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The Outsiders Research Paper

Decent Essays

Problems in Literature and Society
In “The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, characters are exposed to problems in life and societal ills. Some of these ills include stereotyping, violence, and classism. The role of violence is significant. For example, whenever people experience violence, they will take precautions. For example, after Johnny got jumped, he began to carry a switchblade with him, just having it gave him new found strength. However, he thought he would never need it. Taking these precautions come at a cost, though. It might save a life, it may even save someone else’s life. In the end, it saved Ponyboy's life. Johnny used it on Bob, a popular Soc who almost killed Ponyboy. Ponyboy and Johnny were a part of the “greasers” who …show more content…

These problems however, do not only appear in the book, but are apparent in our own society as well. These issues can be seen everyday by everyone, and it greatly affects the society. For example, violence can be seen on the news every day. It seems like there is always a new attack on someone or a murder, and similar to how in the book violence ruined many people's lives it ruins people’s lives in our society too. Also, stereotyping causes a lot of issues in our society. People stereotype others on things like race, gender, or even things like their hobbies. This stereotyping can cause more violence which ruins even more lives, similar to the book and how the greasers and Socs hated each other because they were all the same, even though, in reality, they were really different. It also causes people to judge each other and make other people feel lesser about themselves. The final ill is classism, which is judging people based on their financial state. This is similar to stereotyping because people are judging others just because of one attribute. In our society, people are quick to think all people who are richer buy expensive cars and waste all their money and don’t have any worries, even

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