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Examples Of Outsiders In The Outsiders

Decent Essays

What does it take to not be an outsider and to fit in with everybody else? Ponyboy Curtis in S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders tries to explain that he and his friends, the Greasers, are more than just thugs. They have low external expectations which also leads to low internal expectations. His friends have all grown up in poor conditions. His best friend, Johnny, is constantly beat at home and is only himself when he is with the gang. The Greasers are rivals with the Socs, a rich gang made of rich kids. Ponyboy thought that the Socs had it made, but after he meets Cherry he finds out that they also have external and internal expectations that make their lives not so made. Ponyboy and Cherry are outsiders because they see the world differently than the groups that they are in and have a window to escape stereotype threat and into society where they will be known as an individual, while Dally and Bob have decided that they are what their group is and they won’t have that window.

Ponyboy Curtis faces stereotype threat because of the actions of the group that he is in. “They'll know we're hoods the minute they see us, I thought”(Hinton 58). This quote shows that the Greasers face stereotype threat because people are scared just at the sight of Johnny and Ponyboy. Stereotype threat has people thinking that Johnny and Ponyboy are dangerous just because of the way they look and the way they dress. “ It drives my brother Darry nuts when I do stuff like that, 'cause I'm supposed to be

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