Provocations: Who’s Really Guilty in S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders? Imagine you lived in a place where you always had to watch your back and there was always another brutal enemy. The only way to survive was through violence, as if you were born with a knife. S.E. Hinton depicted this world in her novel The Outsiders. She wrote about two feuding teenage gangs; the Socs, who were “the West-side rich kids” (page 2), and the Greasers, who were poor. The rivalry between the two groups ran deep and the question surfaces: who is to blame for the conflict? Although the book is written from the perspective of the Greasers, and the Socs are shown as the bad guys, there is a case to be made that the conflicts in the book started with the Greasers. The first piece of trouble comes when Dally, one of the Greasers, picks on a Soc named Cherry at the movies. “He started talking, loud enough for the two girls to hear. He started out bad and got worse” (page 20). Dally’s actions were unprovoked. He just …show more content…
They began arguments impulsively, and not always as part of their feud with the Socs. One example of this occurred when Dally robbed a grocery store in a period of despair after a Greaser named Johnny died. Dally notified his fellow Greasers after the crime and they responded in panic, feeling that they “gotta hide him” (page 153). The other Greasers encouraged Dally’s evasion of the cops, becoming accomplices to the crime. The cops pursued and shot Dally, fatally, when he acted as if he was about to shoot them. This part of the downward spiral of events in the book began with Dally’s impulsiveness in the grocery store, not with the feud or with fury. Ponyboy even admitted that Dally was an unstable person, saying, “he died violent and young and desperate, just like we all knew he’d die someday” (page 154). This proves that even the Greasers see that they are liable to cause turmoil in any
In S.E.Hinton’s book The Outsiders She describes a rivalry between the low class greasers and the upper class socs. IN the book the appalling death of one of the main characters, Dally Winston was caused by several events. After saving the lives of a group of children Johnny dies putting Dally into grief. This leads Dally to rob a store. After he robs the store Dally is chased by the police and in a panic, pulls out an unloaded gun and is shot by the police.
In the book the Outsiders, Ponyboy faces many conflicts, some had carried more significance than others. The author of this novel is S.E. Hinton. The main characters of this novel are Ponyboy Curtis, Sodapop Curtis, and Darrel Curtis (Darry). The Outsiders is novel about the wars between the two social classes formally known as Socs (The higher class/richer people) and the Greasers (The lower class/poorer blue collar workers.) This novel however is told from the perspective of the Greasers, more specifically a young boy at the bottom of a small gang or family of greasers. In the novel The Outsiders the character Ponyboy experience multiple conflicts with his family, his friends, and the law.
Because of the lack of love they have in their own homes, they do not have someone telling them how much they are loved and cared for. Even though the group of greaser boys love each other, they do not say it, and because of the lack of nurture those two boys have they do not place much value on their lives. Dally did not care about his life, he would always get himself into trouble and did not care if he got arrested or not. “Dally raised his gun . . . he was dead before he hit the ground.
The story the Outsiders is about a town that is split into two, the Socs and the Greasers. They all have a rivalry. Some Greasers are kind of violent but some are just plain violent and careless like a character Dally. Although his actions show that he is reckless, the evidence shows that he cares=for Johnny and Pony and wants them to be safe because he ends up hurting himself because of it.
Dally and Johnny are two characters that display how their experiences and greaser stereotypes shape them throughout the novel. Johnny is unable to form his identity because of the difficulties in his relationships with his family and the Greasers. “ If you can picture a little dark puppy that has been kicked too many times and is lost in a crowd of strangers you’ll have Johnny.” This quote demonstrates that he’s weak and broken as a result of being beaten, ignored, yelled at, and insulted at home. If Johnny didn’t get neglected, he may have been a completely different person. ”If it hadn't been for the gang, Johnny would never have known what love and affection are.”page 12. And here we see he would have been completely shattered if it wasn’t for the gang who treats him as
Despite the greasers' name as heartless young felons, they live by an in depth and noble code of relationship, and there ar several instances within which gang and members of the family create altruistic decisions. decisions usually mirror a want to form life higher for consequent generation of youths. Darry forfeit a university scholarship for a regular manual labour job so as to support his younger brothers. Dally, United Nations agency appears to not care regarding something, demonstrates nice loyalty to and compassion for his friends and for strangers in would like. He helps Johnny and Ponyboy slip away to the agricultural city of Windrixville once Bob's stabbing, and he plays a key role within the church fireplace rescue. Dally's death
Ponyboy feels that he himself is an outsider, particularly at school where his athletic ability and sharp intellect place him in classes and activities with many other Socs. Ponyboy is also the only one in the Greasers that hates the rival between the Socs and greasers; the author states, “Things are rough all over”(pg31). Ponyboy in his group was the only one to befriend a Soc named Cherry. When Dally was getting rough with Cherry, he took a stand with Johnny to tell Dally to stop and know one says that to Dally if
Characters from The Outsiders demonstrated different conflicts through situations with other characters, nature, and society. The greasers and the Socs expose their contrasting personalities throughout this book. The conflicts show that society has the capability of being a cruel thing. S.E. Hinton writes about how different people can cause different types of conflicts. In The Outsiders, she uses different characters and conflicts to reveal problems in society.
Terrified and confused, the two greasers hurry to find Dally, the one person the think can help them. Dally sends them with a gun and some money to an abandoned church near Windrixvill, where they hide out for a week, they cut their hair to disguise their appearances. After a week, dally comes to check on them, and says that since bob died, the Socs and the greasers have become worse then ever, a giant rumble is to be held the next night to settle the matters once and for all. Cherry feels responsible for the whole problem, acted as a spy for the greasers. Johnny surprises Dally by declaring his intention to go back to Tulsa and turn himself in. Dally drives them back, but as they leave, the notice that the church has caught on fire and it had a large group of schoolchildren inside. Ponyboy and Johnny rush inside the church to save the children. Just when they get the last child through the window, the roof caves in and Ponyboy blacks out again.
Thus, Dally helps Pony and Johnny escape town to live at an abandoned church, so Johnny won’t go to jail. Then, one day Dally, Pony, and Johnny return to the church to find it on fire with schoolchildren inside of the church in need of help. Dally, Pony, and Johnny dive in to rescue them. Dally and Pony have superficial injuries while Johnny endures the worst with third degree burns covering his whole body. Dally proposes a fight against the Socs to get revenge for Johnny because this would have never happened to Johnny if he didn’t have to run away from home to stay out of
In light of the comparative study between Growing Up Asian in Australia and a novel of choice, I have chosen The Outsiders by S.E.Hinton as my novel. The Outsiders is a classic dramatic novel that was first published in 1967 and was set in Oklahoma, USA. The novel is a coming-of-age story that focus around a gang of young boys called the greasers, and is narrated by Ponyboy Curtis, the main protagonist. The major conflicts that appeared in the novel were man vs man, man vs society and man vs self( internal conflict).
At the end of the book Ponyboy finally comes to terms with the deaths of Johnny and Dally, and he finally realizes that violence is not the answer when he makes up with Darry. Darry and Ponyboy are shouting at each other, and Ponyboy asks Sodapop to take his side. This causes Sodapop to rush out of the house, and Ponyboy and Darry chase after him. When they finally catch up Sodapop tells them he feels sick of being pulled apart by their fights. Ponyboy sympathizes with Sodapop as he says in the text: “Darry and I did play tug of war with him, with never a thought to how much it was hurting him.” Ponyboy suddenly understands what his fighting with Darry has done to Sodapop, and later in their conversation Ponyboy realizes why he never got along with Darry: “I saw that I had expected Darry to do all the understanding without even trying to
The disparity between the social classes in The Outsiders is one of the central themes and the driving force of the plot. Hinton sought to depict teen life in a more accurate light as she saw it occur from day to day (“S. E. Hinton Biography,” 2014). Class distinction is the issue that incites the conflict in the novel, and that conflict causes much of the action. Hinton’s fourteen-year-old narrator and his gang are locked in a battle with their rival, the Socials (socs), “the jet set, the West-side rich kids (Hinton, 1967, p. 2). While The Outsiders is an analysis of the inner conflict of identity among the characters, most of the action and conflict is surrounded by interactions either within or between the two groups (“Shmoop Editorial Team,” 2014). The Greasers who have long hair, wear jeans, and have reputations for being ‘hoods’ are marked as inferior in class status (Tribunella, 2007). Ponyboy depicts the Socs as being superior, “you can’t win against them no matter how hard you try, because they’ve got all the breaks” (Hinton, 1967, p. 47).
The Greasers gang acts as a family. This is shown plenty of times throughout the story. Dally yells at Ponyboy for running away in a wet sweatshirt, he says, “You’ll die of pneumonia before the cops ever get you.” He is very protective, like a brother. Even Ponyboy saId, “He sounded so much like Darry, I stared at him.” (60) At this moment he acted as a family figure. Dally gives Ponyboy and Johnny what they need to survive after they kill the Soc Bob. In this section Dally shows that he cares
“The Outsiders” identifies the 60’s, illustrating the violence between groups, often involving a group’s social class. For instance, the violent tensions between the Socs and Greasers lead to Bob’s death, Johnny’s death, as well as many injuries throughout both gangs. The book “The Outsiders” is written by S.E. Hinton and is portrayed through the eyes of a high school student in Tulsa, OK where S.E. Hinton grew up. Hinton began writing “The Outsiders” in 1965 at the age of 17 and the book was finally published in 1967 when she was 19. The difference in perspective upon the society and social class creates issues throughout “The Outsiders” and since the Socs and Greasers assume the problems will be solved with violence, they take action.