfolds?
Related pages
- Being Stuck: Barriers, Loops and Waiting for blocked routes and deferred passage.
- Agency and Motion: Moving and Being Moved for the control of opening, closing and crossing.
- Bluebeard, Rapunzel and Stories and literature for further reading about access and enclosure, using the named versions on those pages.
Sources
- ↑ Cambridge Dictionary, “be/feel at home”.
- ↑ Cambridge Dictionary, “shut someone/something out”, “Prevent entry” and “Not include” senses.
- ↑ Cambridge Dictionary, “behind closed doors”.
- ↑ Cambridge Dictionary, “loop”, business senses “be in the loop” and “be out of the loop”.
- ↑ Joseph Jacobs (collector), English Fairy Tales, “The Story of the Three Little Pigs”, Project Gutenberg eBook 7439. This comparison follows Jacobs's telling.
- ↑ Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Grimms' Fairy Tales, “Hansel and Gretel”, Project Gutenberg eBook 2591, whose text identifies translations by Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes as its basis.
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