Stereotypes In The Outsiders By S. E. Hinton

Does soceitical expectations and living conditions affect how people view someone? Ponyboy Curtis, Cherry, and Johnny are all people who are affected by soceitical expectations because people expect them to conform to what they think of similar people, since they do have similar living conditions. Ponyboy and Johnny are part of a social group called the Greasers, and since many others think of poor people as people who steal and are thugs who are parts of gangs, as Dally does, Ponyboy and Johnny are not. The Socs are the rich kids of the town, and most people expect them to be snobs who do not care about anything, but Cherry isn’t. Ponyboy, Johnny, and Cherry are Outsiders of their groups because they

Stereotyping plays a large role in the events of S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders. The two main opposing groups, the Socs and Greasers, constantly face problems because of the stereotypes associated with their social groups. As seen in the novel, stereotypes and prejudice cause extreme and unnecessary conflicts. Both groups have predetermined opinions of the other, but as the story progresses, many of the characters begin to realize how similar the groups can be. The stereotypes observed in the novel can easily be compared to those in real life. Both the Greasers and the Socs share many of their opinions with the other members of their groups, and this leads to many misunderstandings. In fact, most of the conflicts in the novel are caused

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

Later, Johnny conveys his guilt to Ponyboy when he says: “‘There sure is a lot of blood in people.’”(Hinton 74), nearly quoting Shakespeare in Macbeth. In a later conversation with Johnny, Ponyboy gets thinking about this new world he has been thrust into. In the text he says: “I liked my books and clouds and sunsets. Dally was so real he scared me.”(Hinton 76) This shows how Ponyboy likes when the hero can beat the villain and get a pretty sunset at the end. But now Ponyboy has to deal with the real-world effects of violence, and he doesn’t like it. This marks one of Ponyboy’s first major changes of his mindset on violence.

Stereotype; a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. In the realistic fiction novel, The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, and in the short story, “Geeks Bearing Gifts”, written by Ron Koertge, stereotypes are defied by ordinary people. In The Outsiders, Johnny Cade and Darry Curtis face many struggles throughout their lives. Their town in separated into two: the rich and dangerous Socs, and the quiet, tough Greasers. For them, living dangerously is a reality. As a result of their lifestyle, Johnny has become fearful and Darry is considered the toughest man in the gang. In “Geeks Bearing Gifts” aspiring journalist, Renee, interviews her fellow classmates who are classified as “outcasts.” After meeting several students, she realizes her assumptions were incorrect about them. After reading both of these stories, the reader learns that our thoughts about others often revolve around stereotypes and assumptions, but most of these ideas that we have about other people are proven wrong.

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

"I had it then. Soda fought for fun. Steve for hatred, Darry for pride, and Two-Bit for conformity. Why do I fight? I thought, and couldn't think of any real good reason. There isn't any real good reason for fighting except self defense" (Hinton, 137). Ponyboy's internal struggle is very much a part of this story. But what fuels his struggle? The answer to this question is what he sees in the world, or rather his viewpoint. But, sometimes those viewpoints are skewed by stereotypes, making the them of this book, stereotypes are powerful but often wrong.

Do soceital expectations and living conditions affect how people view someone? Ponyboy Curtis, Cherry, and Johnny are all people who are affected by soceital expectations because people expect them to conform to what they think of similar people, since they do have similar living conditions. Ponyboy and Johnny are part of a social group called the Greasers, who are the poor people in the town, and since many others think of poor people as people who steal, are thugs, and are parts of gangs, as Dally does, Ponyboy and Johnny are not. The Socs are the rich kids of the town, and most people expect them to be snobs who do not care about anything, but Cherry is not. Ponyboy, Johnny, and Cherry are Outsiders

In the Outsiders, written by S.E Hinton one of the main characters is Ponyboy. He is stereotyped as a greaser (a poor boy from the east side of town). Ponyboy accepts being a greaser and it affects him positively. Some people might stereotype Ponyboy as a hero and not a greaser.

A main example in the story is when Ponyboy said that he would have been more comfortable talking to the girls had they not been Socs and held a higher class than him, if they were Greaser girls then perhaps he would have formed a relationship with them but since they weren't he was held back. (Hinton 21). Ponyboy was apprehensive to form a relationship with anyone who was in a different class than him. As an example Ponyboy exclaimed, "Do you think that your spying for us makes up for the fact that you're sitting there in a Corvette while my brother drops out of high school to get a job? Don't you ever try to give us handouts and then feel high and mighty about it." (Hinton 98) He is envious because those who have more money than him get nearly anything they want while his clique had to work much harder to achieve anything. Similarly, it is stated that “‘It ain't fair!’ I cried passionately. ‘It ain't fair that we have all the rough breaks!’” (Hinton 43) Again, he is placing the blame for him not having as much in life on those who were given

At the beginning of the book, Ponyboy is in intelligent, young teen, but he lacks the perspective to understand the environment around him. He can only see his side of the story and fails to understand why others act the way they do. The first example of this is his oldest brother Darry. He thinks Darry hates him because he is always giving Ponyboy a hard time about his lack of common sense, his grades,...

To start, stereotypes are deceptive because people place others into cliques based on their appearances. People assume everyone in a clique are the same, even though their true personality may differ from that clique. The first example from The Outsiders in which somebody doesn’t fit in with the stereotype they are given is Ponyboy. Ponyboy doesn’t quite fit in with his clique, the greasers. After Ponyboy is jumped, Darry has a fight with Pony. Darry yells at Ponyboy to think on the streets and to stay alert. Darry is concerned about Ponyboy’s safety: ‘“You must think at school with all those good grades you bring home, and you’ve always got your nose in a book, but do you ever use your head for common sense?”’ (13). Meaning, Ponyboy isn’t like the greaser stereotype. Compared to all the other greasers, Pony is book smart and not street smart. The greasers are smart where it really matters like on the streets. They carry blades to defend themselves, travel as gangs, and know how to get themselves out of a dangerous situation, if they get stuck in one. Ponyboy, however, is book smart. He succeeds at an outstanding level at school and in his academics. Once he is on the street his intelligence doesn’t follow him. He doesn’t use his common sense and he can’t find his way out of dangerous situations. As a result of this Pony gets jumped by the Socs which

Ponyboy, Johnny, Sodapop, Darry are all a part of the unruly gang, the Greasers. S.E Hinton is writing these characters as rebellious young men, with a harsh background, who takes their anger and hardship out on gang fighting. These roles play an important part in this book because it shows that even though they nothing physically, they have a heart stronger than gold for each other and others mentally. Hinton use these characters to show prejudice leads to wrong conclusions, violence and oppression because these “poor” young men are getting beat up by the rich Socs who have never felt the feeling of being in poverty. “ You take up for your buddies, no matter what they do. When you’re in a gang, you stick up for the members. If you don’t stick up for them, stick together, make

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The presences of stereotypes are overwhelming and are developed by both the environment a subject is raised in and their family. Stereotypes, which are pervasive throughout different societies, become intertwined in the collective values of the society as justification for all forms of social, economic, and political inequality among groups (Devine and Elliot 2000;Kaplan 2004; Operario and Fiske 2004). As people become more exposed to stereotypes they start to become a permanent part of a person’s life, they begin to stereotype themselves almost always involuntarily.