: Are there widely recognized iconic story examples of "a stranger comes to town" and "a stranger in a strange land"? I am working on a story and looking for examples of a particular type I

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I'd never heard of Mr McKee nor the idea that all stories involve strangers but I can see that an argument can be made for it in almost every case. The gunslinger in The Dark Tower is always a stranger and always in strange places, it's the same for any story with a lot of travel, Lord of the Rings is a classic, as are the Chronicles of Narnia. In the case of more sedentary tales where the stranger comes to the protagonist's home there's 'Salem's Lot, The Dresden Files, Nightside and the Dead of Night books by Jonathan Maberry.

There are however a number of narratives that don't quite fit this presentation, stories where the actors don't go anywhere and in which no-one new comes into the setting. The one that immediately comes to mind is Red Shift everyone in the story belongs where and when they are found and the story has them all living their lives as they are meant to without external interruptions (those lives are eventful and unpleasant but local).

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I love McKee and had not heard that before, but any quest or hero's journey or chosen one storyline would seem to fall in that category.

Star Wars is taught as iconic. It is the hero's journey, and can be mapped to mono-myth or three act structure. Luke is the stranger--his entire history is unknown to him. He is plunged into a world completely unlike moisture farming. Et cetera.

I don't know how widely it is "taught" but it is a common touchstone (Like LoTR) that we can all relate to. Sanderson includes it along with many other common stories in his online course.

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