Do Whitney And Cherry Live Up To Stereotypes

Do Whitney and Cherry live up to the same stereotype?

Both of these characters in their books have to live up to their stereotype in society. For cherry, it's being a soc, a top soc named bob. Being his girlfriend of Bob she has to live up to the stereotype of being a rich soc cheerleader. For Whitney, it's having to be super fit and extremely skinny because she is being a model and society wants very fit and skinny models so Whitney is living up to the stereotype of being extremely skinny and fit. Both are under immense pressure to succeed as perfect girls. In “the outsiders” and “just listen”, both S.E Hinton and Sarah Dessen illustrate how both characters struggle to reconcile their individuality with the pressures inflicted by society.

One important thing Cherry says in the book is how things are bad all over from the socs to the greasers. Cherry mentions this to ponyboy to try to explain to him that it is tough living up to this stereotype and it is not just hard for the greasers it is the same for the socs. To add on when Cherry is talking to ponyboy about dally she says “I could fall in love with Dallas Winston,” she said. “I hope I never see him again or I will.” I find this very interesting because Even though she obeys the rules of being a Soc, she finds herself drawn to crude, violent guys like Dallas Winston. She loves Dallas Winston but can’t do anything about it because she has to live up to being a soc. Because the greasers and socs are enemies, cherry can not fall in love with Dallas Winston because of the constant stereotypes put around cherry. As for Whitney, she undergoes physical pain. When Whitney is in the hospital Whitney's dad says “your sister is very sick. She’s lost an extreme amount of weight and has not been eating regularly for months now. Her system just shut down last night.” Whitney shows the amount of pain she is coping with just to live up to this