The Outside Circle

Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | YA | Published in 2015

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Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Pages 1-43

Pages 44-84

Pages 85-127

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Pages 1-43Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Pages 1-17 Summary

Content Warning: This guide and source material contains references to violence, substance abuse, and abuse of Indigenous people.

The graphic novel opens with a group of men gathered in a circle on the floor. This is the inaugural session of the In Search of Your Warrior Program, designed to facilitate trauma healing for incarcerated Aboriginal men. Leading this session is Pete Carver, an Elder and the program’s guide. Pete announces his intention to share a story with the other men present.

The narrative then flashes back in time to a dimly lit street in Edmonton, the capital city of Alberta, Canada. As the narrator, Pete explains that many Indigenous people are “ashamed of their heritage” (8) and “struggle with addictions, living in pain and confusion” (9). Page 9 presents gloomy illustrations of bicycle wheels running over a syringe, symbolizing these struggles. The illustrations on the next page reveal that the bikes belong to two kids who cycle up to a young Pete, standing in the dark alley. He confronts them aggressively, demanding money, and one of the kids complies. Pete then gets in his car where his girlfriend, Crystal, is waiting for him. Crystal reveals that she is pregnant, and Pete’s reaction is explosive—he doubts that the child is his and orders her out of the car. As soon as Pete gets angry, the illustrations depict him wearing a white mask, the features scrunched up in anger and red tears streaming out of the eyes. Crystal leaves, and Pete, still fuming, encounters another kid on a bicycle and extorts money again. When the kid questions him, Pete is portrayed wearing the mask again and physically attacking the kid.

Pete drives home to Joey, his younger brother, who greets him with a handcrafted birthday card. The card displays a drawing of the two of them, and behind their figures are the initials TW—the name of the gang for which Pete works. The two then go to sleep, resting on pillows on the hard wooden floor. The following morning, Joey heads off to school while Pete visits his gang. There, he hands over the money that he collected the previous night. Frank, the gang leader, congratulates him for “[shaking] up those little assholes” and emphasizes that now they are “just like family” (14). To celebrate this, he decides to give Pete a tattoo bearing the TW initials, symbolizing his full membership in the gang. As the men tattoo Pete, the illustrations portray them all wearing the red and white mask. Page 15 features a full-page illustration of Pete’s TW tattoo, exuding blood, with names of significant events like the 1876 Indian Act and the Sixties Scoop (a period that saw new policies enabling Canadian authorities to “scoop” Indigenous children from their families) etched into the rivulets of blood.

Returning home, Pete finds Joey sitting on the floor, crying. He tells Pete that their mother, Bernice Carver, and her partner, Dennis, have taken all their furniture and sold it at the pawn shop to finance their drug addictions. Pete confronts them in their bedroom. The argument escalates to a physical altercation, and Dennis attacks Pete with a knife, slashing him across the face. Lying on the floor, Pete grabs his gun and shoots Dennis.

Pages 18-34 Summary

Pete is arrested by the police while Joey and Bernice watch, tears streaming down their faces. Family services agents Alex Brown and Constable Bradford approach them with an emergency apprehension order for Joey. Joey, begging not to be taken away, is separated from his mother and placed in a car with Alex, who decides to spend the night with him in temporary accommodation.

Bernice visits a government office to inquire about her son. There, she’s informed that “the government of Alberta is seeking a permanent guardianship order” and that “this is the best choice for him” (22). In tears, Bernice reluctantly signs the paperwork relinquishing custody of her son. The illustration on Page 23 depicts Bernice signing the paperwork, while the text on the document narrates the history of residential schools.

Distraught and inquiring about his mother and brother, Joey is relocated to a group home. There, he finds an unwelcoming environment—he is taunted by another kid, who cruelly asserts that “no one is coming to pick [him] up” (25).

In jail, Pete meets his lawyer, who was appointed by the law to represent him on the charge of manslaughter. The lawyer outlines Pete’s two options: pleading not guilty and waiting for a trial to try his luck, or pleading guilty, after which the lawyer will argue self-defense, resulting in a sentence of three to five years. Pete agrees to plead guilty.

The illustrations on Page 26 draw parallels between Pete’s life in prison and Joey's life in the group home. Both are depicted as isolated and frightened, lying in bed awake at night. In the group home, Joey becomes the target of bullying from his peers, who resort to racist slurs. Feeling desperate, he decides to run away. He looks for his mother in vain but can’t find her, and eventually he finds himself at the doorstep of Pete’s gang associates. Frank, the gang’s leader, promises to look after him.

In jail, a man tells Pete that he heard that Joey is now with his old gang associates. The man offers protection to Joey in exchange for Pete taking care of some business for him and his jail gang. Pete agrees, fearing for Joey’s safety. In the meantime, Joey becomes involved in violence while working for the gangsters. During a confrontation with Frank, during which the latter accuses him of withholding money, a police officer takes Joey to prison. The full-page illustration on Page 34 portrays Joey amidst a chaotic backdrop of fragmented violent images and statistics highlighting the grim realities faced by Aboriginal communities, including unemployment, poverty, and racism.

Pages 35-43 Summary

In jail, Pete is in the workout room when his fellow inmates assign him a task: They want him to deal with a “new goof” who is “trying to make a name for himself” (35). Later, in his cell, Pete receives a knife from a corrupt guard. That night, Pete attacks the targeted man in the hallway, and as he stabs him, the red and white mask once again appears on his face.

The following day, Pete is back at the gym, working out. Jim, an Elder at the prison, approaches him, encouraging him to attend a sweat ceremony on Friday. Jim emphasizes that there’s an alternative to spending the rest of his life behind bars. However, Pete is not receptive, claiming that there’s nothing Jim can do for him. An hour later, a group of men seeking revenge attack Pete, leaving him wounded and bleeding on the gym floor. He ends up in the hospital, his face bruised and head bandaged.

During a visit, Pete’s parole officer tells him that Jim suggested that he be moved to Drumheller Medium Security, a facility offering a spectrum of programs, as Jim believes that Pete deserves a second chance. She goes on to explain that, if Pete manages to stay out of trouble for a year, he would be a good candidate for the In Search of Your Warrior Program at the Stan Daniels Healing Centre in Edmonton. Pete accepts, fully aware that he has nothing to lose.

Pages 1-43 Analysis

At the beginning of the novel, Pete Carver is introduced as the narrator and protagonist. The novel unfolds in with a frame narrative: It opens in the present, with Pete serving as the leader of the In Search of Your Warrior Program, and flashes back to the past, as Pete decides to share a story. This structure creates a tone of hope throughout the novel as it indicates that Pete has healed from and survived the events that he narrates. As the narrator, Pete introduces a pivotal theme that will unfold throughout the narrative: Intergenerational Trauma and the Legacy of Colonialism. Many Indigenous people, Pete narrates, are not proud of their heritage and “struggle with addictions, living in pain and confusion” (9). This thematic idea emphasizes that, while Pete is the protagonist, the novel tells a collective story to resist the broad impact of colonialism.

The portrayal Pete’s mother Bernice and her partner Dennis adds to LaBoucane-Benson’s exploration of this theme. Bernice’s substance abuse disorder and the family’s financial struggles, leading to the sale of their furniture, paint a picture of lives worn down by hardship. The illustrations on Page 17 capture this weariness, as both Bernice and Dennis sit on a mattress on the floor, with Dennis smoking and Bernice bearing the physical marks of exhaustion. The literal lack of structural support (a bedframe) represents a systemic lack of support due to the legacies of colonialism.

The dark, blue-toned illustrations on Pages 8-11 create a gloomy, ominous atmosphere. The sinister imagery of bicycle wheels running over a syringe represents the disproportionate numbers of Indigenous people experiencing addiction. Within this grim backdrop, a young version of Pete is introduced. He is portrayed as a character deeply entangled in violence, a motif that recurs throughout the novel: His implied association with a gang, his involvement in the extortion of money from kids, and his aggressive reaction to Crystal’s pregnancy announcement are emblematic of this violence. Pete’s visits to the gang members reinforce the motif of violence. Violent imagery is associated with the gang: a man smoking a cigarette, the gangster sunglasses, the rolled-up money, and the gun. Pete’s reward for his actions the previous night is a tattoo. However, the illustration on Page 15 shows the tattoo bleeding out, symbolizing the suffering endured by the Indigenous community that underlies the violence and aggression. In prison, when Pete is tasked with an aggression that triggers a retaliatory assault, LaBoucane-Benson underscores the cyclical nature of violence.

The red and white mask makes its first appearance in the novel as Pete argues with Crystal. The mask symbolizes Pete’s rage and hatred, concealing his true self and making him act in ways that he otherwise wouldn’t. The introduction of this symbol foreshadows the moment that Pete makes himself a new mask and begins to heal.

As Pete returns home, his younger brother, Joey, is introduced. Joey is characterized by his innocence and sweetness. His gesture of crafting a handmade birthday card, featuring a drawing of the two brothers, serves as a contrast to the violence that surrounds them. However, the presence of the TW initials in the background of the drawing serves as a reminder of the ever-present violence that casts a shadow over even the tender moments of their lives. Eventually, Joey finds himself in prison, mirroring Pete’s fate. This parallel between Joey and Pete conveys intergenerational trauma repeating itself, as does the illustration on Page 34, replete with statistics: It lays bare the challenges faced by Indigenous communities. The fragmented imagery conveys the message that Joey’s life has been fractured and shattered as a result of these societal issues.

Amidst this turmoil, Jim, an elder, introduces a fresh perspective: “[I]t doesn't have to be this way” (39), he asserts, and asks Pete to come to a sweat. This is first mention of such ceremonies in the story. This is a pivotal moment in the narrative and for Pete’s character development. Pete decides to break free from the cycle of intergenerational trauma, introducing the theme The Possibility of Healing and Personal Growth.