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The Outsiders Theme Of Identity

301 Words2 Pages

While S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders touches on identity, agency, and community, I believe the major theme is identity. The question of how people can be so different and have such different lifestyles yet share the same fundamental human characteristics is one that Hinton explores in depth through Ponyboy’s examination of his own identity and the identities of the other young adults in his town. Ponyboy grapples with the distinction between greasers and Socs several times throughout the novel, such as when Cherry Valance claims “you greasers have a different set of values” (38). In the same conversation with Cherry, Ponyboy later claims that the reason greasers and Socs are different is that “it’s feeling – you don’t feel anything and we feel

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