Character Analysis In S. E. Hinton's 'The Outsiders'

In the novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Ponyboy Curtis, the narrator of the story, meets a girl named Cherry Valance. Through Ponyboy’s observations of her the reader learns that Cherry is a confident young woman. During chapter two, the way in which Cherry reacts to Dally showcases her personality. “She gives him an incredulous look; and then she threw her Coke in his face” (24). This bold move made by Cherry shows that she will not stand for harassment or mistreatment of her from anybody. She will talk back and protect herself and her friend. This line, said by Cherry, displays how she thinks of herself. “’It’s not my idea of a good time to sit in a drive-in and watch people get drunk’” (27). Cherry holds herself at a high standard, and

In the novel The Outsiders by S.E. HINTON the main character Ponyboy’s identity changes multiple times over the text. In the beginning of the story Ponyboy was introduced as a greaser, a greaser is someone who is usually poorer than the middle class and like to screw around and start gang fights and they are considered hoods as stated on pages 2-3, “We’re poorer than the Socs and the middle class. I reckon we’re wilder, too. Not like the Socs, who jump greasers and wreck houses and throw beer blasts for kicks, and get editorials in the paper for being a public disgrace almost like hoods.” this shows that even though the Socs are much more wild the greasers are still considered the bad crazy hood people. Ponyboy didn’t like being a greaser

Cherry is a traitor to her own kind but untrustworthy of a spy. Cherry must show that she really is trustworthy and kind. In the book The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Cherry tries to turn herself around after she started a turf war. Cherry is an person who is overly concerned with her reputation, untrustworthy and very pacifistic.

An outsider is defined as “a person who does not belong to a particular group.” In the book, The Outsiders, many of the characters can be described as being an outcast from the social society. Ponyboy, Johnny, and Cherry are outsiders in this novel because none of them really fit into the groups that they’re “supposed” to be in.

Stereotyping plays a large role in the events of S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders. The two main opposing groups, the Socs and Greasers, constantly face problems because of the stereotypes associated with their social groups. As seen in the novel, stereotypes and prejudice cause extreme and unnecessary conflicts. Both groups have predetermined opinions of the other, but as the story progresses, many of the characters begin to realize how similar the groups can be. The stereotypes observed in the novel can easily be compared to those in real life. Both the Greasers and the Socs share many of their opinions with the other members of their groups, and this leads to many misunderstandings. In fact, most of the conflicts in the novel are caused

In the beginning of “The Outsiders”, Ponyboy only likes a few people but in the end, he realizes that he judged people unfairly. In the beginning, he only appreciated Johnny (the second youngest gang member), Soda (the middle child in his family) and Two-Bit (a wisecracking member of the gang). He dislikes Dallas (the most criminal of the gang) and Steve and thinks that his oldest brother, Darry, dislikes him. He also believes that all Socs are bad. His judgments are first brought into question when he meets Cherry Valence, a female Soc. Ponyboy, referring to her and her friend wrote, “It seemed funny to me that Socs -if these girls were any example - were just like us.” (37) Pony’s views on the Socs evolve again when he talks to Randy. After talking to Randy, Pony thinks, “Socs are just guys after all. Things are rough all over, but it was better that way. That way you could tell the other guy was human too." (118) By the end of the novel, Pony does not think all Socs are good because there are Socs like Bob, who jumped Johnny and Pony, but he realizes that people should be

Hinton cleverly uses the relationship between Cherry Valence, a Soc and Ponyboy, to break down the stereotypes that had previously been established.

In the beginning of the novel, Ponyboy develops feeling for Cherry who he met at a movie. But due to the fact that Ponyboy is a Greaser and Cherry is a Soc, society states that “you don’t see a grease and a Socy cheerleader together that often.” (Hinton 30) Ponyboy being greaser is set apart from the rest of society because of his cloths, hair and financial status.”Our hair labeled us greasers, too- it was our trademark. The one thing we were proud of.”(Hinton 71) This barrier was created because society labels people based on their appearance. Though they both have feelings for eachother, society thinks that they can’t be together because of their different social party. This obstacle was not resolved, though Ponyboy and Cherry may see more in each other then Socs and greasers, society as a whole still separates them. Ponyboy and Cherry learn from each other that everyone has problems, “Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren’t so different. We saw the same sunset.” (Hinton

It was only two gangs, three deaths, and many injuries, but the bloody, death defying, life changing brawl is what ended all of the chaos.In book The Outsiders by S.E Hinton Ponyboy learns a lot about being caring. In this novel two groups called the Socs and the Greasers fight each other continuously. This leads them to unexpected fights and deaths, causing things to not go as planned.Ponyboy is caring because he is thoughtful, trustworthy, and brave.

Have you ever seen a gang? If so, did you judge them on how they looked or how they acted? Did you think they were dangerous? Most importantly, were you scared of them? In The Outsiders Pony boy is the main character. He grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the mid-1960. In this novel, the author S.E. Hinton tells how Ponyboy Curtis grows up. Dally was a flat character because we only see one side of him. He is also dynamic as he changes from being tough in the beginning and caring in the end. Well, Dallas (Dally) Winston was tough, heroic, and caring.

In the beginning of the book Cherry and Ponyboy are saying their goodbyes after a movie and Cherry informes Ponyboy that she will not acknowledge him the following day in school. This illustrates that Cherry is loyal to the socs and her group of friends. Also that Cherry really cares about her appearance on herself and how people look at her. Cherry also demonstrates acts of being disloyal. Towards the end of the book she becomes a spy for the Greasers and is extremely disloyal to the soc. This exemplifies Cherry's difficulty of being loyal because she chooses to go against her social class when she sees all the harm they have made. Ultimately, the decisions she made led her to lose some friends but along the way makes some new

A main example in the story is when Ponyboy said that he would have been more comfortable talking to the girls had they not been Socs and held a higher class than him, if they were Greaser girls then perhaps he would have formed a relationship with them but since they weren't he was held back. (Hinton 21). Ponyboy was apprehensive to form a relationship with anyone who was in a different class than him. As an example Ponyboy exclaimed, "Do you think that your spying for us makes up for the fact that you're sitting there in a Corvette while my brother drops out of high school to get a job? Don't you ever try to give us handouts and then feel high and mighty about it." (Hinton 98) He is envious because those who have more money than him get nearly anything they want while his clique had to work much harder to achieve anything. Similarly, it is stated that “‘It ain't fair!’ I cried passionately. ‘It ain't fair that we have all the rough breaks!’” (Hinton 43) Again, he is placing the blame for him not having as much in life on those who were given

Cherry Valance arguably has one of the most important roles in the in story The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton despite the lack of appearances in many of the scenes. S. E. Hinton created a strong independent female character who can stand up for herself and has an open mind as to the conflict between Greasers and Socs. Cherry Valance’s presence in the book changed the views of characters, prevented fights, and opened the readers’ eyes to different possibilities.

Have you ever had two friends that are enemies? In the story, The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, Cherry Valance (her real name is Sherri) is a fashionable, fiery, red headed, emotional, understanding, and trustworthy friend. The story took place in the mid 1960’s in Tulsa, OK. Greasers and Socs are two very different, yet same groups, which most definitely do not get along. After Ponyboy and Johnny got jumped, Johnny killed Bob, a Soc who was also Cherry’s boyfriend. During Ponyboy and Johnny’s hiding out in an abandoned church, the church starts on fire, while the children are playing in there. Johnny and Ponyboy somehow made their way back in to save the kids. Johnny and Ponyboy both made it out alive. Unfortunately, however, Johnny gets out with severe burns and a broken back. While he is in the hospital, Cherry has a conflict with herself: she is asked by Ponyboy to go see Johnny in the hospital, but she says no because she doesn’t want to face the person who killed Bob. In the time of the trial, Cherry and other Soc’s testify and come clean about the night of the stabbing. Consequently, since they told the truth, Johnny, Sodapop, and Darry all got to stay together. Cherry Valance is an emotional, caring, and trustworthy friend.

“Maybe the two different worlds we live weren’t so different. We saw the same sunset” (Hinton, 41). When Cherry says this, she means that people have many variations but everyone has similarities too. Cherry is one of the main characters in the novel, The Outsiders written by S. E. Hinton, who starts out as brave and mischievous; however, due to her boyfriend, Bob being killed because of the rivaling social classes, the socs and the greasers in Tulsa, Oklahoma, she learns to not judge people without getting to know them. Cherry soon becomes more calm.