Hinton's The Outsiders

Hinton never uses the word "outsider" in her novel, yet it 's the title of the book. Maybe she left it open for us to ponder. Write an essay in which you explain what she may have meant by The Outsiders. Be sure to define what you mean by an outsider, and then explain who you think Ms. Hinton was referencing when she titled her book.

What I define an outsider to be is someone who is in a group nevertheless distant, maybe physically or mentally. What I believe Hinton was meaning when she titled this book The Outsiders would be that Ponyboy and his group were an outsider to the society. Greasers in general were an outsider to society.

Ponyboy and his group were their own people, different than everyone else, they would do what they wanted, even if it meant

The West side were the people that didn’t have a say in anything, the people that wanted to be doing something and couldn’t be doing anything. The Greasers were a lower class compared to the SOCS, that made them the outsiders.

Now, each gang could be called an outsider as well. To a gang, a different group could be outsiders just as the SOCS though of the Greasers the outcasts of the town. In the case of the group, it would be outsiders in that particular social class. This would be like Ponyboys gang coming across a different group. If they would think who are these people or think that their gang might be a lower class than they would be considered outsiders.

Each gang could, too, have an outsider or two, to them. In the case of Ponyboy’s gang, he and Johnny were the outsiders, the outcasts. They were the ones that were much quieter than the rest of the gang. They were also the youngest and stuck to themselves. When they started to stick to themselves, they would realize that they needed help from the gang. They might still be the outsiders, though, just like Cherry Valance, a SOC, helped Ponyboy and his