Stranger

As a symbol, a stranger often represents the coming power of the future. He is a bringer of change, divine or magic.

The stranger is a complex and deeply significant symbol across cultures and literature. Here are some of its meanings:

The Unknown and Mystery:

• Uncertainty - The stranger represents what we cannot predict or control
• Fear of the other - Anxiety about what is unfamiliar or different
• Potential danger - "Stranger danger" reflects primal wariness of the unknown
• Hidden knowledge - Strangers may possess information or perspectives we lack

Transformation and Catalyst:

• Agent of change - The stranger often disrupts the status quo and sets events in motion
• Messenger - Brings news, warnings, or opportunities from outside the community
• Mirror - Reflects back truths about ourselves or our society that insiders cannot see
• Trickster - Can be a shape-shifter or deceiver who challenges assumptions

Sacred and Divine:

• God in disguise - Many traditions teach that strangers may be angels or deities in human form (hospitality to strangers as sacred duty)
• Test of character - How we treat strangers reveals our true nature
• Christ figure - "I was a stranger and you welcomed me" (Matthew 25:35)
• Prophet or guide - The mysterious stranger who appears when most needed

Alienation and Existentialism:

• The outsider - Someone who doesn't belong, observing from the margins
• Existential isolation - We are all ultimately strangers to one another
• Loss of identity - Being a stranger means lacking roots, history, or place
• Freedom - The stranger is unbound by social conventions and expectations

Social and Cultural Boundaries:

• The Other - Someone outside our group, highlighting questions of belonging and exclusion
• Xenophobia vs. hospitality - The stranger tests our values around inclusion
• Cultural exchange - Brings different customs, ideas, and perspectives
• Liminal figure - Exists between categories, neither fully inside nor outside

Opportunity and Adventure:

• New possibilities - "The kindness of strangers" or unexpected help
• Romance - The mysterious stranger as potential lover
• Fresh start - Being a stranger in a new place offers reinvention
• Perspective - Strangers see things locals take for granted

Literary and Archetypal:

• The mysterious stranger - A common archetype in mythology and fiction (the wanderer, the drifter, the enigmatic visitor)
• Fate and destiny - Chance encounters with strangers that change lives
• Shadow self - The stranger as a projection of rejected aspects of ourselves

The stranger ultimately embodies the tension between fear and curiosity, exclusion and welcome, danger and opportunity. The symbol asks: How do we respond to what is unfamiliar?