Outlawed

The Kid is the leader of the Hole in the Wall Gang. Never gendered, the Kid lives freely outside gender conventions, on their terms only. The Kid embodies many paradoxes: robbing and even killing innocent people without compunction even while having utmost faith in God and the Bible, wanting to create a new world free of subjugation by forcing a town into submission. The Kid is a complex character, brave and kind, but also ruthless and prone to violence. Through the character of the Kid, North blurs the often-rigid lines between masculinity and femininity. The Kid’s fluidity, strength, and protective instinct contrast with their manic visions of God-given power.

North suggests that the Kid is a natural leader, contrasting their soft authority over the Gang with Sheriff Branch’s cynical authoritarian approach to ruling Fairchild. Raised by a preacher, the Kid has always had a talent for analyzing the world and bringing people together. However, their mental instability threatens the group the Kid leads—when power rests in the hands of one person, no matter how sympathetic, it is a precarious situation.

News is an important member of the Hole in the Wall Gang. A mixed-race woman attracted to women, News is the only one in the group who faces both homophobia and racism. News’s backstory addresses the ways repressive attitudes towards sexuality, gender, and race intersect: She had to flee her birth town when a traveling anti-miscegenation preacher convinced its mayor that mixed-race people should not be tolerated. The intersectionality of News’s identity highlights the necessity of inclusion in society.

The strong and unapologetic News is a source of inspiration for Ada. After all, if News can fight against the powers that despise her for many reasons she can’t control, why can’t Ada do the same? News provides a much-needed reminder that feminism has historically excluded women of color and queer women.

Lark, a man castrated for his attraction to men, represents a new way of thinking about sexuality. Ada’s attraction to Lark demonstrates the fluid nature of sexuality: Lark is hardly the type of man Ada would have found suitable had she stayed in conservative Fairchild. Experiencing sex with Lark opens Ada’s mind. Lark helps her express desire without the end of goal of pregnancy, thereby helping Ada see that her body is capable of intense pleasure for the sake of pleasure.

Lark also represents another group of marginalized people: men with sexual fluidity, who are abused by the same structure of society that harmed Ada. Lark is the victim of homophobia, and even though as a man, he has the privilege of leaving his town and finding work elsewhere.