The Outsider

King has been criticized for his handling of female characters. Holly is the only female character who plays a large and active role in this story; other women are supporting characters whose role seems to be to guide and help men. With few exceptions, King also writes from a male point of view, though this may simply be King complying with the common advice to write what one knows.

King’s female characters are strong in ways typically associated with women, such as mothering (as Lovie Bolton does with Claude) or wisdom (which Jeannie provides for Ralph). This strength of character contrasts starkly with the moment when Jeannie begs Ralph to stop investigating. Women often play this role in male-centered stories, and it’s a trope that has potentially sexist connotations. The male protagonist is fighting to save lives while his wife threatens to leave if he doesn’t spend more time with her; while individual characters can have their idiosyncrasies, the frequency with which this situation crops up in fiction suggests a tendency to see women as more selfish and parochial in their concerns.

One possible strength of King’s representation is that he does depict his female characters as powerful in the sense of being stoic or good at fighting.