His final attitude towards the Socs were softened, even though his gang still hate them. Ponyboy’s initial attitude towards the Socs was all about looking cool and tuff all the time. He was raised that way, trained to hate the rich. “Greasers can’t walk alone too much or they’ll get jumped.” This shows that Ponyboy was trained at a very young age to be on the lookout for Socs at all times. “Not like the Socs, who jump Greasers and wreck houses and throw beer blasts for kicks, and get editorials in the paper for being a public disgrace one day and an asset to society the next.” This shows that the public eye are more biased towards the Socs.
However, he is negatively affected by it. An example of Ponyboy accepting his stereotype is when he fights in the rumble against the Socs, with the other greasers. He is not ashamed to be fighting with his friends, even though he states that he has no reason for fighting. Additionally, Ponyboy is upset when he is forced to cut and bleach his hair, because he wanted to look “tuff” like his friends. Ponyboy was genuinely upset about his hair, therefore he accepts his appearance as a greaser, as well.
In S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, two different gangs, the Greasers and the Socs detested each other. The author uses Ponyboy Curtis to demonstrate a Greaser’s opinion of the Socs. Ponyboy had an evolving conception of the Socs. At the beginning, he disliked the Socs because they are rich and have no problems, but he changes his opinion because of some discussions he had with a few of the Socs. His final opinion is that the Socs are just people after all, and they have problems too.
This is why the major theme of The Outsiders is that loyalty is essential for a group’s survival and well-being. One way that loyalty is demonstrated in the novel is how the characters grouped together to protect one another from physical threats. An example of this is when Ponyboy was mugged and beat up by the Socs at the beginning the book. As Ponyboy was getting attacked, the rest of the Greasers (Dally, Steve, Darry, Sodapop, Two-Bit, and Johnny) showed up at the scene to protect Ponyboy. The gang had successfully outnumbered and scared the Socs off by hurling rocks at them, saving Ponyboy.
People may like other characters in The Outsiders, but these three boys seemed to be liked the most for their different personalities. Readers love these characters in this book that the author writes about though, even if they aren 't listed above. As said before, they all have their own unique personalities which makes them, well, them. Just
Ponyboy and his brothers live on the poor side of town. They are called greasers and are not as privileged as the Socs who live on the rich side of town. Being a greaser is difficult because they are the lowest class. The Socs often harass and beat up the greasers. In the beginning of the story, Pony gets beat up by a group of Socs.
This is important because if it was not for the gang, Johnny definitely would not have been the person that he was and he would be a totally different person. “Our gang had chased the Socs to their car had heaved rocks at them” (9). This is an example of the power of friendship because if the greasers had not chased the Socs away, no one else would have cared about Ponyboy and he would have just been left there. This is important because the reader can infer after reading this that the whole gang truly cares for Ponyboy. This shows that Hinton uses the power of friendship to show how the greasers were all like
You greasers have a different set of values.”’ (S.E.Hinton Pg.37) Cherry was an unusual girl from Socs. She hates greasers as well as she likes them. She flexible and rational, and can always stand in others’ shoes and found out what situation is oppressing them. Cherry is the first Socs who comprehends the greasers throughout the book. Though there is only two meet between she and Ponyboy (once during the movie, the other is after the fire hazard), she understood why greasers are different from Socs.
She wrote the book to tell people about what was happening at her high school. In the novel there two different groups of kids: Greasers and the Socs. Greasers tend to be poor-- They gets into trouble with the law. The other group are the Socs, The Socs are the upper class kids. They are usually the ones who start the fights and beat up the Greasers.
In the book “ The Outsider” readers can tell that all the conflict and things like that is the Socs fault. The author of the book is S.E Hinton, she composed the book because she wanted to show of how the two social groups control themselves with the major events that has happened and it follows the rivalry between the Greasers, a group of young boys from a poorer community, and the rich, high class Socs of the same age through the view of Ponyboy, a 14 year old Greaser. The day after Ponyboy gets jumped by a group of Socs, he meets Cherry, who is a Soc. She surprises Ponyboy by being unlike any of the other Socs he has ever met - kind and ordinary, not acting like she is above him. Later, in an incident, Johnny panickedly stabs a Soc to death when he tries to drown Ponyboy.