History Main / EatingLunchAlone

* The main character of the YA book ''Literature/{{Speak}}'' not only eats lunch alone, but ''in the bathroom''.
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'', at least once. Presumably, Harry would have had to do this every day at the Muggle school he attended before Hogwarts considering he was made a social pariah by Dudley's gang and their bullying.
* Rae Voight in ''Literature/{{Fingerprints}}'' looks for a different place to eat at lunchtime after her 'mental breakdown'.
* Tally in ''Literature/{{Uglies}}'' eats lunch alone when her operation is delayed, and later when she suspects that her friends know she's a spy.

* Nikki, the protagonist of ''Literature/DorkDiaries'', eats lunch alone at her new private school before she meets Chloe and Zoey.
* Lu, the protagonist of ''Literature/{{Murderess}}'', does this frequently, out of disdain both for the food the cafeteria serves and for her classmates, although the disdain is mutual―other students think she’s a [[LonersAreFreaks loner freak]] and a black-clad basket case.

* Rei from ''Manga/SangatsuNoLion'' is usually eating alone on the stairwell to the roof of the school or the roof itself, since he's yet to forge any bonds with his classmates. Only Hayashida, his teacher, comes up to eat with him on occasion.

* ''Manga/GourmetGirlGraffiti''

* Chloe Cerise in ''Fanfic/InfinityBlossomingTrail'' likes to eat lunch alone. Then, one of her classmates decides to sit next to her as an act of kindness...an act that would ultimately lead to a series of events that would take Chloe onto the Infinity Train so ''maybe'' it would've been better if Chloe was sitting alone.

* In the beginning of ''Manga/AoHaruRide'', Yuuri ate lunch by herself outside, even in cold weather, since most of the girls in the class don't like her.

** Similarly, Rachel from ''Series/{{Friends}}'' had this problem during one episode after being stood up. She decided she liked eating alone in restaurants until it started to feel awkward.

* ''ComicBook/XMen'': Husk prefers to take her meals alone because as a practicing muslim, she does not remove her face covering around men, and the X-Mansion meals are usually co-ed (she wears the full-face type). It has nothing to do with socialization as she otherwise takes part in group activities.

* In WebVideo/StopBullyingNow Milton was this way at first before he got friends.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Buffy is first treated warmly by Cordelia, who sees her as another AlphaBitch. She is disturbed by the way Cordelia treats Willow however, and when watching her eat lunch alone [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Buffy splits from Cordelia and chooses to be friends with Willow instead]].

* Tuvok, the Vulcan security officer from ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. He does this through choice, though this doesn't stop him from being bothered by his human colleagues at nearby tables trying to draw them into conversation, or the excessively-chatty Neelix trying to force his latest AlienLunch on him. Captain Janeway dines separately [[LonelyAtTheTop due to her rank]], though she sometimes invites her NumberTwo Chakotay [[ShipTease for a home-replicated meal.]] TheCaptain actually had her own private dining room, but Neelix turned it into a kitchen (without asking permission) early in Season One.

* Tuvok, the Vulcan security officer from ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. He does this through choice, though this doesn't stop him from being bothered by his human colleagues at nearby tables trying to draw them into conversation, or the excessively-chatty Neelix trying to force his latest AlienLunch on him. Captain Janeway dines separately [[LonelyAtTheTop due to her rank]], though she sometimes invites her NumberTwo Chakotay [[ShipTease for a home-replicated meal.]] TheCaptain actually had her own private dining room, but Neelix turned it into a kitchen without asking permission first.

* Weirdly subverted in ''Series/GilmoreGirls'', in which Rory often ate lunch alone in high school, reading and listening to music, until she was encouraged by her headmaster to sit with other students at lunch. They kidnapped her in the middle of the night, broke into the headmaster's office and generally got her in big trouble. By the end of the episode, she was happily eating lunch alone again, and not another word was said about it.

** In ''Comicbook/SupergirlCosmicAdventuresInTheEightGrade'': Early on, Linda eats lunch alone because she is shunned and bullied the whole time by cruel schoolmates. Later Lena joins her, but both girls are still shunned by everyone else.

When someone is eating lunch alone in a communal context (school, army, etc.), it means they're being actively shunned by everyone else, or the student is the New Kid and [[FriendlessBackground has not yet made any friends]]. It rarely ever means that they ''[[LonersAreFreaks chose]]'' to eat lunch by themselves. Often, their return into the fold will be symbolized by someone else accepting to have lunch with them. Or if they keep their outcast status, having lunch with them will be a sign of independence of mind and refusing to follow the herd. Or it could be because that person has ''[[PigPen very]]'' poor hygiene.

When someone is eating lunch alone in a communal context (school, army, etc.), it means they're being actively shunned by everyone else, or the student is the New Kid and [[FriendlessBackground has not yet made any friends]]. It rarely ever means that they ''[[LonersAreFreaks chose]]'' to eat lunch by themselves. Often, their return into the fold will be symbolized by someone else accepting to have lunch with them. Or if they keep their outcast status, having lunch with them will be a sign of independence of mind and refusing to follow the herd.

------

* In ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', at the beginning of the story, Taylor Hebert has been eating lunch in the girl's bathroom for weeks to avoid a trio of bullies that have been targeting her for a year and a half.

* Charlie Brown eats lunch alone sometimes in ''{{ComicStrip/Peanuts}}''.

* In ''Manga/ThePrinceOfTennis'', Kaidou Kaoru always eats lunch alone... the the point that the other students in his class ''scoot their desks away from his'' in order to give him a wide berth. In this case, it's not so much that he's shunned as [[FaceOfAThug that everyone is scared of him/creeped out by his aloof attitude]]. It doesn't help that he eats [[SupremeChef his mother's]] very high-quality traditional food in an overly reverent manner, which freaks them out.
* In the beginning of ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'', Nagisa Furukawa is eating lunch alone at school, because she's repeating her last year, so she doesn't know anyone in the current senior class.

* Justified in a TearJerker way in ''Anime/AngelBeats''. Due to the system that the afterlife works in, Angel will always eat alone since [[spoiler: being friends with her is automatic grounds to AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence]]. [[http://i42.tinypic.com/a48zk2.jpg This picture sums her life up,]] and for all we know, she may have lived this "life" for ''years''.
** Granted that this was the [[InvokedTrope implication]], not the truth, as the members of the of the main cast found out[[spoiler: when they befriend her, it still takes quite a while before they're able to 'move on'. She would eat alone because the people she wanted to help were antagonistic towards her instead.]]

* Literature/HarryPotter, at least once.
** Presumably, Harry would have had to do this every day at the Muggle school he attended before Hogwarts considering he was made a social pariah by Dudley's gang and their bullying.

* ''Literature/EndersGame'': The title character at the beginning of his military training.
** Significant in that commanders have their own mess hall; a new commander cannot enter until after his first victory. Typically they're greeted enthusiastically. Ender is not only the youngest and smallest: he's the only commander ever to win in the Battle Room without having first been defeated a few times. The other commanders--envious, spiteful or intimidated--pointedly withhold the congratulatory rituals.

* Yuuta of ''LightNovel/LoveChunibyoAndOtherDelusions'' in his middle school years, due to his AllOfTheOtherReindeer treatment (for being a CloudcuckooLander due to his teenage delusions of grandeur). Thus he treats Makoto's offer to eat lunch with him in the first episode as [[ThrowTheDogABone a good start]].