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Conflicts In S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders

Decent Essays

In S.E Hinton’s novel The Outsiders, the main character Ponyboy and the rest of the greasers not only face conflicts with their rival gang: the Socs, but also against each other and even as society as a whole. These obstacles were created due the fact that people don't realize that everyone has problems, this is a theme that Ponyboy learns throughout this story. Just like in real life, some conflicts will never be resolved as they are beyond their control. Over the course of the novel some conflicts will be settled, while some will stay the same or even become worse. A major conflict in this novel is between the greasers and the Socs. These two gangs are made up of complete opposites. The two rivals fall into conflict because of how they view each other and their roles in society. Greasers are poor hoods from the East side that “wear our hair long and dress in t-shirts and blue jeans… and wear leather jackets …show more content…

In the beginning of the novel, Ponyboy develops feeling for Cherry who he met at a movie. But due to the fact that Ponyboy is a Greaser and Cherry is a Soc, society states that “you don’t see a grease and a Socy cheerleader together that often.” (Hinton 30) Ponyboy being greaser is set apart from the rest of society because of his cloths, hair and financial status.”Our hair labeled us greasers, too- it was our trademark. The one thing we were proud of.”(Hinton 71) This barrier was created because society labels people based on their appearance. Though they both have feelings for eachother, society thinks that they can’t be together because of their different social party. This obstacle was not resolved, though Ponyboy and Cherry may see more in each other then Socs and greasers, society as a whole still separates them. Ponyboy and Cherry learn from each other that everyone has problems, “Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren’t so different. We saw the same sunset.” (Hinton

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