Title: the Outsiders- by Se Hinton Why Gangs Portrayed in This Novel Are Real

Gangs are centered on a certain territory or turf that is claimed by that gang. When rival gangs enter that

The book outsiders is a amazing and interesting novel.In the book their are two gangs named Socs and Greasers.The socs are the upper class with money ,cars, and nice houses in a good area.The greasers are lower class and all they have is their hair, the bond of other each, and they live in a type of hood.They are complete different people but they still share lots of things in common.They also have lots of differences.

As Ponyboy states when he starts to understand this, “No, it wasn’t Cherry the Soc who was helping us, it was Cherry the dreamer who watched sunsets and couldn’t stand fights.” (Hinton 86). Ponyboy was previously under the impression that all Socs didn’t care about anything, and was surprised when he met Cherry, a Soc who watched the same sunset as he did. The stereotype of Socs being heartless and cruel was all he had seen and heard, so it was hard for him to understand how one could be so different. Ponyboy’s friends felt similarly, and most of them found it even harder to grasp this concept than Ponyboy had. The Greasers were used to judging the Socs as a group, and did not see them as individuals. These group stereotypes are what ultimately caused most of the biggest fights in the novel.

The Outsiders is a book about two gangs called the Socials and Greasers. The Socials is a rival group who dislike the Greasers, and are always willing to put up on a fight in the streets. The Socs, are upper-class, they’re always picking on the other group. Unlike the Greasers’ group, the Socs want to show they are stronger than any other person out there in the world by starting violence. The characters are fearless, and bold. However, the Greasers are lower-class but they are there for each other most of the time when they need a helping hand, like a family, they all treat each other with good companionship. They don’t like how violence wouldn’t solve anything. The character, Johnny is a Greaser and a quiet person. He doesn’t respond back when someone says something about him. By the end of the book, Johnny’s character changes dramatically, that had an impact on what the had done later on in the story. He stood up for himself and killed Bob for self-defense, and saved kids from a burning church.

Besides the conflicts between the greasers and the conflicts between the Socs there were also conflicts between the two gangs. Because the two groups were so

“For thugs from the ghetto, violence is a way of life - it’s what helps you survive.” The Socs and the Greasers were two gangs in The Outsiders. Throughout the novel these two gangs had a continuous rivalry. These two gangs were viewed differently by society. The Socs as rich kids and the Greasers as poor kids.

The socs and the greasers shares a sense of hatred against each other, they fight with each other both verbally and physically. One of the instances that shows their conflict externally was the 'Saturday Night Rumble'. The two gangs " moved in a circle under the light, counter-clockwise, eyeing

The difference in social class definitely took its toll on the two of these gangs. The Soc’s and Greaser’s opinion would change from with experiences, but for the most part it was a clash for who owned the town. The Socs were the “good guys” and the Greasers were the “troublemakers” of town, although this was definitely not the case but because of the unchanging prejudice opinions were placed on both of the groups it would not change. For example, Ponyboy explained that maybe the Greasers and Socs aren’t so different after all. On page 40, Ponyboy starts to wonder how different he is from any of the Socs, “It seemed funny to me that the sunset she saw from her patio and the one I saw from the back steps was the

A major conflict in this novel is between the greasers and the Socs. These two gangs are made up of complete opposites. The two rivals fall into conflict because of how they view each other and their roles in society. Greasers are poor hoods from the East side that “wear our hair long and dress in t-shirts and blue jeans… and wear leather jackets

As stated in the text, Hinton writes “Things were rough all over”(Hinton 35). This explains that everyone has problems no matter who you are or where you came from, everyone has issues no matter how big or small. Therefore, Greasers and Socs are very much alike. In addition, the article “The Allure of Gangs” clarifies that “Being in a gang may also satisfy their need for attention and provide someone who will listen to and care about them”(“The Allure of Gangs” on page 40). Given that, majority of the kids that are in the gangs, come from difficult homes, so they tend to be closer to their gang members than their family

Defining gangs have been compared to packs, teams, and groups. Participants of gangs do not necessarily commit violent acts or commence in illegal matters. The National Gang Center has come to a consensus on defining gangs with the commonalities of three or more members between the ages of 12 through 24, shared identity, recognized by others as a gang or crew, has levels of organization, and usually involved in criminal activities (Shelden, Tracy, Brown, 2013). Some gangs are excluded from this definition due to not proportionate with their usual activities. Overall, we can consider gangs to be founded when members share similar characteristics and establish a symbol to represent their livelihood.

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.

     A gang is defined as a group of individuals with the same objective that are bound together by a bond of trust. The majority of gangs are

The two main divisions were between the Greasers and the Socs, and this rivalry led to many conflicts in the book. Hinton illustrates the divisions and fighting in this quote, “They caught him and one of them had a lot of rings on his hand that’s what had cut Johnny up so badly” (Hinton 33). Johnny was attacked by four Socs when he was playing with a football at the park. There are many times in the book where Socs attacked Greasers that were walking alone. Howard explains the divisions and violence of the gangs in this quote, “Tulsa was one of many American cities that had seen an increasing division between social classes since World War II, and the animosity between Greasers and Socs gangs illustrated the extent to which this division between social classes had permeated society” (Howard 28). The Greasers were seen as the poor outcast while the Socs were the popular one with all the money. The Socs provoke the Greasers by saying hurtful things and attacking them so both gangs feel the need to fight to prove that they are better. Hinton did a good job of portraying the violence and building up to these points and this keeps the reader interested in the book.

Another approach towards classification of gangs is carried out according to the life of the gangs. These gangs are termed as scavenger gangs, territorial gangs and organized gangs. Scavenger gangs have little structure and their size is also small. School gangs are one frequently found instance of