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Obstacles In Hinton's The Outsiders

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In The Outsiders, the central conflict of the story and the majority of the obstacles revolve around the distinction between the two social classes in the story. The separation between the Socialists and the Greasers creates many obstacles for Ponyboy, the main character, and throughout the story he has to deal with the challenges that are created. Ponyboy is a shining example of a person who is shoved into an incredibly unfavorable position by force, and he controls few, if any, of the issues that come his way. He did not control the death of his parents, or the fact that the Socs and Greasers do not get along and have violent clashes. However, although Ponyboy did not not have control of these types of problems, he still managed to overcome …show more content…

He is unable to control the fighting between the Socs and Greasers, but he still manages to overcome this major obstacle and conflict through his own means. Ponyboy tries to make sense of the situation by befriending a Soc named Sherry (nicknamed Cherry) Valance, whom he meets by chance in a movie theater. Ironically, Ponyboy’s actions in the movie theater are a perfect example of how Ponyboy yearns to have peace rather than war with others, and to make friends rather than enemies. Ponyboy enters the theater accompanied by Johnny and Dally, the latter of whom immediately realizes that the two girls in front of them are Socs. Because Dally believes all Socs to be enemies and jerks, he begins rapidly trash talking loudly behind them. After some brief back-and-forth between Dally and the girls, Dally leaves. Cherry then turns her focus to Ponyboy, asking if he’s going to begin bothering them, to which he promptly shakes his head in response. These two become friends after a chat, and Cherry even becomes a sort of spy for Ponyboy and his comrades. However, Cherry begins stirring up Ponyboy’s thoughts when she states that “all Socs aren’t like that” (Hinton 34), as Ponyboy begins to wonder whether or not he had been following a false assumption this entire time. Ponyboy wishes for peace, but he was taught that Socs were the enemy and that they must be driven away. This causes an uncontrollable conflict, as Ponyboy begins to debate over two contradicting ideas in his mind. Furthermore, this is heightened later in the book when Ponyboy gets an opportunity to speak with Randy, another Soc and the friend of Bob, the Soc that Johnny murdered. Randy comes to visit Ponyboy after the murder and after Ponyboy returned from Windrixville, where he and Johnny

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