Stereotypes In The Outsiders

In the book The Outsiders by S.E Hinton, there are groups called the Socs, who are rich kids, and Greasers, who are hoods, just like the main character Ponyboy Curtis. The story takes place in a town called Tulsa in Oklahoma, where Ponyboy lives. He lives with his older brothers Sodapop Curtis and Darry Curtis, and is part of a gang of consisting of Johnny, Dallas Winston (Dally), Steve, and Two-Bit. One night when Johnny goes too far and kills a Soc named Bob, him and Pony are forced to run away to avoid capture from the authorities. There are many events, quotes, and author choices that show a common theme, which is Stereotypes are often judged by other people, but aren’t always true. This is proven time and time again after people are beaten up, injured, and even killed through the span of this book.

An important character in the novel “The Outsiders” is Ponyboy Curtis. He is the main character and narrator of the novel. Ponyboy is an orphaned, 14 year old boy who is bright, but according to his oldest brother and guardian, Darry, he sometimes doesn’t have any common sense. He also admits himself: “I'm supposed to be smart; I make good grades and have a high IQ and everything, but I don't use my head.” This quote confirms that at times, Ponyboy tends to not use his intelligence to it’s full potential. Ponyboy also belongs to a lower social class, otherwise known as ‘Greasers.’ Greasers is a slang term for people (mainly boys) who style their longish hair with a lot of hair grease, wear leather jackets, and belong to less financially stable families. They are also known to cause chaos and carry knives around. Ponyboy is aware throughout the novel that Greasers like him are negatively looked down upon by others in society and tries to prove himself as not a bad person. The author is trying to share the idea of prejudice. In society, people often discriminate against others due to social status and appearance. However, Ponyboy realises that

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

“I am a greaser. I am a JD and a hood. I blacken the name of our fair city. I beat up people. I rob gas stations. I am a menace to society. Man do I have fun!” exclaimed Ponyboy. The Greasers play the role of the unlawful “hoodlums” in their community. They are considered wild and unruly. When a Soc sees a Greaser, they assume they are dirty troublemakers and white trash. The Greasers were

The humans’ nature is always following other people without thinking. People are afraid to be different from others. When some people or some groups of people trying to be unique and different like the Hippies people will think they are disgusted. This is because power of conformity is very strong in the society. In every big city or even small town influence of the conformity were shown up. In The Outsiders, conformity is everywhere in this small town which is located in the south of U.S. Tulsa, Oklahoma. In this story are all about Greasers and Socials. The conformity in this story is showed up by the symbols that are described personality and social class of the characters in the story. In this story the conformity shows up mostly by the symbol.

Words have different meanings in neighborhoods. Two compliments in their neighborhoods are tough and tuff. Tough meaning the same as rough and tuff meaning cool or sharp. In kids today they get labeled because of the way they dress or the music they listen to. There are the skaters, the nerds, the ghetto people, the preppys, etc." Our hair labeled us greasers, too-it was our trademark. The only thing we were proud of" (64). Some groups are considered worse than the others, some have other problems then the others." You sure you want to go back? Us greasers get it worse than anyone else" (78). In The Outsiders Greasers had this tough appeal. They were boys, but needed to be more manly. "...I wanted to cry, but greasers don't cry in front of strangers, some of us never cry at all..." (91).

Greasers are the main stereotype in the book but also there is a small part played by the Socs. Although the book is about the life and times of a Greaser there is also a ‘Socs Story’ in there, as throughout the book you learn more and more about the Socs and how they live. But this all changes. When Bob dies Cherry and Randy, the main Socs characters, begin to see that there is no difference between Socs and Greasers. Randy, when he talks to Ponyboy in private doesn’t call

To explain, the greasers were defined as Outsiders because they were poor and treated like outcasts.

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 short novel The Outsiders, written by S.E. Hinton, many 1960s stereotypes are used which separate the characters by where they live, how they dress, and how they act, but Hinton quickly gave characters who did not abide or fit these stereotypes. This showed that no matter your hair, dress, home, hobbies, or financial situation, everyone will always be different, but that doesn’t mean no two people cannot become friends. The stereotypes that follow you do not determine your personality or actions, only you.

Imagine being dumb, stealing and carrying blades everywhere you go, and being unable to feel deeply, those words would make people think of Greasers. Most people when they think of gangs they think, that they fight, steal, and do not care about what is going on around them. Those statements that Greaser's and other assortments of gangs are dumb, criminals, and unfeeling may not be true, Ponyboy, the main character in S.E. Hinton’s book The Outsiders, opposes all of those statements.

Do you really know the truth about greasers? Stereotypes are everywhere even if they are wrong. Socs are seen at sweet and the innocent ones. When you turn your backs, the socs are the ones who are attacking the greasers. When the greasers fight it is usually is for self defense. Greasers are mainly good, but society highlights their ”hoodlum acts”. Greasers are misunderstood, and stereotyped because of misconception.

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.

Jumping into a burning building is one of the things that the boys from the “Greaser Gang” would do for each other. When the main character, Ponyboy, jumps into a burning church to save children from the flames, his two gang members and family, Johnny and Dally, jump in after him to help get the children out and ensure that he can get out. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton shows two main themes. These themes show many examples of stereotyping could lead to misjudgment of people and to be loyal to the people around you, especially the ones close to you.

“Prejudice is the glass through which most things are seen and judged.” Edward Counsel said this in Maxims. When he said this he meant that everybody has their own perspective and idea about how people are from the way they look. Everybody stares into a glass seeing the things they want to see when really there is nothing to see. They want to see the bad in others just to make themselves feel good. With prejudiced people around every corner there really is no escape from this world we live in. When S.E Hinton wrote The Outsiders she wrote about a gang of friends who survived this cruel, prejudiced world even though they lost so much.