History Main / AloneInACrowd

[[folder:Web Original]]

Compare HeroicBSOD, FreakOut, and LonelyAmongPeople. See also FriendlessBackground. Contrast AloneAmongTheCouples. SymbolicDistance is almost always used to achieve this trope.

Compare HeroicBSOD, FreakOut, and LonelyAmongPeople. See also FriendlessBackground. Contrast AloneAmongTheCouples.

* In ''Webcomic/RedsPlanet'', [[http://www.redsplanet.com/comic/rp/ch03/chapter-three-30-31/ Red is alone while the aliens pair off and tell each other about the abduction.]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2723 the poor unhappy elephant is ignored at the party.]]

* In the second ''ComicBook/AtariForce'' series, Morphea the Canopean empath in a flashback to her past as a child expresses her feeling of loneliness to the Hive Mother, which the Mother disdains on the basis of her being alone among a multitude of sister Canopeans and daring to identify herself as an individual with a need instead of part of a collective, thus driving the Mother to punish Morphea with a mind assault.

* ''FanFic/APikachuInLove'': Pikachu feels this way at the start of the fic, being unable to communicate directly with Ash like Brock and Misty can and feeling alienated by Ash's other Pokemon due to being Ash's [[TheAce ace]] Pokemon.

* ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'': Trixie's ego problems come from feeling like she's average at every field of magic and unable to stand out from her six siblings, including her four sisters who look exactly like her. When Discord curses her, he makes her perceive that nopony at all notices that she exists. She cries out for someone to notice her and sees all of them ignoring her, when in the real world several ponies are surrounding her and asking what's wrong, but she can't respond to any of them.

* ''Anime/NinetyOneDays'': In part of the opening credits sequence, Avilio is walking down the sidewalk as crowds of people pass him in fast-forward, and a short distance away he sees his slain parents and little brother walking together at normal speed as if they were still alive. This isolation in a crowd represents how he is alienated from society and unable to move on with his life since the night when they were murdered, while the memories that continue haunt him spur his quest for vengeance.

* The eighth volume of ''Manga/{{Gals}}'' has Yoko stand in the middle of a busy street at Shibuya, commenting on the shallowness of the world, as snippets of various phone calls and lively conversations buzzed around her.

* Mireille in ''Anime/{{Noir}}'' quotes Creator/ErnestHemingway after a done job, which earns her a confused reaction from Kirika. While she says she simply quoted Hemingway and doesn't exactly feel that way, it does fit the whole situation the two are in - no parents, no other relatives and being {{Professional Killer}}s, they can't have real relationships with anyone else, either.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'': Belle, during the song that has her name. Asides the baker, who dismisses her when Belle starts talking about books, her time in the bookshop and Gaston's harassment, she spends the rest of her stroll in the village on her own with the villagers sneering her behind her back. A woman goes as far as stopping her laundry and going away because Belle is singing to a sheep in the same fountain the woman was doing her work.

* The central theme of 1928 silent classic ''Film/TheCrowd'', in which the protagonist discovers how indifferent The Crowd is when his life falls apart.

* Another final shot: in Joseph Mankiewicz's adaptation of ''Film/TheQuietAmerican'' (1958), protagonist Thomas Fowler (played by Creator/MichaelRedgrave) is a broken man, having been rejected by the woman he loves and wracked with guilt for having [[spoiler: instigated the death of an American man who was his rival in love - [[PyrrhicVictory all for nothing]]]]. He rejects an offer to go the church for solace and instead walks away dejectedly through a crowded Vietnamese street, where he is eventually lost from view.

* This trope is almost synonymous to Mika Waltari's stories but most prevalent in ''Literature/TheEgyptian'' and ''The Wanderer''.
* Played out literally in Fritz Leiber's "You're All Alone" where the awakened, such as the protagonist, are surrounded by people acting out the automaton of everyday life while the awakened find themselves getting more and more out of synch with the script as time passes.

** At the end of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E2TheEndOfTheWorld "The End of the World"]], after the Sun expands to swallow the Earth in the year five-billion and change, the Ninth Doctor takes Rose back to an ordinary, bustling city street in her own time. The two of them stand there for some time, with the Doctor explaining how he's now the LastOfHisKind. They don't join the flow of the crowd until Rose decides they need to get some chips.

* "Spring Day" by Music/{{BTS}} has a variation (during the second chorus) where Jungkook stands still while the other members walk around in low-shutter speed, making them blurry. This being from the album ''WINGS: [[YouAreNotAlone You Never Walk Alone]]'', however, Jungkook eventually starts walking around, too, becoming a blur with the others.

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbJjAJnODck animated intro]] for Hanako's route in ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'' has her standing alone in a fast-forwarded crowd. Then subverted: she notices Hisao is also there, and the rest of the crowd vanishes as they walk towards each other.

* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'': Zigzagged with Entrapta during Princess Prom. Due her lack of social habilities (including to come to the party in her overalls), she spends most part of the time alone. The only ones to interact to her on their own will are Adora (to distract Glimmer from her fear of losing Bow's friendship) and Catra (to make Adora jealous). It's hinted in the Season 5 that, after being rescued from Beast Island, the princesses avoided her because of her actions in the Horde; even after Entrapta's atonement by helping Adora's gang in the space, she keeps most of her time alone among the rebels, interacting only with Wrong Hordak, Bow and, ocasionally, with Swift Wind, which makes her reunition to Hordak even more touching:

[[folder:Real Life]]
* At some point, everyone has looked at a huge group of people and say "I'm not one of them" because they truly feel like they don't belong.
* Apparently a common feeling in people who move from very rural areas into a larger town or city. Out where there aren't many people, everyone knows everyone else, and just about everyone is needed. In a big city, it's very easy to get lost in the crowd and be totally ignored.
* The difficulty in relating to neurotypical people can frequently cause this feeling in people on the autistic spectrum.
** Certain other mental illnesses and neurological conditions, if unnoticed or left untreated, can cause one to subconsciously consider themselves to be "different" from others, and cause self-esteem issues that often lead to this.[[labelnote:Example]]Let's take a teenager with unnoticed [[UsefulNotes/AttentionDeficitHyperactivityDisorder ADD/ADHD-PI]]: The teen struggles to finish their schoolwork while others do it in half the time and thus have time to socialize. Not only does the teen have less chances to make friends, seeing their peers outperform them in everything often causes feelings of inferiority. This, in turn, may lead to a vicious circle; the teen doesn't feel confident enough to interact with others, and in turn, the others assume the teen is either weird or that they want to be left alone. [[/labelnote]]
* Even the most sociable and charismatic among us are not immune:
-->"I get lonesome sometimes. I get lonesome right in the middle of a crowd." --Music/ElvisPresley
[[/folder]]

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation gives us [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-451 SCP-451]] quite possibly the most literal and horrific form of this trope: A man who, thanks to exposure to an artifact, is unable to perceive or interact with the people around him in any way.

* The difficulty in relating to other people can frequently cause this feeling in people on the autistic spectrum.
** Certain other mental illnesses, if unnoticed or left untreated, can cause one to subconsciously consider themselves to be "different" from others, and cause self-esteem issues that often lead to this.[[labelnote:Example]]Let's take a teenager with unnoticed [[UsefulNotes/AttentionDeficitHyperactivityDisorder ADD/ADHD-PI]]: The teen struggles to finish their schoolwork while others do it in half the time and thus have time to socialize. Not only does the teen have less chances to make friends, seeing their peers outperform them in everything often causes feelings of inferiority. This, in turn, may lead to a vicious circle; the teen doesn't feel confident enough to interact with others, and in turn, the others assume the teen is either weird or that they want to be left alone. [[/labelnote]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'': Zigzagged with Entrapta during Princess Prom. Due her lack of social habilities (including to come to the party in her overalls), she spends most part of the time alone. The only ones to interact to her on their own will are Adora (to distract Glimmer from her fear of losing Bow's friendship) and Catra (to make Adora jealous). It's hinted in the Season 5 that, after being rescued from Beast Island, the princesses avoided her because of her actions in the Horde; even after Entrapta's atonement by helping Adora's gang in the space, she keeps most of her time alone among the rebels, interacting only with Wrong Hordak, Bow and, ocasionally, with Swift Wind. [[spoiler: Which makes her reunition to Hordak even more touching:
-->'''Entrapta:''' I'm so glad you're back! Oh, we have so much to talk!! ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'': Belle, during the song that has her name. Asides the baker, who is interested on talking to her until Belle talks about books, her time in the bookshop and Gaston's harassment, she spends the rest of her stroll in the village on her own with people sneering her behind her back. A woman goes as far as stopping her laundry and going away because Belle is reading and talking to a sheep in the same fountain the woman was doing her work.

* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'': Zigzagged with Entrapta during Princess Prom. Due her lack of social habilities (including to come to the party in her overalls), she spends most part of the time alone. The only ones to interact to her on their own will are Adora (to distract Glimmer from her fear of losing Bow's friendship) and Catra (to make Adora jealous). It's hinted in the Season 5 that, after being rescued from Beast Island, the princesses avoided her because of her actions in the Horde; even after her atonement by helping Adora's gang in the space, she keeps most of her time alone among the rebels, interacting only with Wrong Hordak, Bow and, ocasionally, with Swift Wind. [[spoiler: Which makes her reunition to Hordak even more touching:
-->'''Entrapta:''' I'm so glad you're back! Oh, we have so much to talk!!!!]]

-->'''Entrapta:''' I'm so glad you're back! Oh, we have so much to talk!!!!

* "Dreamboat Annie" by Music/{{Heart}}:

** Certain other mental illnesses, if unnoticed or left untreated, can cause one to subconsciously consider themselves to be "different" from others, and cause self-esteem issues that often lead to this.[[labelnote:Example]]Let's take a teenager with unnoticed [[SideTrackedByTheGoldenSaucer ADD/ADHD-PI]]: The teen struggles to finish their schoolwork while others do it in half the time and thus have time to socialize. Not only does the teen have less chances to make friends, seeing their peers outperform them in everything often causes feelings of inferiority. This, in turn, may lead to a vicious circle; the teen doesn't feel confident enough to interact with others, and in turn, the others assume the teen is either weird or that they want to be left alone. [[/labelnote]]

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1296511984028130700
%% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread.
%%
[[quoteright:350:[[http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris04/274339759/ https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alone_in_crowd_8486.jpg]]]]

* The eighth volume of ''Manga/SuperGals'' has Yoko stand in the middle of a busy street at Shibuya, commenting on the shallowness of the world, as snippets of various phone calls and lively conversations buzzed around her.