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Group Identity In The Outsiders By S. E. Hinton

Decent Essays

The Outsiders Essay The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton has many life lessons that still apply to kids today. One of these lessons is the lesson of group identity, and how it influences and overshadows the individual identity. This lesson is important in the story because it affects the characters’ actions and their relationships. It is important for kids to learn about because it teaches them how powerful a group can be that it influences their own decisions and how important is is for people to be accepted in their group of friends. One example in the story of how group identity overshadows the individual identity is how Cherry’s group of friends influences her decisions. Cherry’s group of friends influence her decisions like who to hang out with and what to talk about. In the story, Cherry says, “You know, sometimes I’ll catch myself talking to a girl-friend, and realize I don’t mean half of what I’m saying. I don’t really think a beer blast on the river bottom is super-cool, but I’ll rave about one to a girl-friend just to be saying something.” This shows that she doesn’t really agree with her group of friends, but she pretends to agree. She has a certain reputation to uphold because of her group’s identity. …show more content…

The text says, “Cherry had said her friends were too cool to feel anything, and yet she could remember watching sunsets. Randy was supposed to be too cool to feel anything, and yet there was pain in his eyes.” Cherry watches sunsets when she is supposed to be too cool t feel anything. Randy is expected not to care if anyone got hurt during the rumble or expected not to feel sad about any of the events that has happened, but he does anyway. Both Cherry and Randy do and feel things they aren’t supposed to do or aren’t expected to

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