Labeling In Our Society

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

When people hear Greaser they think of them as not being very smart. This stereotype may have come from how most Greasers have dropped out of school, but Ponyboy is still in school and doing well. Ponyboy has also proved time and time again the he is smart, for example, “I'm not like them. Nobody in our gang digs movies and books the way I do (Hinton 2)”, that quote from Ponyboy represents that he cares about literature. Greasers also do not have a lot of money, so they cannot get into colleges unlike the Socs. However, Ponyboy’s goal is to make it into college, he is a good writer, as shown in the book, and even if his grades do not get him into college, he could get a track scholarship. It could also be said that Greasers are not well read, because in that quote it says that the other Greasers do not like books. Ponyboy on the other hand, he loves to read, and another character, Johnny, has an insightful take on Gone With The Wind. It is very clear that generalizing

She realizes that Ponyboy is not like other Greasers such as Dally. This develops their friendship over the course of the novel because they have so much in common. Immediately after she encounters Dally, she says to Ponyboy “What’s a nice, smart kid like you running around with trash like that for?” (Hinton 23). Ponyboy is the exact opposite of how Greasers are supposed to appear.

but he is the farthest thing from that stereotype. Ponyboy is intelligent, feels deeply and is not a violent person and that does not fit the Greaser stereotype. Stereotyping is when you take a person and you compare them to a type of person. This is wrong because not all people are the same. People are unique.

See now there is this kid named Ponyboy and he is different than the rest of The Greasers. The Greasers are a gang of people who like to do bad things and people look at them that way as bad people. Ponyboy is different from the rest of the Greaser gang because he is smarter than them, he doesn't break the law, and he is softer.

(SIP-A) Ponyboy thinks that since his personality is different from the Greasers, he is a total outcast, when really, he is relatively similar to them, and they are very close, despite him being so smart. (STEWE-1) This is shown when Ponyboy says that watching movies makes him different from his family and friends. He says he is “different that way.”(p.2) This is said right in the beginning of the book, when Ponyboy is describing himself. It is obvious that Ponyboy feels separated from the Greasers because of his personality right from the beginning. (STEWE-2) He even says that “nobody digs books and movies the way I do.”(p.2) Ponyboy’s favorite Greaser is Sodapop, maybe because “Soda tries to understand”(p.2), and because he is the only one who makes Ponyboy feel like a part of a group. Ponyboy “love[s] Soda more than [he’s] loved anyone, even [his] Mom or Dad.”(p.2) Soda is the one making Ponyboy feel like part of a group, and Ponyboy loves him the most. Clearly, Ponyboy is needy of companionship and love, and the other Greasers make him feel like an outsider, even though they don't intend that. (SIP-B) Unlike the Greasers, Ponyboy likes books and movies and is smart, which also makes him feel like an outsider. (STEWE-1) Ponyboy’s love of books is shown when he compares them to his real life. He said he “read Great Expectations for English, and Pip reminded [him] of [the Greasers].”(p.15) Ponyboy is looking for similarities to his life within books, which shows their connection for Ponyboy. Ponyboy also compares Pip, an orphan who also has to deal with difficult life situations, to himself. It shows how he feels about his life. Ponyboy feels his life is different from others, otherwise he wouldn't be so ready to

Ponyboy tries to fit into social labels, because he feels like that is expected of him. He stores away his ‘dream world’ from the other Greasers, so

Ultimately, what Hinton is trying to convey through her novel is stereotypes aren’t always what they seem. These choices made by Johnny throughout the book make Ponyboy mature as a person and also to be proud that he's a greaser and that the stereotypes about them aren’t true unless you let them be true.Ponyboy believed that he was a greaser, and only a greaser. Because of that, he was only treated like one. In the end though, he realizes that everybody is unique and that you can’t judge someone based on first

Ponyboy Curtis: He is the main character of the book, the teller of the story and the youngest one in the Greaser gang. 14 year-old Ponyboy lives with his older brothers, because their parents had died in a car accident. Ponyboy likes books and movies, he has good grades. These characteristics separate him from the rest of the Greasers. He tries to be tough like them but he's much more emotional. Ponyboy sticks-up to his gang, he's a loyal member.

According to societal labeling I would be considered a heterosexual female. Society loves to label people based on their sexual orientation, labels such as heterosexual, gay lesbian, bisexual, transgendered are used to identify people. However I do not support the idea of people being labeled as one thing and in a sense their label becomes their whole identity. I personally believe that a person’s identity is based on more than their sexual orientation. Societal ladling does not work because when someone is born society seems to believe they are heterosexual until the individual states otherwise. Every individual is unique in their own way so I can only imagine that the experience of “coming out” is different for everyone. Some experience can

5.Being labeled for your actions carry a certain stigma or stereotype against you character? Even amongst individuals who know you personally? (Family, Friends)

A person usually gets a label due to the social distance between the labeler and the labeled. There are two main affect of labeling: creation of a stigma and the effect on self image. The creation of a stigma can cause a

According to Bernburg et al. (2006), labeling theory is targeted towards one’s identity within the society, aiming at the labels that society placed on them because they might not fit the norm of society. Labeling is an act in which an individual is given a title they did not chose for themselves. Labeling has positive and negative consequences, but the labeling theory has negative connotation and it normally involves deviance. Once the title is given to the person, it affects their actions, beliefs, and attitudes. From the point on, the person becomes that “thing” he or she is described as and the person learns to live with that label. Once the person is labeled as deviant, they start to participate in deviant behavior. It is worthy to note

Labeling theory had its origins in Suicide, a book by French sociologist Émile Durkheim. He found that crime is not so much a violation of a penal code as it is an act that outrages society. He was the first to suggest that deviant labeling satisfies that function and satisfies society 's need to control the behavior.

Life in general is full of labels. When I say “labels” most people will think of the labels for food, or toys. I am not talking about those kind of labels. I am talking about the labels we put on people. In other words they could be called stereotypes.