Outsiders in Southern Gothic
If you're reading Southern Gothic literature, chances are pretty good you're reading about outsiders. Many, if not most, of the heroes and heroines of these works are people who are outside the norm on some way—sometimes physically, sometimes mentally, and sometimes in terms of race or class.
These outcasts are often the characters who drive the plot forward in Southern Gothic lit. One reason Southern Gothic authors like to write about outsider characters is that outsiders reflect, in a different ways, the identity of the South: the South itself was a renegade society, especially after its defeat in the War. If you were a writer, then seeing all that grotesque decay around you would probably make you feel like an outsider in your own society, too.
Shmoops:
Benjy Compson, one of the protagonists in William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, is one of the most famous "outsider" figures in Southern Gothic literature. Find an analysis of his character here.
John Singer, the mute protagonist of Carson McCullers's The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, is another "outsider" character. Check out how his consciousness frames the whole narrative here.