How Is Scrooge Presented As An Outsider

Early in the chapter, the narrator says, "Oh!  But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster." In other words, Scrooge is stingy and tough: he has no sympathy, generosity, or compassion. Further, he is "self-contained," meaning that he never reaches out...

Early in the chapter, the narrator says, "Oh!  But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster." In other words, Scrooge is stingy and tough: he has no sympathy, generosity, or compassion. Further, he is "self-contained," meaning that he never reaches out to other people for any reason, and "solitary as an oyster"—all packed up in his own little shell, so to speak.  At the very least, this alone would make him an outsider.

Moreover, the narrator explains, "External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty." To say that Scrooge could be made neither warm nor cold by any outside influence again paints him as an outcast. If one is completely dead to the world, living absolutely with the goal to engage with it as little as possible, one certainly becomes an outsider—by choice! 

Finally, the narrator says that Scrooge likes it this way, "To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance, was what the knowing ones call 'nuts' to Scrooge." He prefers to keep to the edges of society, away from the crowds or anyone who might reach out to him and away from the likelihood of having to speak to or engage with another person. Again, he's very much an outsider and is treated as an outcast as a result.