Stereotypes In 'The Outsiders'

Ponyboy is gold. He is helpful and smart, but he’s a greaser and well that’s fine to some people...to others it’s just not acceptable. Even though Ponyboy and Johnny hit the road after Bob was killed he still deserved better. Ponyboy had potential and he is going places, I can tell. Ponyboy has had many losses in his life, Mom, Dad, Johnny, and Dally, but he is strong. That’s all he is going to need to be.

After running for a while they stopped in another parking lot with a fountain in the middle. While in the parking lot a blue mustang that belonged to the Socs that beat up Johnny a long time ago pulled up. They stepped out and started to insult Johnny and Ponyboy, Ponyboy snapped back and they grabbed him and shoved his head in the found as stated, “They grabbed my arm and twisted it behind my back, and shoved my face into the fountain. I fought, but the hand at the back of my neck was strong and I had to hold my breath. I’m dying, I thought, and wondered what was happening to Johnny.” This showed that those Socs were even going to kill them just because they talked back, but they were also drunk which also shows how dangerous drunk Socs are. To save Ponyboy Johnny had to kill the Soc and afterwards they both had to run out of town to avoid being arrested. This changed Ponyboys identity into a outlaw.

In chapter 3, Darry and Ponyboy got into a fight, in which Darry hit Ponyboy. This fight resulted in Ponyboy and Johnny killing a Soc, runnning away, going missing for five days, and getting Ponyboy injured and Johnny dead. The boys returned home when they were rushed to the hospital after being wounded from a fire. Once Ponyboy came to in the hospital, he saw Darry, crying. "Darry didn't like me... he had driven me away that night... he had hit me...he didn't give a hang about me... Suddenly I realized, horrified, that Darry was crying... Darry did care about me..." (98). Ponyboy ran to Darry, hugged him, and started sobbing. The two brothers stood in the waiting room, hugging and crying together. Daarry never scolded Ponyboy about him running away, because he was focused on Pony's health. He stayed at the hospital that night. Darry loves Pony, and now Pony knew.

One moment in the book when Darry lashes out on Ponyboy is when he comes home late one night. A quote I found from that night in the novel is “He didn’t use to be like that… we used to get along okay… before Mom and Dad died. Now he just can’t stand me” (Pg. 51). When Ponyboy says “Now he just can’t stand me,” it shows that he thinks Darry hates him but in reality, Darry has high expectations for Ponyboy because he gets good grades and just wants to keep him safe because their parents died so Darry is the like the parent now. Another quote I found that also shows Ponyboy really doesn’t like Darry is “He thinks I’m a pain in the neck. He likes Soda-everybody likes Soda-but he can't stand me I bet he wishes he could stick me in a home somewhere, and he’d do it, too, if soda’s let him.” (pg. 42). Just so you know, this was after the movies when Two-bit, Johnny, Marcia, and Cherry were walking home. So, I think this quote is also about how Ponyboy thinks Darry doesn’t like him because he says things like he thinks if Soda weren’t alive, Darry would just leave him which shows Ponyboy isn’t very fond of Darry. This evidence shows that Ponyboy has the thought that Darry dislikes him. Therefore, Ponyboy hates him because of the way he is treated.

At the end of the book Ponyboy finally comes to terms with the deaths of Johnny and Dally, and he finally realizes that violence is not the answer when he makes up with Darry. Darry and Ponyboy are shouting at each other, and Ponyboy asks Sodapop to take his side. This causes Sodapop to rush out of the house, and Ponyboy and Darry chase after him. When they finally catch up Sodapop tells them he feels sick of being pulled apart by their fights. Ponyboy sympathizes with Sodapop as he says in the text: “Darry and I did play tug of war with him, with never a thought to how much it was hurting him.” Ponyboy suddenly understands what his fighting with Darry has done to Sodapop, and later in their conversation Ponyboy realizes why he never got along with Darry: “I saw that I had expected Darry to do all the understanding without even trying to

Darry, the oldest brother have had many conflicts with Soda and Pony, which made him change during this novel. First, one event that made Darry change was when he slapped his little brother, Pony when he came home late. Pony ran away for a few days because he thought that Darry didn’t want him as a brother anymore. Darry was so sorry, sad, and mad at himself for slapping Pony.

Ponyboy is a greaser, this is because he fits the characteristics of a greaser. For example, all the greasers have long greasy hair, pony has that. “Besides I look better with long greasy hair.” (2). This quote means that Ponyboy is a greaser, and that he looks better with long greasy hair. Another reason that ponyboy is that he has a small to little education, Ponyboy gets average to good grades at school and some other greaser did not even finish school.

First, Ponyboy is accepting. At the beginning, Ponyboy, a greaser, often compares his problems to the socs, the group that is very wealthy. The greasers are the opposite and often have problems at home. Throughout the novel, his character develops and Ponyboy learns to look past the label of greaser or soc, because after all, we’re all human. For example, he says, “He ain’t a soc, he’s just a guy” (Hinton 118), when Two-Bit asks about Randy, a soc. This quote shows that Ponyboy doesn’t care about labels and accepts people for who they are, greaser or not. He is helping Two-Bit see the humanity in others and not define them by what group they are a part of in society, but who they are as a person and their qualities. Ponyboy’s attitude, wanting to change the way people look at greasers and socs reflects the 1960’s and shows that he is similar to the people of the 60’s that weren’t happy with the world they were living in. He is trying to make a difference.

Ponyboy was always the odd one out, he’s not like the other Greasers. In the novel, after losing several of his dearest friends, Ponyboy’s whole life turned upside down. In the story, many events of violence of loss happened, everything around Ponyboy is just so violent, even he started to be affected by it. “You're the guy that killed Bob Sheldon. […] And he was a friend of ours. We don't like nobody killing our friends, especially greasers."(Hinton 171) Ponyboy’s response to such violent behavior was to face it with more violence. Indignantly, busting off a bottle, Ponyboy threatened the Soc to beat him up, which was not like what he used to do, when he still retained his sanity. Now, Ponyboy is starting to accept violence and is slowly becoming conformity as the others, a cruel and delirious “Greaser”. The transformation is deadly and can ruin his whole life because of this chaotic behavior. Besides Ponyboy’s chaotic behavior, he is starting to fail at daily

At the beginning, Ponyboy doesn’t understand the concerns of Darry, but towards the end, he understands that Darry is overprotective for him. For example, when Ponyboy came late home from the lot and Darry hit him and he ran away with Johnny. He said to Johnny, “He didn't use to be like that... we used to get along okay... before Mom and Dad died. Now he just can't stand

This is part of his emotional journey. Ponyboy believes Darry only cares about himself. “Darry thinks his life is enough without inspecting other’s” (Hinton 3). This probably hurts Ponyboy.

When Ponyboy fell asleep in the lot, Johnny woke him up and told him to go home. When he walked in Darry was infuriated. He told Darry that he didn’t mean to, but Darry was too mad to think right. Darry was the one not thinking and he smacked Pony. Pony got up and ran away to find Johnny who was still in the lot.

In the book The Outsiders by S.E Hinton, the main character, Ponyboy, experiences the effect that stereotypes have on “Socs” and “Greasers”. Ponyboy is trying to find his place in the world, but is interrupted by the labels that society gives him. The Socs make the Greasers’ situation worse,by being a constant danger to the Greasers. There are three topics addressed in the powerful novel. The fight between the rich and the poor, the power of friendship, and what it means to be a hero.

In The Outsiders, Ponyboy is stereotyped as a violent, stupid greaser. Greasers are stereotyped as delinquents, getting their name from the amount of hair oil in their hair. You're automatically a thug if you wear leather jackets, are rather greasy, and live in a poor neighborhood, according to his society. Greasers are teased and looked down upon by the socs, who are rich spoiled kids. When somebody sees a greaser, they run the other way. But Pony is so much more than all of that. He is a poetic, thoughtful boy. He doesn’t let anything get him down. He is trying his best to get good grades and be able to go to college, which is something most

As Ponyboy’s guardian Darry has to set a good example in order to be an overall good guardian. An example of him not doing that is in chapter 12 “And anytime you don't like the way I'm running things around here, you can just get out, ALRIGHT?”(Hinton 173 and 174). Consequently when Darry said that he was motivating Ponyboy to run away. This is why Darry also has to make wise decisions around Ponyboy because Ponyboy does look up to him.