Kids are the new innovative adults of the world, kids are so creative, gold age of peoples lives as Robert Frost would describe it. But imagine if your live as child was condemned or predetermined future because of the dangers in your community. The phrase “kids will be kids” seemingly offers an idea that kids can do as the please within that time period. The saying keeps parents and authorities holding their children by their hands until their teenage to adult years where the parents and authorities start to let go. In the novel The Outsiders, the author SE Hinton creates a society where low income teenagers fight high income teenagers. Having them dispute over petty reasons, having the story told from a perspective of a teen from the low …show more content…
The age 13 is so controversial, because it's the first year of being a teenager. This then relates to the protagonist and narrator of the outsiders Ponyboy Curtis, whose is age is 14 years old. The age where he starts to get involved in a gang and experiences conflicts and violence because of his decisions he made. The Outsiders is a novel based on two groups of teenagers formed on social/income class”. With these two group of teenagers, they had a conflict for petty reasons and wanted to have the upper hand on one another. One group was named the greasers the lower income kids and the Socs short for socials the kids who had it all and were privileged from the lower income kids.Mainly the novel goes over the conflicts and tragedies that the protagonist Ponyboy had gotten into over the course of two weeks. While experiencing these events over the two weeks, Ponyboy's actions were shaped by his friends habits. “You take up for you buddies, no matter what they do. When you‘re a gang, you stick up for the members. If you don‘t stick up for them, stick together, make like brothers, it isn't a gang any more”(“Hinton”, 45). These were words of Johnny used to talk to Ponyboy from backing out of the big brawl they were about to encounter. Ponyboys tries to get on get a grasp on reality and say “It ain‘t fair! . . . It …show more content…
These were words a Chicago teenager from a low income community in Chicago's south side this is why this idea is relevant and applicable to the novel the outsiders because this is an ongoing problem especially teenagers committing crimes in these communities and getting incarcerated. Though children from these communities experience this things does not imply all kids to teens are going to live a crime involved life. These kids just have more likely of chance to get involved with crime because unlike middle and upper class kids, they do not have certain tools and items given to like the other communities. Until racial steering stops and communities with low income and middle and upper class families are integrated the war on crime will continue in these low income communities. Once Ponyboy in the novel says “Sixteen years on the streets and you can learn a lot But all the wrong things, not the things you want to learn, Sixteen years on the streets and you see a lot,But all the wrong sights, not the things you want to see.”(“Hinton”, 56). This quote is significant because it describes the lifestyle of teenagers in this situation and what makes them different from their rival gang the Socs, who are different in every aspect compared to the greasers. Another way he would describe how people looked
There are two groups in this book, the lower income families on the east side called greasers and the higher income paid families who live on the West side of town called Socs. One night the protagonist, Ponyboy Curtis and friend Johnny Cade were making their way back from a movie, they decide to lay down and talk for a little bit before they go home. His older brother, Darry, is waiting when Pony walks in. They instantly start arguing and Darry smacks Ponyboy across the face. Ponyboy and Johnny runaway moments later and find themselves in a park with drunk Socs who attack Ponyboy. Ponyboy regains consciousness to find himself lying on the ground next to an Socs dead body. Johnny had stabbed a Soc in the back with his switchblade. They hang low at an abandon church for a long week. Then, Dally arrives to check up on them and takes them out to lunch. He
Soc’s. Greaser’s. Two different groups who are just teenagers trying to find their way in life and who all have their problems. The book The Outsiders written by, S. E. Hinton, is based on a true story and how two different social groups interact. The wealthier, classier group with Mustangs and madras shirts are called the “Socs.” The less wealthier, greasy, slicked-back hair group are called “Greasers.” Both groups are stereotyped by society. Greasers are prone to crime and Socs are spoiled and can’t do anything wrong. The Outsiders has multiple themes, one is that loyalty between people can keep each other from getting hurt. Another is how the reputations people hold aren’t always accurate. Both play roles in changing the lives of the characters in the book.
Last but not least, Ponyboy faces the society’s impression of the greasers. Everybody thinks that they are hoods and that nothing good can come out of them. The greasers are judged strongly because of their economic status and face judgment from everyone. Nobody cares to understand their life and what experience on a daily basis. He also finds out when he was in Windrixville, that people don’t judge them like they do in their city. The whole conflict of the story is the Greasers and the Socs. The characters in the story have gone about their own ways to at least try to fix the problem. Many chose fighting and violence in general, but Ponyboy choose to write a book for a writing assignment. He discovers that there is no difference between them
While reading The Outsiders by S.E Hinton, I felt as if I took a time travel to the 1960’s. The book clearly gives an insight to the past. Unlike other book, The Outsiders has its own unique meaning. The author created something different than a modern clique book that I read in my day to day life. Hinton’s word choice creates an interesting book where it felt as if it was non-fiction than young-adult fiction. I like this book because the author made something extraordinary by stating the past rather than another author’s writing twenty-first century book.
Have you ever wondered how the 1960’s was like? Would you have been fearful, jovial, or melancholy? In the book, The Outsiders, by S. E. Hinton the main character Ponyboy Curtis lives with his two brothers, Sodapop and Darry, and is involved in a gang called the “greasers.” Ponyboy realizes what it is to be a kind person instead of being violent, he is always on top of his studies and is very observant of others.
They are often “jumped” by the Socs (or Socials), who are the rich kids from the other side of town. Ponyboy lives a normal teenage life, with his brothers and the other Greasers, but when something happens that changes their lives for ever, the way Pony sees the world completely changes. Throughout the book, numerous characters ponder about being outsiders, to society, to their social class and even their family/friends. This idea of being an
While introducing himself, he presents his personal characteristics in a manner that sound very unique and different from his peer group, the greasers, that all share a common identity. Ponyboy states that, “When I see a movie with someone it’s kind of uncomfortable, like having someone read your book over your shoulder. I’m different that way” (2). By suggesting that he is simply “different that way” at the beginning of the novel, Ponyboy begins to put himself into a unique category of human being that no one else really understands. Another example of personal fable found in Ponyboys introduction is when he explains how different he is from the greasers by admitting that, “nobody in our gang digs movies and books the way I do.
Ponyboy Curtis - The novel's fourteen-year-old narrator and protagonist, and the youngest of the greasers. Ponyboy's literary interests and academic accomplishments set him apart from the rest of his gang. Because his parents have died in a car accident, Ponyboy lives with his brothers Darry and Sodapop. Darry repeatedly accuses Ponyboy of lacking common sense, but Ponyboy is a reliable and observant narrator. Throughout the novel, Ponyboy struggles with class division, violence, innocence, and familial love. He matures over the course of the novel, eventually realizing the importance of strength in the face of class bias.
Ponyboy, Johnny, Sodapop, Darry are all a part of the unruly gang, the Greasers. S.E Hinton is writing these characters as rebellious young men, with a harsh background, who takes their anger and hardship out on gang fighting. These roles play an important part in this book because it shows that even though they nothing physically, they have a heart stronger than gold for each other and others mentally. Hinton use these characters to show prejudice leads to wrong conclusions, violence and oppression because these “poor” young men are getting beat up by the rich Socs who have never felt the feeling of being in poverty. “ You take up for your buddies, no matter what they do. When you’re in a gang, you stick up for the members. If you don’t stick up for them, stick together, make
The Outsiders is a book that changed the style of young adult writers because it went off from the genre that young adult writer were using during that time period. The reader sees the everyday problems that teenagers were going through, “I can’t take much more
The main character, Ponyboy feels like his life as a Greasers puts him outside of what he considers the norm, which include parents, structure and living within the law. Another theme of the book appears in the “black and white world” (Fleming) these characters live in. Constantly at war with each other, the two gangs “rumble” to solve their issues, no comprise or grey area. They always live in this world of violence and death, with smoking and drinking, their escape from their pain.
The Greasers are a lower class group of teens and young adults from the East side who call themselves Greasers due to their greasy hair. The Socials or the Socs are a group of upper class teens and young adults from the Westside. The story constantly talks about the rivalry and hatred of the two popular gangs in the community. The story begins with introducing the characters by physical features or as they appear in the point of view of the main character which is Ponyboy. Ponyboy, Soda, and Darry’s mom and dad died in a horrible wreck.
Have you ever read a very hard hitting and the phenomenal story about rival gangs and the effect it has on the lives of the people and the society. In The Outsiders, is a story of 14-year-old Ponyboy Curtis and his two older brothers, Soda and Darry. The boys are orphans and struggle to stick together in their lower-class neighborhood, known as the East Side. They and their friends are part of a gang of tough street boys called the Greasers. Even though other people might think you're unimportant and below them. You will always have your friends and family. In The Outsiders, we see the idea of the difference in the society based on the economic level of the characters, honor among the lawless and violence among the youth.
The Outsiders The Outsiders is a fictional story explaining the way life was in the 60s. Published in 1967, the story tells about Ponyboy Curtis and how life was being a Greaser. Fourteen-year-old Ponyboy’s parents had recently passed away and now his older brothers, Darry and Sodapop, are his guardians. Him and his oldest brother, Darry, have never understood each other and after his parents death, Darry changes for the worse.
“The Outsiders”, by S.E. Hinton, is centered around Ponyboy’s path to maturity and the life lessons he learns along the way. The novel follows Ponyboy, a greaser, and his gang’s conflict with the Socials, a rival gang. In it, he learns to not judge people hastily and reject gang mentality. Ponyboy also loses his innocence. The following paragraphs will explore his growth throughout “The Outsiders”.