How Is The Outsiders Relevant Today

The novel The Outsiders By SE Hinton , covers the theme of people are often more complex than they first appear. This theme is still relevant today because people still are making assumptions about people when they first meet rather than getting to know them further.The Outsiders is a story about the rivalry of the Greasers and Socs and how it led to the destructiveness of physical and mental well being. Dally,who is first viewed as a bloodthirsty and cruel person because of his past, but after Johnny’s death he is seen as the member who shows too much emotion. Darry, Ponyboy’s oldest brother, who is seen as a harsh and overworked boy who is trying to raise his brothers is discovered to be caring and having to be emotionless for his family.In

When it comes to Dally he views him as the “character of the gang” but also dangerous.In chapter 7, after Ponyboy and Johnny, Ponyboy’s best friend and member of the gang, had saved children from the burning church and Dally saved Pony from the flame on his back, the boys are in the hospital. Pony tries to comfort himself by saying ¨Dally’ll be okay, I thought. Dallas is always okay.¨(86).Pony’s perspective has slightly shifted to seeing Dally as more of a human with different sides rather than the figure he has painted for each member of the gang.“Nobody would write editorials praising Dally. Two friends of mine had died that night: one a hero, the other a hoodlum. But I remembered Dally pulling Johnny through the window of the burning church; Dally giving us his gun, although it could mean jail for him; Dally risking his life for us, trying to keep Johnny out of trouble. And now he was a dead juvenile delinquent and there wouldn't be any editorials in his favor. Dally didn't die a hero. He died violent and young and desperate, just like we all knew he'd die someday. Just like Tim Shepard and Curly Shepard and the Brumly boys and the other guys we knew would die someday. But Johnny was right. He died gallant”(131).Although Pony saw Dally with new eyes, he still didn't think of him as an ideal hero but more as a hero in disguise that would change his life

“If I brought home B's, he wanted A's, and if I got A's, he wanted to make sure they stayed A's.”(12),Pony sees Darry as more of a controlling hand over his life rather than his older brother who is trying to give him the opportunities that he never had."I reckon it never occurred to you that your brothers might be worrying their heads off and afraid to call the police because something like that could get you two thrown in a boys' home so quick it'd make your head spin. And you were asleep in the lot? Ponyboy, what on earth is the matter with you? Can't you use your head? You haven't even got a coat on"(50).In chapter 3 Pony and Johnny fell asleep in the lot, the Greasers hang out at a vacant lot, and when Pony woke up it was way past his curfew. When Pony arrived home Darry freaked out. Pony saw this as another example of Soda, Ponyboy’s brother and role model, being the favorite instead of Darry just trying to keep him safe.“I looked at Darry. He wasn't going to be any hood when he got old. He was going to get somewhere. Living the way we do would only make him more determined to get somewhere. That's why he's better than the rest of us, I thought. He's going somewhere. And I was going to be like him. I wasn't going to live in a lousy neighborhood all my life.”