Marginal Man - Stonguiest

The Problem of the Marginal Man
Author(s): Everett V. Stonequist

Source: American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Jul., 1935), pp. 1-12
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
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THE AMERICAN
JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
VOLUME XLI JULY 1935 NUMBER I
THE PROBLEM OF THE MARGINAL MAN'

EVERETT V. STONEQUIST
Skidmore College
ABSTRACT
The marginal man arises in a bi-cultural or multi-cultural situation. The natural
desire of the mixed-blood is to advance toward the group occupying the higher status.
He may be forced to accept the status of the lower group, possibly becoming their leader.
He may be rejected by both groups. Where accommodation, rather than conflict, pre-
vails, the mixed-blood may constitute a middle class. With intermarriage the mixed-
blood approximates more nearly to the status of the dominant race. The marginal indi-
vidual experiences what Du Bois has analyzed as "double consciousness." It is as if he
regarded himself through two looking-glasses presenting clashing images. The marginal
individual passes through a life-cycle: introduction to the two cultures, crisis, and ad-
justment. The natural history involves an initial phase with a small group of marginal
individuals who are ahead of the minority. This group increases, and a movement de-
velops having as a goal some kind of equality and independence. The final outcome may
be a new social framework; if assimilation is facilitated, the minority may be incorpo-
rated into the dominant group, or become the dominant group, and the cycle ends.
Probably the great majority of individuals in the world live and

have their being within a single cultural system. Each individual is
likely to be born, mature, and die within the boundaries of one tribal
or national tradition, learning to communicate in one tongue, de-
veloping loyalties to one sovereign government, conforming to the
expectations of one moral code, believing in the way of life approved
by one religion. The deepest part of his personality-his sentiments,
conception of self, style of life, and aspirations, whether articulate or
inarticulate, conscious or unconscious-are formed out of and identi-
I This paper is designed merely to outline very broadly the theory or hypothesis of
the marginal man. The supporting details and factual materials, first developed in a
University of Chicago thesis, are being revised for the purpose of publication.
2 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
fied with these more or less harmonious patterns of the social heri-
tage. From the standpoint of material culture it is true that his well-
being today is at the mercy of a world-wide economic system; but the
elements which make up his personality are formed in a much more
restricted system. He is English, French, Japanese, American. This
relatively restricted system of non-material culture--of nations and
nationality--cannot, of course, escape some inner cultural conflicts
in proportion to the degree that it is dynamic. Nevertheless, it has a
powerful tendency toward unity, consistency, and harmony, for each
national system, resting upon common historical memories, faces a
world of other striving national systems, each bound within a frame-
work of governmental institutions, economic interests, and ethno-
centric sentiments.
However, largely because the economic system has expanded so
much more rapidly than have the other aspects of culture, we find
today many individuals growing up in a more complex and less
harmonious cultural situation. They are unwittingly initiated into
two or more historic traditions, languages, political loyalties, moral
codes, and religions. Migration has transplanted individuals and
cultures to such an extent that nearly every land and every city is
something of a melting-pot of races and nationalities. The individual
who grows up in such a situation is likely to find himself faced, per-
haps unexpectedly, with problems, conflicts, and decisions peculiar
to the melting-pot. This is true particularly of those who are ex-
pected to do most of the melting, that is, those who belong to a
minority group, or to a group which has an inferior status in the land.
The more powerful or dominant group does not expect to adjust it-
self to the others; it is the subordinate group which is expected to do
the adjusting, conforming, and assimilating-or remain apart.
Some of the members of the subordinate or minority group are
able to live their lives within their own cultures, or at least to live
in them sufficiently not to be greatly disturbed by the culture of the
dominant group. They have a symbiotic rather than a social rela-
tionship. Others, however (and the proportion will be small or large
depending upon the conditions), find themselves more strongly in-
fluenced and attracted by the dominant group. The personality de-
velopment of such individuals is of interest and significance both
THE PROBLEM OF THE MARGINAL MAN 3
to theoretical and practical students of human behavior. Living as

they do, in between the two cultures, their personalities and careers
are interwoven and linked with both systems. They thus mirror in
their own personalities aspects of the two cultures, and especially
the relations of the two cultures.
We are indebted to Professor Robert E. Park2 for identifying this
personality type, which he has called the "marginal man" and de-
fined as one who is "living and sharing intimately in the cultural
life and traditions of two distinct peoples, never quite willing to
break, even if he were permitted to do so, with his past and his
traditions, and not quite accepted, because of racial prejudice, in
the new society in which he now seeks to find a place."3 Accepting
this broad statement, with only minor qualifications, we may in-
quire further into the nature of this marginal man, the variations in
type, the social situation out of which he emerges, and his life-cycle.
Let us begin with the social situation, since it is this which pro-
duces the marginal type of personality. We have already indicated
its general configuration: a bi-cultural (or multi-cultural) situation
in which members of one cultural group are seeking to adjust them-
selves to the group which possesses greater prestige and power.
Two general types of situation may be distinguished: one where the
cultural difference also includes a racial (biological) difference; the
second where the difference is purely cultural. Each of these can be
further subdivided.
The first of these marginal situations, that involving a racial
difference, affords at first glance a clearer conception of the problem
than does the second. This is particularly true as regards persons of
racially mixed ancestry. The individual of mixed blood is likely to
grow up influenced by the cultures of each of his parental groups.
Even if his family life is predominantly of one culture, he is often
keenly aware of his connection with the other culture or group. In
addition he is apt to possess some of the physical traits of each of the
two races. Other members of the community can therefore identify
him as of mixed descent. Consequently, whatever racial prejudice-
ranging from mild aloofness or Datronizing solicitude to biting con-
2 "Migration and the Marginal Man," American Journal of Sociology, May, 1928.
3Ibid., p. 892.
tempt-exists in the community toward mixed persons will sooner

or later impinge upon his consciousness. The type of life he leads,
the nature of his achievements or failures, his conception of himself,
and his social attitudes will inevitably reflect the fact that he is of
mixed race, and whatever that fact means in any particular com-
munity.
The status of the mixed person is not a uniform one. Generally
speaking, it is somewhere between the two parent-races. In the early
stages of mixture one can scarcely speak of a clear status: the first
mixed-bloods are anomalies for which the social organization is un-
prepared. The particular constellation of forces at work in the com-
munity gradually defines a status. From the subjective side the
initial, natural desire of the mixed-blood with any ambition is to
advance toward the group which occupies the higher status. Sharing
its blood, and at least some of its culture, he feels that he belongs
with it, or close to it. The extent of his advance will then be limited,
excepting for possible inherited differences, by social conditions.
In the case of an illegitimate child the absence of the father will
tend to place the child in the mother's group. Since the blood of the
white race has been generally introduced by men rather than by
women, this means that the child will be cared for by the non-white
group. In the modern period of race mixture, this is almost always
the group or race of lower status. Where racial intermarriage is for-
bidden, the result is similar; but in certain respects the status may
be even lower, reflecting the hostile mores. Thus, in the case of the
American Negro, the color line is so rigidly drawn that the mulatto
must accept the status of the Negro, or at best that of the leader of
the Negro; and this is true no matter how "white" he actually is-
unless, of course, he is so white in appearance that he can "pass"'
as a white person.
The mixed-blood, however, does not always become the leader of
the weaker race. This role, so conspicuous in the case of the Ameri-
can mulatto, merely indicates the peculiar American situation. The
slave system deprived the Negro of his African cultural heritage and
forced him to accept the American culture and its values. The
mulatto, owing in part at least to historical circumstances, has ad-
vanced further in this direction; consequently, when faced by that
categoric attitude of the white race which makes no distinction be-

tween pure Negroes and mixed persons, he has gradually assumed a
more than proportionate share of the leadership of the darker race.4
In other parts of the world the mixed-blood occupies a different
position. In India, for example, the Eurasian cannot enter either of
the parent-groups. Each of the two main races is contemptuous of
mixed individuals. The Eurasian clings to the coat of the aloof but
retreating Englishman, despises the Indian, and is heartily despised
in turn. The growth of Indian nationalism offers him little or no
future; it increases his social isolation. As an intelligent Eurasian
has stated, "To the European we are half-caste, among ourselves we
are no caste, and to the Indian we are outcaste."5
Where the competition and conflict of the races is less severe, the
mixed group may have a position closer to the dominant race. In
certain colonial areas where white men come to live temporarily, or
else live as a capitalistic-not a working-class, the mixed-blood
group approximates a middle class in status. The white group is
small in number, it occupies the leading positions, and it may find a
middle class of mixed-bloods useful both from an economic stand-
point and because it acts as a "buffer" group separating the two
unmixed races. In this case, where accommodation, rather than con-
flict, prevails, the mixed-blood develops the traits of the conformist
anxious to preserve his superior status. In Java, for example, the
average mixed-blood has been described as "usually temperate, civil
to the point of sycophancy, hospitable, and essentially devoted to
his family."6 Again, the cool attitude of Jamaican mulattoes or
"colored" people to Marcus Garvey's "Back-to-Africa" movement
was an illuminating indication of their preference for the status quo.7
Another type of mixed-race situation should be noted: that where
4 See E. B. Reuter, The Mulatto in the United States (Boston, I9I8).
5 Quoted in Mary H. Lee, "The Eurasian: A Social Problem" (thesis in the University
of Chicago Library), p. io.
6 H. J. Scheuer, quoted in S. H. Roberts, Population Problems of the Pacific (London,
I927), p. 378.
7 In his Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey or Africa for the Africans, com-
piled by Amy Jacques-Garvey, Vol. II (New York, I926), Garvey writes: "I was openly
hated and persecuted by some of these colored men of the island who did not want to
be classified as Negroes, but as white. They hated me worse than poison" (p. I27).
racial intermarriage exists upon an extensive scale. Latin America

generally and Hawaii are illustrations. Such a situation does not
imply the complete absence of race prejudice, as some writers have
affirmed; but it does change the character of race prejudice, prevent-
ing or restricting its institutionalization and driving it under cover,
where it leads a precarious but not insignificant life. Here the
racial hybrid develops a somewhat more diversified character, re-
flecting the greater freedom of his position, and so approximates
more nearly to the status of the dominant race.
Significantly varied as these mixed-blood situations are, they all
involve some cultural conflict and racial prejudice; and they have an
unsettled, problematic character. There is a pull and pressure from
both sides. The person of mixed blood, by his dual biological and
cultural origin, is identified with each group. His awareness of the
conflict situation, mild or acute, signifies that in looking at himself
from the standpoint of each group he experiences the conflict as a
personal problem. Thus his ambitions run counter to his feelings of
self-respect: he would prefer recognition by the dominant race, but
he resents its arrogance. A sense of superiority to one race is counter-
balanced by a sense of inferiority to the other race. Pride and shame,
love and hate, and other contradictory sentiments, mingle uneasily
in his nature. The two cultures produce a dual pattern of identifica-
tion and a divided loyalty, and the attempt to maintain self-respect
transforms these feelings into an ambivalent attitude. The indi-
vidual may pass in and out of each group situation several times a
day; thus his attention is repeatedly focused upon each group atti-
tude and his relationship to it. A process of repeated stimulation or
meaningful conditioning goes on which becomes of central signifi-
cance in his life-organization. His racial status is continually called
in question; naturally his attention is turned upon himself to an
excessive degree: thus increased sensitiveness, self-consciousness,
and race-consciousness, an indefinable malaise, inferiority and vari-
ous compensatory mechanisms, are common traits in the marginal
person. The gifted mulatto, Dr. Du Bois,8 has analyzed the problem
in terms of a "double consciousness":
"..... the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with
second-sight in this American world-a world which yields him no true self-
8 W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (Chicago, I903), p. 3.
consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the r

world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness
looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of meas
tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels this
two-ness-an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled
strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone
keeps it from being torn asunder.
The statement of Du Bois suggests a development of Cooley's look-

ing-glass theory of personality. The process of seeing one's self re-
flected in the attitudes of others toward one is so habitual with the
ordinary individual that he is unaware of it; it requires a Cooley to
discover and describe the process. But with the marginal person,
it is as if he were placed simultaneously between two looking-glasses,
each presenting a different image of himself. The clash in the images
cannot help but make the individual somewhat conscious of the
process-conscious of the two mirrors and conscious of the two
clashing images.
So far the discussion has been confined to racial hybrid situations.
The fact of race mixture, however, proves upon analysis to be rather
incidental. The racial hybrid is likely to be a marginal character,
not because of his mixture of blood viewed as a biological fact, but
because his mixture places him in a certain social situation. The
validity of this interpretation is strengthened when comparisons are
made with individuals of unmixed race occupying a similar social
situation.
Without making a detailed or extensive analysis, is it not clear
that the immigrant who has left his home culture and is not yet
assimilated into the new situation may, if he encounters an unfriend-
ly attitude, become a marginal man? The autobiographies of many
immigrants, especially when they have had social contacts beyond
the immigrant community, are best understood from this general
standpoint. If not the immigrant, then the children of immigrants-
the second generation-frequently are in this position. This is likely
to happen when the children adopt, as they readily do, the new cul-
ture more rapidly than their parents, and when the culture of the
latter stands in sharp contrast with that of the new land. The diffi-
culty of the second generation is further increased when racial differ-
ences are added to the usual cultural differences-as in the case of
second-generation Orientals in America. They are then neither

Orientals nor Americans in a full sense, and may feel themselves to
be, in the words of a young man of Japanese descent, a "lost genera-
tion." Their undetermined status also gives rise to a baffling ambi-
valence of mood and sentiment which reflective introspection can
sometimes catch and throw into relief. For example, an intelligent
second-generation Chinese girl in Hawaii described her feelings about
the "Haoles" (the white American group, chiefly Nordic and upper
class) as follows:
.... Although they are in more comfortable circumstances, my individual-
ism does not permit me to desire to be a haole-only at bitter moments when a
haole is preferred just because he is a haole. I may be only Chinese, but I
am I . The haole needn't think he's so "blamed almighty." When I am
not amused, his condescension aggravates me and I hate him. Then I am sorry
for him, for his parents had fired his baby brain with race superiority.
Sometimes I find myself wanting to command his respect and recognition as
a social equal. I analyzed that feeling. From where did it come? Is it because
I want to be "some one" in a society where haoles are the prominent ones? Is it
because it would be a golden chance to show off to my less fortunate oriental
friends? I wonder. It is so difficult to stand apart from the whole complex sub-
jective set-up of reactions and feeling tones.
Even if he should become friendly, he would never invite me to dinner or to a
party. Oh, no! Whoever did such a thing! I'm yellow!
Please do not think that I'm bitter, for this attitude holds true only when
there are a thousand haoles (as a mass), and not for individuals. The best of
my haole friends (those who are older and consequently have had more contact
with peoples of other races) treat me like a human being. I have spent many
happy week-ends with them-swimming and playing together, having tete-a-
tetes over a tea table on an afternoon, consuming chicken dinners, singing
hymns, and spending the night or the week with them.
Aside from those who have nothing to boast of and yet act as if they do, the
haole as I associate with him becomes a very likable person. After all, we must
not judge the haole by his lowly, narrow-minded brother.
I remember when I was in school the first twelve years, I simply dreaded
being called "haolified." Everyone talked about you if you tried to speak like
a haole or put on the airs of a haole. The Portuguese who tried to pass off as a
haole was hooted down. Do you see how we magnified the arrogance of the
general run of haoles here and shut out of the picture our lovely white teachers?
I too have been prejudiced. Sometimes this childish idea of dreading to seem
haolified crops up and I reproach myself.
It isn't bad being a haole, but I'd rather be myself.
The Jew is likely to be a typical marginal man. Perhaps the fac-

tors in his situation are the most complex. His is the traditional
minority group. He is the perennial immigrant. His children are apt
to have the second-generation problems. Popularly regarded as a
race, the Jews are felt to be unassimilable. (Consider the Nazi
ideology.) An individual of part-Jewish ancestry may be thought of
in terms similar to the mixed-blood. Besides being a distinctive re-
ligious group, they are viewed by many Christians as "Christ-
killers." Centuries of social conflict, combined with their tenacious
historical memories, have produced a group consciousness which in
turn suspects and resists assimilation tendencies which go beyond a
certain point. It is little wonder, then, that the Jew becomes the
classic illustration of this problem, just as he has been most articulate
in expressing it.
The marginal type may emerge among a people who have not
themselves emigrated but instead have been subject to invasion
from without. The expansion of Western peoples during the modern
period of history has been the main factor in creating this situation.
Besides the racial hybrid, there is also the unmixed cultural hybrid.
Missionaries have been instrumental in producing such individuals:
the convert who is no longer adjusted to his native group and yet is
not fully at home or accepted by the white group. Colonial adminis-
trators have noted the difficulties connected with Westernized na-
tives-"Europeanized Africans," for instance. Incidentally, it is
significant that such terms are applied to Westernized individuals of
both mixed and unmixed descent: apparently the fact of race mix-
ture is not the crucial one. Modern nationalistic movements can be
understood best in terms of a reaction to such cultural hybridization.
This is recognized by some of the leading students of India, for ex-
ample. It may be pertinent to note what the East India Calcutta
University Commission had to say concerning the effects of English
education upon the students of Bengal:
The Bengali student, like many a student in other lands, feels upon his mind
the pull of two loyalties, the loyalty to the old order and loyalty to the new.
But in his case the difficulty of combining these two loyalties is very great. Each
loyalty needs fuller and clearer definition to him. He finds it hard to light upon
any real adjustment between them. Therefore, it is often his fate to lead what
Io THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
is in effect a double intellectual life. He is two-minded and lives a parallel life

in the atmosphere of two cultures.9
Naturally the marginal individual is not identical in all his per-

sonality traits in all situations, nor even within one situation. What
is here termed "marginal" represents a process of abstraction, a core
of psychological traits which are the inner correlates of the dual
pattern of social conflict and identification. The intensity of the
inner conflict varies with the situation itself, the individual experi-
ence with this situation, and perhaps certain inherited traits. With
some individuals, it appears to be a minor problem; in such cases one
cannot speak of a "personality type." It is only in those cases where
the conflict is intense and of considerable duration that the person-
ality as a whole is oriented around the conflict. The individual then
seems almost to be "obsessed" with his problem; his moods are re-
shaped. Then, in spite of the variations in race and culture, the type
is clearly delineated.
Another important distinction should be emphasized: the exist-
ence of a life-cycle. The traits of the individual vary considerably
with the stage of development. Three stages can be defined: First,
there is a stage of preparation when the individual is being intro-
duced into the two cultures. In a general way this represents at least
some assimilation into the two cultures. Without at least partial
assimilation the individual would not later experience the conflict of
loyalties. This assimilation is often an unwitting process in which
the individual does not realize he is taking over two cultures. At
this period he is not conscious of a personality problem; usually this
stage is confined to childhood.
The second stage has the character of a "crisis": the individual,
through one or more defining experiences, becomes aware of the cul-
tural conflict which involves his own career. I'his may be the result
of a single experience which climaxes a process of summation, or it
may dawn in a more gradual and imperceptible manner not clearly
recallable by the subject. The typical traits of the marginal man
arise out of the crisis experience and in response to the situation.
The individual's life-organization is seriously disturbed. Confusion,
even shock, restlessness, disillusionment, and estrangement may re-
sult; a new self-consciousness develops to mirror the newly realized
9 Report of the East India Calcutta University Commission (Calcutta, I9I9), p. 128.
THE PROBLEM OF THE MARGINAL MAN II
situation. The individual takes the attitude of the two groups

toward each other and toward himself and becomes something of a
divided personality. Naturally he does not remain passive; some
effort at least is made at readjustment. Such a problematic situa-
tion is indeed peculiarly conducive to thought, as John Dewey has
made clear in other connections. Perhaps this is one reason for the
frequent superiority shown by the Jew and the mixed-blood, for
instance.
The third stage consists of the more enduring responses of the
individual to the situation. In general, the individual may evolve
in several different directions. He may continue toward the domi-
nant group and perhaps eventually succeed in becoming an ac-
cepted member. In this case the conflict ends, or merely echoes re-
currently as a memory. This solution is more likely to occur where
there is no biological barrier. "Passing" is a more uncertain solution.
Another possibility lies in moving in the other direction, throwing
one's lot with the subordinate group, if it in turn is willing. The
marginal individual's dual contacts may give him an advantage,
making him a leader. Resentment may spur him to fight the domi-
nant group; he becomes a "revolutionary," or aggressive nationalist.
If his attention is centered on raising his own group by some other
method, he may appear in the role of conciliator, reformer, teacher,
etc. Such roles contribute to organize and give direction to the pre-
viously disturbed or disorganized individual, even though they do
not always create complete inner harmony. In yet other instances
neither of the foregoing courses is taken; there may then be with-
drawal and isolation, or removal-the last difficult to achieve except
perhaps by escape to another land (American Negroes, for instance,
profess to find France a haven of refuge from race prejudice). Again,
the intermediate group-say, of mixed-bloods-may be large enough
to afford a moderately satisfying life; indeed, the future may belong
to it. In individual cases certain roles of adjustment, investigation,
creative science, and art enable the individual to profit by his special
position, and perhaps ease the problem by expressing it. The stimu-
lus of the situation may create a superior personality or mind.Io With
IO A notion that the marginal man is necessarily "abnormal," unhappy, or otherwise
unfortunate appears to have arisen. This is a misconception of the facts, a narrowing
of the concept to the more disorganized cases.
I 2 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
some the conflict does not appear to be resolved except for temporary
periods, and with others it initiates a process of disorganization
which finds expression in statistics of delinquency, crime, suicide
and mental instability. That the traits of the marginal man, as well
as his attitude toward his position, should vary in this third stage
is perhaps so obvious that it needs no development at this time.
Just as there is a life-cycle for the individual, so there is a natural
history for the situation. The initial phase involves a small group of
marginal individuals who are much ahead of the minority or sub-
ordinate group. This favors the process of their identification and
assimilation with the dominant race; it is about the only road.
Gradually the group of marginal persons increases and the minority
race itself begins to stir with new feelings and ideas. It makes progress
in cultural development and self-respect. Then, if the dominant race
continues intransigently in its position and attitudes of superiority,
some of the marginal individuals swing about and identify them-
selves with the rising group. They further define the situation and
accelerate the movement. In this manner, nativistic, nationalistic,
and racial movements evolve from trickles into tides which have as
their goals some kind of equality and independence. The final out-
come may be a new social framework-perhaps a new race, national-
ity, caste, or even a new state. On the other hand, if assimilation is
facilitated, the minority group is eventually incorporated into the
dominant group, or the minority group (say, of mixed bloods) may
grow and become the dominant group, and the particular cycle
comes to an end.
In any case, the marginal man is likely to have an important part.
He is the key-personality in this type of cultural change. From the
practical viewpoint, then, the study of the marginal man is obvious-
ly significant. From the standpoint of theoretical science, his life-
history offers a method for studying the cultural process from the
mental, as well as objective, side. In the words of Park, "It is in the.
mind of the marginal man-where the changes and fusions of culture
are going on-that we can best study the processes of civilization
and progress."II
II Op. cit., p. 893.

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The Problem of the Marginal Man

Author(s): Everett V. Stonequist

VOLUME XLI JULY 1935 NUMBER I

THE PROBLEM OF THE MARGINAL MAN'

Probably the great majority of individuals in the world live and

to theoretical and practical students of human behavior. Living as

tempt-exists in the community toward mixed persons will sooner

categoric attitude of the white race which makes no distinction be-

racial intermarriage exists upon an extensive scale. Latin America

consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the r

The statement of Du Bois suggests a development of Cooley's look-

second-generation Orientals in America. They are then neither

The Jew is likely to be a typical marginal man. Perhaps the fac-

is in effect a double intellectual life. He is two-minded and lives a parallel life

Naturally the marginal individual is not identical in all his per-

situation. The individual takes the attitude of the two groups

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