How Is Scrooge Presented As An Outsider

In Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge is presented as a miserly old man, who is a social outcast and is quite happy to be one, at least in the beginning. His only concern is the amount of money he can make for himself. Near the beginning of the book, as we are being introduced to Scrooge, we read,

Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, 'My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will come to see me?' No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to know him, and when they saw him coming on would tug their owners into doorways and up courts, and then would wag their tails as though they said, 'No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!'" (Dickens 3)

Ebenezer Scrooge obviously has a reputation, and nobody wants to be around him. He is cold and greedy, not the kind of man people want to befriend. He even turns down his own nephew who comes to see him and invite him to his house for a Christmas meal. His answer is, "Bah! Humbug!" Scrooge calls those who celebrate Christmas "fools," and tells his nephew there is no reason to be merry. Though his nephew tries to convince him to join his family, Scrooge replies, "Nephew, keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine!" (Dickens 6)

Scrooge is an outsider because that is the way he likes it. He prefers his own miserable company to that of anyone else.