In the novel, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton the reader is introduced to two teenage groups; The Greasers and The Soc’s. Both groups fight each other for respect and control over their territory. The social group that has it worst off in this novel are The Greasers they are poor, they have to worry about always getting jumped, and they are looked down upon. The first reason why The Greasers have it worst off is because they are poor. “Darry didn't go to college because he didn't have the money and Sodapop dropped out of school because he didn't really like it and because he and Darry had to get a job to take care of Ponyboy because their parents died.”(The Outsiders, the movie) I believe that it is a good thing that Darry and Soda thought it was important for Ponyboy to stay in school even though they didn’t. The Soc’s have a lot of money and everything they want, but to them money doesn’t mean anything because they have so much and all they wanted was emotion like The Greasers, and all their parents ever gave them was money hoping to make them happy and keep them out of trouble. …show more content…
“I could have waited to go to the movies until Darry or Soda got off work.” (Hinton, p.3) It would have been better if he would have waited to go to the movies till one of them go off work because he either would have not been jumped or if he was jumped he would have had people to help him so he wouldn’t be out numbered. The Soc’s have to worry about being jumped too, but they have an advantage because if they get in trouble they can pay to get out, but one of their friends Bob did get killed while jumping some Greasers so everyone has to worry if something goes wrong
The actions the socs make aren’t very friendly. When they come by greasers they also threaten them and get in the way of whatever they are doing. If it’s at night and no one is around the socs find greasers and talk to them. Socs also like to brag about being rich because the greasers are very
As Ponyboy states when he starts to understand this, “No, it wasn’t Cherry the Soc who was helping us, it was Cherry the dreamer who watched sunsets and couldn’t stand fights.” (Hinton 86). Ponyboy was previously under the impression that all Socs didn’t care about anything, and was surprised when he met Cherry, a Soc who watched the same sunset as he did. The stereotype of Socs being heartless and cruel was all he had seen and heard, so it was hard for him to understand how one could be so different. Ponyboy’s friends felt similarly, and most of them found it even harder to grasp this concept than Ponyboy had. The Greasers were used to judging the Socs as a group, and did not see them as individuals. These group stereotypes are what ultimately caused most of the biggest fights in the novel.
In the beginning of the novel, the Soc’s think they are better than the Greaser’s because of their social class. In chapter 3 of the text, Ponyboy states, “Soc’s had so much spare time and money they jumped us and each other for kicks, had beer blasts and river-bottom parties because they did not know what else to do”
An example from the book is how in the beginning of the book the Socs had jumped Ponyboy. Ponyboy didn’t even do anything to infuriate the Socs or have a fight, the Socs just did it just because. The Socs and Greasers are rival gangs and the Socs just wanted to pick up a fight because that is what the Socs do. The Greasers later come in to help Ponyboy and scare the Socs off. This means that the Socs think that violence is fun when really it isn’t. The Socs are sort of picking on the Greasers just because they know they are better which bring me to my next point about the Socs which is
The Socs mostly came from houses with two parents, drive fine cars, wear fashionable clothing, and even given the freedom they wanted. Instead of focusing on all the goods that the Socs had, they decided to focus on their hatred towards the Greasers. They wanted to jump the Greasers and do whatever it took to cause conflict. “You Greasers have a different set of values. You're more emotional. We're sophisticated--- cool to the point of not feeling anything. Nothing is real with us” (Hinton 33). The Greasers feel emotions, but the Socs are too cool to feel anything. Instead of the Socs taking advantage of everything they had, the Socs got editorials in the newspaper for being a public disgrace one day and a benefit to society the next day. Randy and Cherry seem to be the only ones to realize the error of the Socs ways. Cherry feels sympathy for the Greasers even after her boyfriend, Bob, was killed.
The difference in social class definitely took its toll on the two of these gangs. The Soc’s and Greaser’s opinion would change from with experiences, but for the most part it was a clash for who owned the town. The Socs were the “good guys” and the Greasers were the “troublemakers” of town, although this was definitely not the case but because of the unchanging prejudice opinions were placed on both of the groups it would not change. For example, Ponyboy explained that maybe the Greasers and Socs aren’t so different after all. On page 40, Ponyboy starts to wonder how different he is from any of the Socs, “It seemed funny to me that the sunset she saw from her patio and the one I saw from the back steps was the
In a story, there is usually a bad side of people, also known as villains and there are good people which are known as heroes. Sometimes you aren’t really sure who is bad and who is good. In this book there really shouldn’t be an argument, but there is. In the book the villains are the Socs and the hero's are the Greasers. There can be many reasons to prove that the Socs are more of a menace to society than the Greasers and here are some. The first reason of why the Socs are a more of a disgrace than the Greasers is because they are more violent than the Greasers. A second reason why the Socs are more of a disgrace the Greasers is because they think they are better than everybody else in the world, they are very arrogant, which is not a good thing. The final reason of why the Greasers are less of a disgrace than the Socs is because they don’t care about anybody but themselves, they don't care about their actions or whatever they are doing to the community. With all of these facts provided this basically just makes the Socs more of a menace to society than the Greasers, no
Who has more problems: the affluent kids or the less civilized kids? Many people make the assumption that the upper class is sure to have less issues than the destitutions, because they are rich. In the book, The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton shows that both the upper and lower class experience different dilemmas. Hinton also emphasizes how the Greasers and Socs may have came from different backgrounds aren’t really differentiable. In the Outsiders, S.E. Hinton’s characterizations of individual Greasers and Socs reveal that both rich and poor kids face problems and feel trapped by their social statuses.
The difference between the Greasers and Socs in the society is the Greasers treated unequally and criticized for being poor. The Socs are bullying, criticizing, and intimidating the Greasers based on the economic level. Greasers have unequal lifestyles, attitudes, and financial situations, but still live in the same world, beneath the same sun as the Socs (Hinton 18), but repeat the same actions toward the Socs in a way of fighting back and sticking together.
“‘Need a haircut greaser’ The tall medium-sized blond pulled a knife out of his back pocket and flipped the blade open.”(pg.5). The Greasers had to always deal with the Socs trying to jump them. The Socs tries to even threatened them by using deadly weapons. “They had caught him and one of them had a lot of rings on his hand...It wasn't just that they had beaten him half to death… they had scared him. They had threatened him with everything”(pg.33). They tried to kill the Greaser even he wasn't doing anything bad. The Greaser was going to die because of the Socs, he was beaten almost to death. The Socs always give the Greasers problem and they already have many
In the book The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, embarks on a story of a young boy Greaser, his gang, the rivalry with the Socs, and how it all ended. The main theme of The Outsider was social class. Socs have wealth that helps them through life,and their parents have enough money to do anything for them. Greasers do not have an education, and that is true because they do not have enough money and the privilege to get the guidance they need. On the other hand, Socs do not have to worry about not having a bad education because they can afford one. Although greasers have the opportunity to stop and smell the roses, but Socs do not have the cherishable life they wish for. Hinton notifies, through the text, the main reason for the gang’s separation is because of their social class and expectations.
Classism was a big part of the 60s and with Ponyboy and the gang, it comes into play in more than one way. The Outsiders, based in the 1960s Oklahoma, is about two gangs, the Greasers and the Socials. The Greasers were lower class, lower income people who were relatively rough around the edges while the Socials were the ‘West side rich kids’ who went around getting drunk and jumping Greasers. The book is about the conflicts that these two groups have, either with each other or inside of their own group. In S.E. Hinton’s novel, The Outsiders, many of the conflicts and hardships in the community are caused by the Socials (Socs).
The image of a Soc you see them as the rich kids. While it is additionally stated that there is a middle class made up of regular people. However the story never mentions the Socs jumping ordinary people. This brings us to believe that the greasers are jumped because they are different from the Socs, due to the fact that they only attack people lower than the middle class. This is unfair for some greasers because not all greasers are bad people.
The changes of the Socs and the Greasers throughout the novel “The Outsiders”. Throughout the novel there are many changes and misunderstanding of personalities that involves the Greasers , Socs , Johnny and Ponyboy. In the first chapter Ponyboy describes the Socs as not very friendly people and would pick fights with them as the Greasers who happens to be much poorer than the Socs. Similar things are happening with young adults in this generation.
In the book “The outsiders” by S.E. Hinton it talks about the separation of two different social classes. The greasers which are the poor ordinary kids who don't have organization in their lives, and the socs which are high class rich kids who bully poor and defenseless adolescents like greasers. Both of these classes form cliques or otherwise know as gangs who have eachothers back no matter what.