"The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton

"The Outsiders" is one of my favorite novels I had enjoyed reading with my 7th grade students when I taught language arts in a middle school.

 

The Outsiders is a novel written by S.E.Hinton in 1967.  This book is a coming-of-age fictional story written by the author when she was a teenager.  The main character, Ponyboy Curtis, narrates the story who lives with his two older brothers after his parents die in a car accident.  

 

The Greasers and Socs are two different types of teenage gangs living in a town.  Ponyboy is a Greaser who lives in a poor section of this particular town.  The Socs are made up of rich teenagers whose lives seem so much easier to Ponyboy than the Greasers. The story tells some intense interactions between these two gangs and how they deal with their lives.

 

This novel is consisted of 12 chapters and is told from the first person point of view.  The setting of the story is taken place in a small town in Okahama, 1960's.  The novel presents several themes including the sense of belonging, loyality, empathy, self-identity. and love.  

 

 

Characters

Greasers

Ponyboy Curtis - the main character, the narrator, a Greaser who lives with his two older brothers, Darry and Sodapop

 

Johnny Cade - Pony's best friend who has a lousy home life.  He feels that the Greasers are his family.  Jonny is usually timid, seems weak, and is easily picked on by Socs.  

 

Dally (Dallas) Winston - a Greaser who is known as a bad trouble maker.  He has spent time in jail as a young boy already and he acts tough but also has a caring side of him.

 

Two-Bit Matthews - a Greaser who is goofy and cracking jokes often times. He is the oldest member of the Greasers, at a age of 18 1/2 but only is a junior in high school.  Two-Bit loves to fight, steal, and carry his switch blade.

 

Darry (Darrel) Curtis - Darry is Ponyboy's oldest brother who is responsible for taking care of his younger brothers.  Darry never went to college as he planned when his parents suddenly died from a car accident.  He cares for his brothers but he is very firm, strict, and comes down hard on Ponyboy when he makes mistakes.

 

Soda Pop Curtis - Soda is Ponyboy's older brother who is handsome and gets along with almost everyone.  He is a high school drop out who works in a gas station and loves talking about cars.  Soda is warm, kind-hearted person and always tries to a 'peace maker' when things do not go right between his brothers, Ponyboy and Darry.

 

Socs (Socials)

Cherry (Sherryl) Valance - one of the Socs girls who goes to the same school as Ponyboy. Cherry is a hight school cheerleader who comes from a rich family.  She is sweet, honest, and stands up and speaks for herself.  It's cruical to know that Cherry also is Bob's girl friend.  Bob is another key character in this novel.

 

Bob Sheldon - the leader of the Soc's who is rich, drives a nice car (blue Mustang, an important detail for the story later on), and has a girlfriend (Cherry) but he is not really happy with his life.  Bob is violent and is often drunk and initially he was the person who beat up Johnny. Johnny is deadly scared of Bob and eventually kills Bob to defend his friend.

 

Randy Anderson - one of the Socs who is Bob's best friend.

 

Marcia - one of the Socs' girls who is Cherry's  friend.

 

Chapters

Chapter 1

Ponyboy is introduced in this chapter.  He comes out of the movie theater and walks home alone late at night even though he recognizes that it can be dangerous.  Here we find that the greasers, the boys from the East Side, are very proud of their long, greasy hair. At the same time, it is stated that the Socs from the West Side of the town are rich who are from the upper class families.

 

Things to know - Paul Newman is mentioned in this chapter.  He was an accomplished American actor who made many movies and is still well known by many people in the U.S.A. and around the world.

 

Chapter 2

This chapter is when we first see the interaction among some of the Greasers and the Socs.  Ponyboy, Johnny, and Dally go to the driven-in for a movie and meet two of the Socs girls, Cherry and Marcia.  As usual, Dally acts really rude toward the girls especially toward Cherry.  Pony and Johnny begin to build trust and friendship with Socs girls.

 

Chapter 3

This 

 

 

 

To be continued.....................