The American independent, isolated protagonist

No surprise that Alex, the car thief in Theodore Weesner's same-name-novel, gets the shit kicked out of him by Cricket Alan, the tough guy in his Detroit (?) high school - Alex stole about $30 from wallets in the locker room at the school and Cricket trying to get the $ back with a little for him on the side. What is surprising is how alienated Alex remains even on his return to school - he did go out for the basketball team and played well and was gaining a sense of pride - but his interest seems to wain and, even though he has teammates he does not seem to have any friends - that's kind of surprising, as he seems like a pretty intelligent and interesting kid who would have at least a few close friends, even one. But no - and in that sense he's not exactly realistic but more like an avatar for a familiar figure throughout American literature and popular culture: the lone outlaw, the isolate, the guy who's going to head out to the territory or across the tundra our out to sea on a whaling ship. But that all lies ahead of him - right now he seems destined from the school for delinquent boys, in Lansing (Michigan), a scary place it seems - though Alex is a little blase. Though he has plenty of sorrow - absent mother, unreliable father, separation from brother, transient existence - he doesn't have the deep sensitivity of say a Holden Caulfield, he's not nearly as self-reflective - he's closer, maybe, to a Mersault (French, I know) - and securely in the tradition of the American independent protagonist (usually male), unattached and stoic.