Differences In S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders

Sherry Valance, a 16 year-old Soc, who goes by the name Cherry, influenced Ponyboy not just a little, but caused him to ponder about the meaning behind all the rivalry between the Socs and the Greasers. Hate between the Socs, the rich kids of the west side, and the Greasers, the poor kids from the east side, has always existed. Beforehand, Ponyboy greatly disliked the Socs, for they continually jumped and attacked Greasers. He always regarded them as an enemy. However, that one night when Ponyboy Curtis clashed with Sherry Valance, she demonstrated that not all Socs were malevolent and self-centered. While conversing with Cherry, Ponyboy felt her empathy and understanding and softened towards her. She talked about her boyfriend, Bob, and how he

Quotes “I really couldn't see what Socs would have to sweat about—good grades, good cars, good girls, madras and Mustangs and Corvairs—Man, I thought, if I had worries like that I'd consider myself lucky. I know better now.” Ponyboy was quite naïve in the beginning of the book. He thought the Socs had it all. However, he knew better than to jump to conclusions.

In the book, The Outsiders, Ponyboy Curtis is part of the Greaser’s, a gang of boys who are in the lower class in 1965. Their arch rival, the Socs, are the more privileged, upper class boys from across town. Throughout the book, the two gang have many conflicts. Darry, Ponyboy’s oldest brother acts as a parent figure for him since both of his parents were killed in a car crash. Other member of the Greasers are Dally, Two-Bit, Steve, Sodapop, and Johnny. After getting in a fight with his brother, Ponyboy flees to the park where he runs into a group of Socs. The Socs attack Ponyboy and hold his head under the water in the fountain, trying to kill him. Ponyboy blacks out, and later wakes up to see on the Soc boys dead body next to him. Johnny then tells Ponyboy that he killed the boys because they were trying to kill Ponyboy. The boys are afraid, and desperately try to find Dally Winston, who gives them a gun and sends them to the abandoned church to hide. The two boys stay at the church for a while until they decide to go back into town. As they are leaving

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is a novel about two neighborhoods separated because of classes in society. In these two neighborhoods, teenagers are separated into two different gangs, the lower-class Greasers and the upper-class Socs. Ponyboy, a greaser comes from a hard life. His parents died and he is left being raised by his older brother Darry. After both his brothers failed at accomplishing their dreams in life, Pony is left feeling like he will only be a greaser. Throughout the novel, Ponyboy realizes he has many traits making him have an outstanding future, such as his intelligence instincts and heroic skills.

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 S.E Hinton’s novel The Outsiders, the main character Ponyboy and the rest of the greasers not only face conflicts with their rival gang: the Socs, but also against each other and even as society as a whole. These obstacles were created due the fact that people don't realize that everyone has problems, this is a theme that Ponyboy learns throughout this story. Just like in real life, some conflicts will never be resolved as they are beyond their control. Over the course of the novel some conflicts will be settled, while some will stay the same or even become worse.

It is good to see that Ponyboy can look past people’s differences and begin to like the Socs for who they are.

Through his friendship with Cherry and the conversations he has with other Socs, he comes to realize that in many ways they are very similar, although they are from different backgrounds, and that the Socs might also experience the feeling of being outsiders as well.

To discuss Ponyboy´s evolving of the SOCS he clearly has a more understanding for the SOCS like when Randy came to his house where in the beginning of the book they probably would have killed him or beat him up. Plus now he understands that SOCS have feelings to like when Cherry said that she sees sunsets to and thatś what the SOCS and Greasers have in common. In the beginning the Greasers thought that the SOCS were just rich people who have no feelings and just are cold as antarctica now they understand that they have feelings and are just normal people with dads and moms who are rich.

When Dally took the gang to the movie they saw 2 girls named Marcia and Cherry who were Socs. Dally had asked Cherry and Marcia if they wanted cokes. Marcia took the coke although Cherry didn't. After that Cherry asked if Ponyboy wanted to go get some popcorn and after that they started talking and chatting. Then Cherry was able to convince Ponyboy that not all Socs were like that. On page 34, “all Socs aren't like that,”she

Pony accepts the Socs in a way no other greaser does, he doesn't love them but he also doesn't hate them, “They shouldn't hate each other . . . I don't hate the Socs any more . . . they shouldn't hate . . .” (143) He is different like that, he agrees with the socs. "

In the novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, the author creates a rant that reveals Ponyboy’s feelings about the life struggles of his fellow gang members as compared to the carefree lives of the Socs, their rivals. It reveals Ponyboy’s anger and allows the author to show that Ponyboy deeply cares for his fellow gang members and strongly despises the Socs. When Ponyboy and Johnny are at the movies, they meet Cherry and Marcia, and even though the girls are Socs, they engage in friendly and honest discussions about the lives of the two rival gangs. When Cherry asks Ponyboy what Darry, his brother, is like, he becomes angry and eventually redirects his indignation at the reality of their lives. He begins by repeatedly exclaiming, “It ain’t fair!” and follows it with a long mental list of specific problems that each fellow gang member has been experiencing (Hinton 38).

To start off, Dally kills himself because of the conflicts between the two groups and the death of Johnny. Firstly, Ponyboy and Johnny left to hide in the church from the Socs due to a violent incident between the groups. When the church catches on fire, Johnny saves numerous children who are trapped inside. Unfortunately, Johnny’s back is badly injured and later dies in the hospital. These events that lead to the death of Johnny can cause depression to the Gang, specially Dally, since he

At the age of 16, S. E. Hinton wrote The Outsiders, a fictional novel set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1965, that exemplifies the truth of living outside of social acceptance. The story is told in the perspective of fourteen year old Ponyboy Curtis. Ponyboy is a greaser, along with his two older brothers and fellow gang members. Greaser, is a nickname for people classified in the lower class. Members of the upper communal populace, are labeled Socs, short for socials.

Ponyboy’s perspective, when it comes to the Socs, is like looking through eyes of hatred. Ponyboy, like most Greasers, hate Socs. He knows them as someone who has a “perfect life” and looks down on people such as himself. He’s learned to grow afraid of Socs, because they jump people like Greasers. Ponyboy has learned to feel this way because, A) He has seen how Socs treat Greasers and he has seen terribly they treat people of a lower social class, and B) He has witnessed what Socs are capable of when he found Jonny after he was jumped. And then again, when he was jumped and had a blade pulled on him. I think that Cherry can change Ponyboy’s ideas about how he views Socs because she has proved to him not just that not all of the are bad, like