No wonder he'd never really finished becoming one of us. We just thought it was because he was half Japanese, and lived in a huge house on the other side of town with a dad who was never home and who none of our parents had ever met. And possibly because he was an arrogant moody stuck-on-himself creepazoid And here he wasn't even a real gizmohead. He was just a grind. And a werewolf.
The character in the book "Shadows" by Robin McKinley struggles with his identity due to his mixed heritage and the isolation stemming from it. His half-Japanese background and the fact that he lives in a large, unfamiliar house away from the others contribute to a sense of not fully belonging to the group. The other characters perceive him as aloof and arrogant, which further reinforces the idea that he occupies a different social space than they do.
Additionally, his label as a "grind" and "werewolf" suggests that he is misunderstood and judged solely based on surface traits rather than his deeper qualities or experiences. This insight reveals that social dynamics and identity are more complex than they appear, highlighting how external perceptions can distort the truth about an individual's character.