Essay on S.E. Hinton’s Novel 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

The Greasers felt like outsiders around the Socs because the Socs were the upper class. Socs were always in advanced classes so when Ponyboy (a greaser) was in biology class filled with Socs , he felt like an outsider. When Ponyboy had to dissect a warm and the razor wouldn’t cut, he took out a switchblade. The girl beside him was a Socs and she sad “They are right, you are a hood” (Doc B). So, when Ponyboy was in an advanced class filled with Socs and when

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

The Socs mostly came from houses with two parents, drive fine cars, wear fashionable clothing, and even given the freedom they wanted. Instead of focusing on all the goods that the Socs had, they decided to focus on their hatred towards the Greasers. They wanted to jump the Greasers and do whatever it took to cause conflict. “You Greasers have a different set of values. You're more emotional. We're sophisticated--- cool to the point of not feeling anything. Nothing is real with us” (Hinton 33). The Greasers feel emotions, but the Socs are too cool to feel anything. Instead of the Socs taking advantage of everything they had, the Socs got editorials in the newspaper for being a public disgrace one day and a benefit to society the next day. Randy and Cherry seem to be the only ones to realize the error of the Socs ways. Cherry feels sympathy for the Greasers even after her boyfriend, Bob, was killed.

The difference in social class definitely took its toll on the two of these gangs. The Soc’s and Greaser’s opinion would change from with experiences, but for the most part it was a clash for who owned the town. The Socs were the “good guys” and the Greasers were the “troublemakers” of town, although this was definitely not the case but because of the unchanging prejudice opinions were placed on both of the groups it would not change. For example, Ponyboy explained that maybe the Greasers and Socs aren’t so different after all. On page 40, Ponyboy starts to wonder how different he is from any of the Socs, “It seemed funny to me that the sunset she saw from her patio and the one I saw from the back steps was the

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

In our community stereotypes play a part in life, but in The Outsiders it is the core theme of the story combining with teenage struggles. In The Outsiders the main character Ponyboy Curtis conforms to the image

The amount of money someone has, the neighborhood someone lives in, and the school someone goes to does not determine their opinions, ideas, or dreams. Pony lives in a somewhat run-down neighborhood, and he, Darry, and Sodapop don’t have much, but they and their friends still try to be happy, and enjoy life when they can. Unlike the Socs, the Greasers are a family. If one of them gets shot at, four more of them jump out to protect them. “ “It’s not just money. Part of it is, but not all. You Greasers have a different set of values. You’re more emotional. We’re sophisticated - cool to the point of not feeling anything. Nothing is real with us.” Cherry Valance is a Soc girl, but according to Pony, she isn’t exactly a Soc because she doesn’t chose to see sides like other Socs. She sees Socs as people who don’t feel. Life is good enough for them that things get repetitive and boring, which is probably part of why the Socs enjoy jumping Greasers. The Greasers, on the other hand, don’t have consistent lives. Only a few of them are in school, not all of them have jobs, and they’re always getting into just enough trouble to keep themselves alive, which is why they seem to have more emotions than the Socs. The two groups are so different, and, in retrospect, it’s all because of money. Money could solve almost all of the Greasers’ problems, like by earning them some respect, and it would mean they don’t have to work so hard to get by. When Cherry explains to Pony that Socs have troubles, just like the Greasers, he can’t imagine what kind of troubles they could possibly have, but he quickly learned. All Bob Sheldon wanted was for someone to tell him no, and when someone did it ended up costing him his life.

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.

Both Socs and greasers all have a bad reputation with stereotypes when are looked at. Ponyboy shouted, "Greasers cant walk alone too much or they'll get jumped, or someone will come by and scream "Greaser!" and that doesn’t make you too hot if you know what I mean." (Hinton Pg #) This paragraph shows us that people who have never met a greaser, are looking at them in a bad way. Before stereotypes have a chance to know them, they don’t realize how hard a greasers' life is. Randy stated, "They give us a little money and the world hates us." (Hinton pg #) This shows that Socs have it rough.

In the story The Outsiders, there is many life lessons that could help many people. Ranging from the people you hang out with, to people who need your help. You should always treat people how you want to be treated,even if that means giving something up. The main character, Ponyboy, experiences certain events in the story that makes you realize that these kind of conflicts are a reality. Ponyboy lives with his two brothers, Darry and Soda. Their parents died in a car crash. Ponyboy never realized how much his parents did for him. There is a “Gang” that Ponyboy is involved in called the Greasers. Their rival “Gang” is called the Socs. The Socs are kids that have a better upbringing and are more of rich kids. The Greasers are basically the opposite. The theme of this story is don’t take the things you have for granted.

Throughout the story, Cherry spies for the Greasers, even though they killed her Soc boyfriend, Bob. She talks more with Ponyboy about the dividing line between Socs and Greasers.

This book showed the struggle between rich and poor. The two main groups of the story were the Socs and the greasers. The Socs are in the upper class while the greasers are the poor ones that dislike the Socs because they have more money, better cars, and act like they are better than the greasers. The Outsiders is a good story by S.E. Hinton that shows the struggles of growing up Hinton did a fine job with the character development, the plot, and the theme with a few flaws.

In the 1960´s society made it seem bad if you were a soc and friends with a greaser. This makes Ponyboy feel rejected and betrayed because cherry made him believe that socs and greasers were the same which made him feel more confident in being a greaser.. ¨ If I see you in the hall at school or someplace and don´t say hi , well, it's not personal or anything but . . .¨ This makes POnyboy stand there with his mouth wide opened as big as an elephant because he feels betrayed and stunned as he thought Cherry looked to him as a friends.

fact he was mad. If he was mad, it was a pity, however if he had