I like to know as many works of literaure (minimum 15, max. 50)that
depict "outsider" as the major persona in their stories. Identify who
these charaters are in each case (if more than one identify the
multiple charaters). He/she/they could be  protagonist(s) or
antagonist(s), but they definitely have a complex character.

Frankly, Litbuff, that's a whole lot of work for the fee you're
offering.  However, I'd recommend that you begin with Colin Wilson's
seminal book "The Outsider," which will probably get you about 80% of
the way there.  Here is the ghastly long Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0874772060/qid=1119119255/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_ur_1/002-1537489-7432023?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

-Chromedome

One of my favorite outsiders in literature is Boo Radley, the
misunderstood recluse in Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Another is Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of J.D. Salinger's "The
Catcher in the Rye."

I'll add Nick Carraway in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby;"
the title character in Shakespeare's "Othello;" and "Bartleby," one of
Melville's more pathetic and tragic isolatoes.

How about Rudolf, the red nosed raindeer? "They never let poor Rudolf,
join in any reindeer games."

http://www.visualparadox.com/images/no-linking-allowed-/rudolph.jpg

WOW , what a bunch of good suggestions! Thanks Chrome, Pink, Byrd and 
(I am not 100% sure czh about Rudolff but thnks anyway :)  )
As far as the price is concerned , this is my first time and I was not
quite sure, so of course I underestimated!
How about Tom Joad of (G. Of W.)? 
Huck of Mark Twain?

Look at most of John Steinbeck:
Of Mice and Men
The Pearl
Cannery Row
Tortilla Flat
The Grapes of Wrath

Most of Ernest Hemingway:
To Have and Have Mot
The Old Man and the Sea
The Sun Also Rises
For Whom the Bell Tolls

Robert Penn Warren:
All the KIngs Men

Actually, the outsider as protagonist is a common theme in lit.

Hi  litbuff-ga,

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Had a very shiny nose
And if you ever saw it
You would even say it glows

All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names
They never let poor Rudolph
Join in any reindeer games

Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say
"Rudolph with your nose so bright
Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"

Then how the reindeer loved him
And they shouted out with glee
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
You'll go down in history!"


I'm surprised you don't get why Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer is the
quintessential American outsider's story. Every kid who was ever the
last to be picked on the playground identifies with Rudolf. The other
reindeer "used to laugh and call him names" is the experience of kids
bullied and not fitting in that could be extended to Columbine or Red
Lake without too much of a stretch of the imagination.

What about Santa? Does he step in to deal with the problems? No. But
when he sees the opportunity to use Rudolf for his shiny nose,
suddenly all is considered happy. The sycophant reindeer suddenly
"loved him" and brown nosed with Santa so they could stay in his good
favors.

I'm always amazed that this little horror story is used at Christmas,
the celebration of the humble birth of the Savior. Maybe it's because
I wasn't raised in the US but I've always thought the Rudolf story was
unfit for children.

Maybe you think I'm exaggerating, but it's definitely the story of an
outsider who makes good.

I get it czh, I get it! But if you looked at my question I was not
just asking for any Good ol' outsider, I was specfically asking for
one with "complex character". I know "complex" is subjective, but you
have to admit the Rudolff character is not well fleshed out by the
famous children song!
One other point, an outsider by defintion (mine) is one that stays
OUT, not the one who joins IN as soon as opportunity permits! The
bloody guy is so "in" now that he (his similie?) is one of the biggest
commerciallized pieces of plastic thrash ever produced!! Thanks again
though :)

I can't spell wow!! lol

Shakespeare offers some complex outisders. Just a couple of examples are:
Shylock from The Merchant of Venice
Prospero from The Tempest

- Hammer

Dirt Music by Tim Winton
http://mostlyfiction.com/excerpts/dirtmusic.htm

This is a terrific read about complex characters and what it means to
be an outsider. It's set in Western Australia and the setting is as
fascinating as the story.


I just finished reading it and look forward to checking out the rest
of Winton's books.

Thanks czh for the suggestion. I'll try to get my hands on the book.
It does sound quite intersting.

Thomas Hardy's "Jude, the Obscure", maybe also "Tess of the d'Urbervilles"

Surely several of Joseph Conrad's characters,  
Heinrich von Kleist's "Michael Kohlhaas"
Hamlet ?

Faust and the young Werther by Goethe

How about Eeyore, from A. A. Milne's "Winnie the Pooh" stories?

Alas, poor Eeyore ...
Many spy and detective novels are about "outsiders", though the
quality of such as novels could be debated.  John le Carre's
(spelling?) could qualify:  "Smiley's People" or "The Spy who came out
of the Cold", and others.

The Colin Wilson book is very useful. 
An obvious (but so far unmentioned) novel is Albert Camus's 'The
Outsider' (L'Etranger). Also Camus's 'The Plague' (La Peste). Jean
Paul Sartre's 'Nausea (La Nausee) has an outsider central character.
And there are several ousiders in Sartre's 'The Roads to Freedom'
trilogy (Les chemins de la liberte).

And if you wish to include plays then anything by Samuel Becket ( but
especially 'Waiting for Godot') and several plays by Harold Pinter
(e.g. 'The Caretaker') would be relevant.

One of my favourites would be 'Hadrian VII' by Frederick William Rolfe
(the outsider is a prickly eccentric who becomes pope). Also Rolfe's
'The Desire and Pursuit of the Whole' and 'The One and the Many'
feature outider central characters.

Walk into the literature (not fiction) section of any bookstore, throw
50 rocks and you will do all right.  The suggestions listed below or
above should cover your basic inquiry, but you might consider
narrowing the scope of your question.    I suggest looking for
particular modes of alienation (geographical, sexual, philosophical,
emotional, spiritual, etc) and then try to find a character of
interest within that scope.  Of course any character of note will
suffer from more than one form of alienation, but tracing particular
issues or tendencies through  multiple characters would, I think, be
of great interest.  But if you want the great book of outsiders, belly
up to Moby Dick.  They are so outside they can' even see land.  And
then read D.H. Lawrence's essay on Moby Dick.  Good stuff...
But now I need an answer.  There exists a Hemingway parody out there
somewhere where  Winnie the Pooh is home from the wars and Tigger is
teaching aerobics in Dallas.  Its good stuff but I can't find it on
the Hemingway contest boards or anywhere else.  Please help and sorry
to distract from the main question.   (Pardon the spelling)

I realize that my last post circumvents the whole point of these
question boards so I apologize for the inpropriety.