Struggles In The Outsiders

Overcoming obstacles is a part of life that helps humans develop their personalities. The Outsiders is a novel by S.E. Hinton, that showcases obstacles and the growth that comes with them. In the book, there are two groups in which citizens are classified. These groups are known as the Socs and the Greasers. Socs are known as spoiled, rich children that beat up the Greasers for entertainment.

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is a fictional young adult book with many conflicts covering themes such as: don’t judge a book by its cover, leave the past behind, you never know what someone’s going through, and more. It stars a group/gang called the Greasers, the main character and narrator being Ponyboy. This gang is a group of teenage boys/young adults who are on the poor side of this area. The members of the Greasers are Ponyboy, Johnny, Sodapop, Dally, Darry, Two-Bit, and Steve. There’re also the Socs which are the “rich and spoiled” kids in the book.

The Struggles of Teens The struggles in the book The Outsiders, has problems kids have to face in their real lives in “Alarming Number of Teenagers are Quitting school to go to work”,”Cool at 13, Adrift at 23”, and “A Generation Struggling: Rich Kids Are Losing”. Sodapop and Darry, Ponyboy’s older brother, both give up their education in order to make money for his little brother’s education, and some kids must do this as well for their family. The Socs are the rich kids and cause all kinds trouble wherever they go, just like the rich kids in reality who get into all types of trouble with their seemingly endless supply of money. In real life, kids that are usually related to things like gangs go to dismay later on in life, but Darry was able to experience a normal life while being involved with gangs.

In the novel “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton, Johnny Cade is a member of the Greasers gang who undergoes significant growth and maturity throughout the story. Multiple events in the story contribute to his change in perspective and his development as a person. Johnny in the beginning of the novel is timid and fearful but by the end of it hes seen as a brave hero. In the beginning of the novel Johnny is seen as fearful and very timid compared to the others in the Greasers.

When Ponyboy was thinking about what the people in the gang do what they do, he assumed that Greasers and Socs are divergent. Ponyboy thinks to himself, “We deserve a lot of our trouble...both of them have too much energy, too much feeling, with no way to blow it off.” (Hinton 16) This quote has a deep meaning because it shows that the Socs choices are more narrow, displaying that when a Soc does something wrong, they could lose their fame and their luxury. On the other hand, the greasers have boundless choices because they have nothing to lose. They are already at the bottom, so most of the things they do, won’t really change what they already have.

" It also says on page 11 ,”The Socs are the closest thing to a real gang, and they're impossible to beat, because they have "all the breaks" (as in, wealth, power, and privilege). ’’ that means that they can get out of stuff easier like if a soc got arrested their parents can break them out because their rich but if it was a greaser they would be done because they don't have as much. The socs also are not good at relationships.

Then there 's the Greasers, who live poorly and get blamed for most of the things that go down in the city. Ponyboy, and Johnny, two Greasers, that at first, clang to the fact that they hated Socs. All they wanted to do was fight the other gang to look tough and earn respect. In the beginning of the story, Ponyboy wishes he looked tough.

It is natural for people to categorize and judge others. In terms of judgement, people often rely on different ideas and stereotypes that affect their opinions and may twist their perceptions of justice and how it should be dealt. In the books, Monster by Walter Dean Myers and The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, justice is heavily influenced by prejudice demonstrated by people judging others based on race, wealth, and social group stereotypes. Initially, the idea of justice is affected by racial stereotypes and prejudice.

t: Did the characters in the novel overcome challenging obstacles? Write a five paragraph essay discussing the major conflicts in the novel and whether or not they were overcome. In the book “The Outsiders” the main characters Ponyboy, Johnny, and Dally face many obstacles. In the book there are essentially two different classes (gangs), the socs and the greasers.

The Outsiders Final 5 Paragraph Essay In S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, two different gangs, the Greasers and the Socs detested each other. Using Ponyboy Curtis, the author demonstrates 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 he thinks they have no problems.

Like Cherry said “It’s not just the money. Part of it is, but not all. You greasers have a different set of values..(38)” meaning that Socs and greasers were different because of how they were raised. There have been many examples of the importance of good parents, this is

“I am a greaser. I am a JD and a hood. I blacken the name of our fair city, I beat up people. I rob gas stations. I am a menace to society.

Before the rumble Ponyboy realized the difference between his gang and the Socs. “That was the difference between his gang and ours- they had a leader and were organized; we were just buddies who stuck together- each man was his own leader.(Hinton 138)”. The Socs were just a group of adolescents together for social reasons and were engaging delinquent behavior. The greasers stood up for more than that; they stood up for Johnny, for the hard times they’ve been through, for their respect.

For them money symbolizes a better life, even though it can come with problems as well. For instance Carl turns to selling drugs in order to make money, even though he does make a good amount of money it does not do anything to his social class rank, he is still considered to be a thug. Once a family is considered poor, it can be very hard to near impossible for them to change that. There seems to be an endless cycle of poor parents having kids and they never do anything with their life, so they end up being poor as well and this cycle continues. It is important to understand these social themes because they occur in every society and it is up to the society and the individual to try and make a change.

The Outsiders Have you ever wished you could be rich? Or have a bigger house? Do you think that those who are not rich are a menace? Well in the book The Oustiders by S.E Hinton, The socs are more of a menace than the greasers because of the money they have, their parents mindset, and the society’s popular choice.