The man alone is a literary stock character. Usually an

antihero An antihero (sometimes spelled as anti-hero) or antiheroine is a main character in a story who may lack conventional heroic qualities and attributes, such as idealism, courage, and morality. Although antiheroes may sometimes perform action ...

, he is similar to the

Byronic hero The Byronic hero is a variant of the Romantic hero as a type of character, named after the English Romantic poet Lord Byron. Both Byron's own persona as well as characters from his writings are considered to provide defining features to the char ...

. The man alone tends to epitomise

existentialism Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning Meaning most comm ...

, and, in the words of the academic E. H. McCormick is "the solitary, rootless nonconformist, who in a variety of forms crops up persistently in New Zealand writing". Men alone figure frequently in the literature of newly settled or recently colonised countries such as Australia and especially

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

, and the term is likely to have found popularity with the publication of the "Great Kiwi Novel", '' Man Alone'' by John Mulgan in 1939 (this novel's title itself originated in a quotation from

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...

's ''

To Have and Have Not ''To Have and Have Not'' is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1937 by Charles Scribner's Sons. The book follows Harry Morgan, a fishing boat captain out of Key West, Florida. ''To Have and Have Not'' was Hemingway's second novel set in t ...

'').

References

Male stock characters New Zealand culture Australian culture Heroes Fictional hermits {{NewZealand-stub

See also

References