The Outsiders In S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders

As explained, “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton has a powerful set of messages that still relate to the teens of today. Through Ponyboy Curtis’ struggle with social class, loyalty, and his choices, the reader understands the importance of being true to oneself and realizing your real potential for the

The Outsiders is a story that is about two types of people or should I say social classes that had their own nicknames, the upper class people had a nickname of the “Socs” and the lower to middle class people were called the “Greasers” and it was all about their lives and the rivalry between the two of them. The Outsiders at first was seen as a kind of bad story and rebellious but then later on was recognized as one of the most talked about novels around the time it came out. ( Famous Authors). The story jump started Hinton her career and her way to the top as a novelist, The Outsiders sold roughly around 4 million copies or more and gave her a lot of publicity as well as gaining fame in the process. After writing the Outsiders Hinton went into a writer’s block that lasted about 3 years because of the result of popularity.

The great philosopher Plato once said , “Any city, however small, is in fact divided into two, one the city of the poor, and the other of the rich; these are at the war with one another.” This quote perfectly summarizes the theme of S.E Hinton's novel, The Outsiders. The novel is about two gangs/groups that live in Rural, Oklahoma, the Greasers and the Socials. The Socs are the more affluent and often times referred to as the ‘West-side rich kids’, and the Greasers, are the less fortunate gang. Throughout the novel both gangs experience various types of conflict and at one point their differences ended up costing the life of a couple gang members. I will prove that the socs were the primary group that caused the conflict in the novel.

Ponyboy has grown up in a rough society, but when he finally breaks, things get from bad to terrifying in a matter of minutes. Ponyboy is the protagonist of The Outsiders, a book by S.E. Hinton. Ponyboy is considered as a normal boy in his neighborhood, he is part of a gang and lives with his two older brothers. Ponyboy and his gang stick together through everything, allowing them to survive their rough lives. The bond of loyalty between Ponyboy and his gang is vital for survival, shown by the way that the gang responds to the violence between the classes, what Ponyboy and his gang do to survive, and how they help each other survive their social class rivalries.

S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders is a novel that follows a group of boys growing up in the 1960s who have to face prejudice and stereotypes on a daily basis. The author uses multiple examples of prejudice in the novel to demonstrate the destructive nature of prejudice on the characters in the story, such as fights between characters, friendships being torn apart, and people feeling ashamed of who they are and which social class they belong in. The first examples of prejudice shown in the novel are fights and hate between the two social classes.

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.Because of some discussions he had with a few of the Socs, he changes his opinion Recognizing that the Socs are just people after all, Pony’s final opinion is that they have problems too. Pony’s opening opinion of the Socs does not show them in good light.

In S.E. Hinton’s story, The Outsiders, group identity is so important that sometimes people overshadow their own identity. In our generation it is kind of the same way to some people, for instance people sometimes act and dress differently around the popular kids to fit in. While at home they do their normal routine and stay true to themselves. This is so important to the story for many reasons. It is also really important to kids this age in 2017. The reason I say this is that the whole story is based on their group identity and social classes. To add to that in school people does whatever is trending on social media just because they feel like they are left out.

Struggles is a natural part of living, even characters in a book have struggles! In The Outsiders, a group of very close friends called the greaser and their rival, the Socs, fight the struggles of life. Each group is tested with different struggles that affect them in a way. All of them must find a way to overcome them. The greasers struggle more than the Socs because people judge them before even knowing them, they have less money than the Socs, and they are targeted by them.

In the novel The Outsiders , there are two social groups, the Greasers” and the Socs. Greasers are considered stupid, dirty, rowdy, and overall horrible. Socs think all Greasers are the same. Greasers think that all of the Socs have perfect lives and they are all happy with no struggles. Neither of them are right, there are struggles on both sides of town. The two sides of town are extremely different but similar at the same time. But this all changes when a Greaser and a Soc come together with an unexpected interest, especially for a “stupid” greaser boy. Cherry Valance and Ponyboy Curtis both share an interest in sunsets.

In the book, The Outsiders, written by S.E. Hinton, the premise of The Outsiders is of a power struggle between two social classes, the Greasers and the Socs. This fictional book focuses on hot-button issues of that time period through the journey of Ponyboy and how he navigated through these times. The aftermath and effects of tensions in the group and when said tensions boiled over in the two groups were also shown. The three topics addressed in the down-to-earth novel are rich versus poor, the power of friendship and what it means to be a hero.

Stereotyping is an issue that affects all ages, genders, and races. Not all stereotypes are bad, but when you maliciously stereotype it becomes a problem. In S.E. Hinton’s young adult novel The Outsiders, stereotyping is a significant issue. There are two gangs in this novel, the “greasers”, and the “Socs”. The greasers live on the east side and are known as “hoods”. The Socs live on the west side and are known as the west side rich kids who have all the breaks. People judge their personality just based on where they live, and what they look like. Stereotyping is an unfair way to judge people because you never know their whole story.

Just like how the idiomatic expression “beauty is in the eyes of the beholder” is perceived, ‘moral values’, to a different person, has a distinct meaning. Moral values, more often than not, are defined according to the cultural beliefs. Each culture has its own sets of rules and beliefs to determine what is crucial, trivial, right, wrong, good and bad. For instance, it is vital for Chinese children to practice filial piety as it is an essential value of Chinese traditional culture (POŠKAITĖ, 2014); hence, living with parents, regardless of the marital status, is the right thing to do for it is good. On the contrary, Western children are not entitled to such obligation. They have but the “duties of gratitude” which guarantee parents no right

Societal adversities carve an individual’s outlook and character, which may continue unaltered until their untimely death. Susan Eloise Hinton, author of the coming of age literary text, The Outsiders, depicts the prevalent teenage social rivalry in the 1960s between the Socials (Socs) and the Greasers. Through a series of consequential incidents, various characters are challenged and undergo a progressive transformation throughout the story, while others remain static and do not respond with a shift in character. Dallas “Dally” Winston resists change despite the numerous opportunities for transformation as Ponyboy Curtis’ most distinctive gang member. Dallas Winston as a static character, remains self-preservative and detached from society, as seen in Ponyboy’s assessment of him at Buck Merril 's party, his conversation with

Ponyboy has two older brothers name Darry and Sodapop. Unlike his brothers, Ponyboy is still going to school and is highly educated. One thing that is special about Ponyboy is that he is stereotyped as a Greaser when he thinks that Socs and Greasers can stop fighting. “‘All Socs aren’t like that,’ she said. ‘You have to believe me, Ponyboy. Not all of us are like that’” (Hinton 31). Stereotypes cover someone’s true identity, making others know the false statement instead of the true fact. Ponyboy and Andy are quite similar in one way; they are both part of a gang. Andy, Ponyboy, and Curtis are different since their identities are all