Summary: The Outsiders

In the novel The Outsiders by S.E Hinton there is two groups. There is the socs with lots of money and wealthy,then we have the greasers with greasy hair and they are pretty poor. In the book The Outsiders it takes place in a small town in the 1960’s in Oklahoma.The setting is affected by the characters in a lot of different ways.

Two individuals, Ponyboy and Cherry, had seen beyond the divisions of society. "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 had told this to Ponyboy in document C. Most people believed that money separated people. But Ponyboy

There were conflicts between the Socs that conflicted with the greasers. They were two opposite groups that didn't get along. The Socs, "the jet-set...West-side rich kids, wear madras shirts, smell of English leather, and drive new sports cars..." (6). Socs were rich, while greasers were low class. "Soc" is an abbreviation of the Socials, which are the West-side rich kids. Socs had a better reputation than the greasers.

One of the main ideas of S.E. Hintons book The Outsiders focused on how greasers were “victims of their environment”, as the story is told through a greaser’s perspective. This means that the greasers have faced many negative forces in their community, and have been seemingly powerless to overcome them. One example that was used to show this was stereotyping. The greasers and Socs were categorized based on where they live, what they look like, how they act, and how much money they have. The plot of the Outsiders mainly revolves around how the greasers are affected by social, emotional, and economical events and how these events have made them who they are. This then affects how they become “victims of their environment”. However, I believe that the Socs were, in their own way, victims of their environment as well.

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.

While she is talking to Ponyboy near Two-Bit’s house, Ponyboy and Her have a discussion, “‘No’, Cherry said slowly when I said this. “‘It’s not just money. Part of it is, but not all. You greasers have different set of values.’” (38). Hinton starts to reveal that possibly not all Soc’s are bad, but Cherry says even more, “‘You’re more emotional. We’re sophisticated- cool to the point of not feeling anything. Nothing is real with us. You know, sometimes I’ll catch myself talking to a girlfriend, and realize I don’t mean half of what I’m saying. I don’t really think a beer blast on the river bottom is super-cool, but I’ll rave about one to a girlfriend just to be saying something.’” (38). Cherry Valance, a Soc is just trying to fit in and she’s not like herself half of the time. Cherry also says, “‘Did you ever hear of having more than you wanted? So that couldn’t want anything else and then start looking for something else to want? It seems like we’re always searching for something to satisfy us, and never finding it. Maybe if we could lose our cool we could’” (38). Hinton wants to tell readers that Greasers and Socs aren’t always so different. Greasers have it rough with being the underdogs and being treated bad, Socs have it rough because sometimes they get to much of what they want and it doesn’t satisfy them, they try to lose their cool but it’s hard too. Regardless of the social group, people will

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

The difference between the Greasers and Socs in the society is the Greasers treated unequally and criticized for being poor. The Socs are bullying, criticizing, and intimidating the Greasers based on the economic level. Greasers have unequal lifestyles, attitudes, and financial situations, but still live in the same world, beneath the same sun as the Socs (Hinton 18), but repeat the same actions toward the Socs in a way of fighting back and sticking together.

How are the social groups related to the outsiders? The titles of the outsiders can be refer to several groups of people, the greasers, the Soc, but mostly the people who can see above the greasers and the Soc. The greasers are looked the wrong way most of the time. People think the Greasers are dumb, bad, and from the hood.

In chapter two, Ponyboy destinguishes the difference between the Socials and the Greasers more than ever. Greasers are poor and have "gangs". Socs on the

The Greasers way of life was much different than them. They loved to hang out in gangs, but their kinds of gangs were a group of friends. Their gangs were like their families. The Greasers gangs were always there for them and cared about each other, they always had each other’s backs. For example, when Johnny killed Bob Dally helped Johnny and Ponyboy, he told them to go to a church and hide there so no one will find them. The only reason Dally helped was that he cared about them. He didn’t want them to go to jail or get involved with the police because of what he has experienced before. The Socs are richer than the greasers, they are born and raised into a richer family, they get anything they want whenever they ask for it because they can afford it. In particular, the Socs have nice cars like blue mustangs, houses on the west side and clothes they wear expensive clothes like a wine coloured sweater, checked shirts and tan-coloured jackets that their parents

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.

We saw the same sunset.” - Ponyboy Curtis. In the novel, it states this quote and it compares the life of the greasers and the Socs. This shows that although they claim that they are different, they still are the same. Both of their world links together in a way. Labels are just labels. They don’t mean anything. Where I am at right now is that I am neither just an insider or outsider. I am both. I am friends with everyone. Ponyboy and I can relate. In the beginning, Ponyboy was at my stage of life where everything about the Socs were bad. In reality, they actually weren’t. I thought that being popular would help my reputation around school and I would be liked by more people when it did nothing for me. I just learned that it does not matter and became myself. Everything that I wanted in fifth grade came to me in the sixth grade without even trying. Popularity and the “outcasts” and Socs and Greasers are just labels. They do not define

“We're poorer than the Socs and the middle class” We are the greasers we are the lower end of popularity because we have less money than everyone.We have something to be proud about we are better family the Socs actual family! A family is someone who would die for you, we are a brotherhood as well.The Socs always say we have an easy life because we have more freedom ,but that is a lie we have a hard life most of our parents have left us we don’t talk to us and it is horrible. “Greaser’s are almost like hoods we steal things and drive old souped-up cars and hold up gas stations and have gang fights once in awhile” The Socs are the higher end of popularity. The Socs are only the higher end of popularity because the a rich and spoiled.The Socs

In the book The Outsiders by S.E Hinton is about two rival group called the Socs and the Greasers. The Socs is short word for Social. This rival groups have different characteristic between them. The Socs are rich and decent. They were mainly on the West side.