History Main / EatingLunchAlone

* ''Literature/TheScholomance'': The monster-infested WizardingSchool is so dangerous that only the most palpably repellent unconnected 'loser' (hello [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer El]]) normally risks getting stuck with a table to themselves. When a Senior year Enclaver eats lunch alone, it's only because he did something so awful -- [[spoiler:[[AndIMustScream sacrificing a classmate to the Void]]]] -- that even those from his own enclave would literally rather see him dead than associate with him.

--> '''Mind Worker A''': Okay, what abstract concept are we trying to comprehend today?
--> '''Mind Worker B''': Um..."Loneliness."

* Used twice in ''Film/MeanGirls''. On her first day of school, Cady Herron eats lunch alone in the restroom. Later, after her fall from popularity, she has to return to brown-bagging in the bathroom.
* Private Santiago is shown eating alone during the montage that sums up his miserable experience in the Marines in ''Film/AFewGoodMen''.
* It doesn't seem to hurt Peter in ''Film/SpiderMan1''.
* In ''Film/{{Superbad}}'' there's a throwaway joke that depends on the viewer's understanding the mythos surrounding Eating Lunch Alone. Seth and Evan are eating lunch together when Evan gets up, claiming he has to leave. Seth protests, "You want me to eat lunch alone like I'm fuckin' Steven Glansberg?" and gestures to another table. We get a brief shot of a lone kid gazing into the middle distance and taking a pensive forkful of his canned peaches; then it's back to Seth and Evan, and Mr. Glansberg [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic is never seen or heard from again]].
* In ''Film/SmartPeople'', Vanessa Wetherhold (Ellen Page) eats alone during lunch. Though her outcast status seems self-inflicted, as she refers to others as stupid, often, to their face.

* George [=McFly=], in the first ''Film/BackToTheFuture1''.
* Toula in ''Film/MyBigFatGreekWedding'' ate lunch alone as a child.
* Momoko in ''Literature/KamikazeGirls'' is shown eating her (utterly adorable) lunch alone.

* Deb in ''Film/NapoleonDynamite'', when Napoleon awkwardly compliments her. Napoleon himself would be, if not for Pedro.

* In ''Film/WelcomeToTheDollhouse''; a heart-breaking scene in a heart-breaking movie. This scene, where Dawn tries to find a place to sit in the school cafeteria and is rejected from every occupied table is also used in the film's trailer, because it completely encapsulates the desperate and hopeless mood of the film.

* In ''Film/CantBuyMeLove'' the protagonist ends up eating lunch alone after his plans to become popular explosively fall apart when the truth is revealed.
* In ''Film/TheLonelyGuy'' Steve Martin's character, after a breakup, is uncomfortable eating alone in restaurants - until his lonely friend tells him what to do: act like you're a pretentious food critic. They'll assume you are and give you the best table, the best service, and the best food.
* In ''Film/{{Disconnect}}'', Ben is seen eating his lunch alone at school which underpins his status as a loner.

* ''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.

* ''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.

* In ''Literature/ProtectorOfTheSmall'', the male pages refuse to eat with Kel and her sponsor Neal when she first begins page training. Neal puts a positive spin on this previously unobtainable luxury known as "elbow room," and it isn't long before [[MagneticHero Kel starts winning boys to her side.]]
* The main character of the YA book ''Literature/{{Speak}}'' not only eats lunch alone, but ''in the bathroom''.
* 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.
* In the first chapter of ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', we learn that protagonist Taylor Hebert has been eating lunch in a locked stall in the girls' bathroom for weeks to avoid a trio of bullies that have been targeting her for a year and a half. Unfortunately for [[BullyMagnet Taylor]], this chapter is the day the bullies find her.

* Vivy from ''Literature/GetAGripVivyCohen'' used to eat lunch in the hallway until the teacher said she wasn't allowed, so she started eating at a table with a few other kids who never talked. After she joins the Flying Squirrels, she starts sitting with the catcher Alex Carrillo.
* ''Literature/WhereTheCrawdadsSing'': During her first and only day at school, Kya sits at an empty table to eat lunch. The other kids mock her for being swamp trash, and no one wants to sit with her.
* ''Literature/TheScholomance'': The monster-infested WizardingSchool is so dangerous that only the most palpably repellent unconnected 'loser' (hello [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer El]]) normally risks getting stuck with a table to themselves. When a Senior year Enclaver eats lunch alone, it's only because he did something so awful -- [[spoiler:[[AndIMustScream sacrificing a classmate to the Void]]]] -- that even those from his own enclave would literally rather see him dead than associate with him.

* Literature/{{Serpico}} is ostricized by his fellow officers after blowing the whistle on police corruption. His next captain sees him dining alone in the mess room and assumes at first he must be a police informant, until told otherwise. Fortunately he's one of the few officers who approves of Serpico's actions and makes a point of befriending him.
* ''Literature/LostVoices'': Before Luce is transformed into a mermaid, she always sits in the same spot in the school cafeteria, alone and with her back to everyone else.
* In ''Literature/ZenobiaJuly'', Zen's genderqueer friend Arli lectures her over text about the importance of educating herself so she can be a good ally to trans people, [[InnocentlyInsensitive not knowing Zen is trans]]. The next day, Zen so dreads the idea of another lecture from Arli that she eats lunch in Siberia, as the kids call the most deserted corner of the lunchroom.

* ''Literature/GracefullyGrayson'': At the start of the book, sixth grader Grayson has eaten lunch in the library ever since third grade, when her best friend Emma moved to Florida.

* ''Series/VeronicaMars'', until Wallace decides to sit with her.

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard.'' Fuli's friends notice that she goes off to hunt by herself, so they decide to join her to make sure she feels included. They then learn that Fuli ''enjoys'' hunting alone and needs time to be by herself sometimes. Moreover, the fact that she needs to be by herself sometimes doesn't mean she doesn't still love her friends.

* Nikki, the protagonist of ''Literature/DorkDiaries'', eats lunch alone at her new private school before she meets Chloe and Zoey.

* Justified in a tear-jerker 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 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.]]

* Chloe Cerise in ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'' 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.
* ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBoilingPoint'': Willow finds Skara doing this in Chapter 6, and she decides to talk with her for a bit until she gets an idea...

* In ''Series/{{Forever|2014}}'' Jo eats most of her meals at her desk, a reflection of how she's buried herself in her work since her husband died.

* George [=McFly=], in the first ''Film/BackToTheFuture''.

** This ends up becoming an issue for a [[AlphaBitch more socially-active but mean spirited character]] named Koharu Minami. After she gets put into a separate class from her usual clique, she struggles to find people she can eat with for some time. She doesn't always want to always eat with her usual friends because she knows they'll make fun of her for not being able to find any other company, and her OnlyFriend in her current class, Mako, isn't always available. Koharu tries dining with a girl named Mike for a while, but not only does she find it awkward since the latter has a boyfriend, she's also a LethalChef who's always forcing her terrible cooking onto Koharu. Koharu eventually settles on hanging out with a GamerGirl named Shiki Futaki, but the friendship she strikes with her sets off a chain of events that causes her old clique to fall apart...and the leader of it, Sachi, to start eating lunch alone herself.

* Both played straight and subverted in ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'', where Hiccup first eats his food alone in the great hall, then ends up literally ''mobbed'' when he starts doing very well at dragon training.

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 ''[[ThePigPen very]]'' poor hygiene for days on end.

* In the first chapter of ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', we learn that protagonist Taylor Hebert has been eating lunch in a locked stall in the girls' bathroom for weeks to avoid a trio of bullies that have been targeting her for a year and a half. Unfortunately for [[BullyMagnet Taylor]], this chapter is the day they find her.

->''"I got some news for you''\\
''And you'll soon find out it's true''\\
''And then you'll have to eat your lunch all by yourself"''

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

* Momoko in ''LightNovel/KamikazeGirls'' is shown eating her (utterly adorable) lunch alone.

* ''Literature/TheScholomance'': The monster-infested WizardingSchool is so dangerous that only the most palpably repellent unconnected 'loser' (hello [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer El}}) normally risks getting stuck with a table to themselves. When a Senior year Enclaver eats lunch alone, it's only because he did something so awful -- [[spoiler:[[AndIMustScream sacrificing a classmate to the Void]]]] -- that even those from his own enclave would literally rather see him dead than associate with him.

* ''Literature/TheScholomance'': The monster-infested WizardingSchool is so dangerous that everyone eats in groups, no matter how unpopular. When a student eats lunch alone, it's only because he did something so awful -- [[spoiler:[[AndIMustScream sacrificing a classmate to the Void]]]] -- that people would literally rather see him dead than associate with him.

[[folder:Films]]
* ''Film/TheBlindSide'': Except it's not lunch, but study hall: Michael always sits alone, until Collins leaves her study table to sit with him instead.
* Used twice in ''Film/MeanGirls''. On her first day of school, Cady Herron eats lunch alone in the restroom. Later, after her fall from popularity, she has to return to brown-bagging in the bathroom.
* Private Santiago is shown eating alone during the montage that sums up his miserable experience in the Marines in ''Film/AFewGoodMen''.
* It doesn't seem to hurt Peter in ''Film/SpiderMan1''.
* In ''Film/{{Superbad}}'' there's a throwaway joke that depends on the viewer's understanding the mythos surrounding Eating Lunch Alone. Seth and Evan are eating lunch together when Evan gets up, claiming he has to leave. Seth protests, "You want me to eat lunch alone like I'm fuckin' Steven Glansberg?" and gestures to another table. We get a brief shot of a lone kid gazing into the middle distance and taking a pensive forkful of his canned peaches; then it's back to Seth and Evan, and Mr. Glansberg [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic is never seen or heard from again]].

* Both played straight and subverted in ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'', where Hiccup first eats his food alone in the great hall, then ends up literally ''mobbed'' when he starts doing very well at dragon training.

* 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 [[TheThingThatWouldNotLeave excessively-chatty]] [[LethalChef Neelix]] trying to force his latest AlienLunch on Tuvok. 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.

-->-- '''Eagles''', "Already Gone"