Differences between Greasers and Socs: 'The Outsiders' by S. E. Hinton

). This implies that the Socs have nothing to do, so they resort to tormenting the unprivileged instead of doing anything worthwhile. The Greasers constantly receive the blame when the Socs start a fight, and the Socs use society's prejudice against children like the Greasers when the police arrive. For example, the Socs "get editorials in the paper for being a public disgrace one day and an asset to society the next" (Hinton 3). This means everyone excuses their mistakes and blames it on the Greasers, and the Socs use mindsets like those to their advantage. When compared to living life in hardship and trying to survive, misusing privilege instead of using it to improve society is far worse, and, similarly, the way they fight is immoral.

Have you ever noticed in “The Outsiders” the differences and the similarities between the Greasers and the Socials? Well I will be explaining and showing why the Socials and Greasers are different and why they are the same. I will also be giving evidence supporting Ponyboys thought that Greasers and Socials are the same.

Both the Socs and the Greasers believe their opinions of their rivals to be true, even though “…most reviews of stereotyping conclude that there is very little evidence regarding the validity of beliefs about groups” (Lee, Jussim, and McCauley 5). The opinions the characters have of their opposing gangs tend to take the focus off of individual personalities and instead lumps everyone who is different from them into large groups. For example, right before Cherry leaves Ponyboy after the movies, she tells him that she might not say “hi” to him at school. He knows this is

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.

What Cherry Valance meant when she said this is that socs still have things rough because their parents educated them differently. This quote is kind of related to the one above but, what really shows that socs still have things rough from this quote is that they have a different type of lifestyle. Not because of the things they have/own, but because of the different things their goals are in life and their thoughts on things depending on the type of life they have and the way they were educated/raised by their parents. What she meant when she said that the greasers are more emotional than the socs is that the socs were always more cool and chillaxed because their parents never wanted them to be mad or sad so the parents always had something to give their kids so they would stop complaining or to cheer them up. The greasers were more poor and they wouldn’t always get gifts so they always had to get over things without any help or with anything that can distract them. Greasers wouldn’t forget sad things very easily the way socs did. Socs always wanted everybody to think they’re cool even though sometimes deep down inside they were sad, mad, etc. Another example of socs having a hard life just like greasers did is when Randy was talking to

In S.E Hinton's novel, The Outsiders, there are many themes represented in the book, but one of the main themes is social ostracism, or the conflict between the economic classes. There are two rival gangs within The Outsiders:  the Socs and the Greasers.  The Socs represent the upper class while the Greasers represent the lower class.  The Socs, "jump greasers and wreck houses and throw beer blasts for kicks, and get editorials in the paper for being a public disgrace one day and an asset to society the next." The Greasers, who are on the low social economic side, "steal things and drive old souped-up cars and hold up gas stations and have a gang fight once in

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.

One of the main vs man conflict in the Outsiders is the rival between the greasers and the socs. The greasers are the east side boys who " steal things and drive old souped-up cars and hold up gas stations". The greasers, due to their family background and physical appearance, are being stereotyped as individuals who are poor and are provided with fewer opportunities than others. On the other hand, the socs, are " the west-side rich kids" who come from affluent backgrounds and" likes to jump greasers and throw beer blasts for kicks". In the eyes of the public, the Socs are the social elites whereas the greasers are considered the less privileged, second-class citizens.

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

In the book The Outsiders, Ponyboy talks about how the rich Socs girls acted, and how the poor Greaser girls acted. When Ponyboy first met Cherry, and Marcia he said it was nice to hangout, and talk to the soc girls. He said they were nothing like the greaser girls, and he didn’t like greaser girls. Ponyboy said “I quit worrying about everything, and thought about how nice it was to sit with a girl without having to listen to her swear or to beat her off with a club.” (Hinton 35). Ponyboy was talking about Cherry a rich Soc girl being different then the poor Greaser girls. He feels like they are easier to talk to and easier to have a conversation with. He likes that they don’t swear, and are smart. He talks about how the poor Greaser girls swear, are disrespectful, are always fighting, and are always troublemakers by flirting with other guys. Another example of the rich (Socs) vs poor (Greasers) is there education. In the book The Outsiders, it talks about how the Greasers (the poor) don’t speak right. It also talks about how the Greasers, and Socs went to the same school.

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

Most people in this novel think that Greasers are a disgrace, but no one notices how badly the Socs treat Greasers. The socs bully greasers and that could be causing more anger to build in the greasers that cause them to act out. Socs verbally and physically abuse them, it’s one thing to steal but it’s another when you hurt someone mentally or physically on purpose. I’ve seen with my own eyes that kids who have been hurt by others or their parents cause them to act out and do things they normally wouldn’t do because of their built up anger. No one knows what happens at home for a

The amount of money someone has, the neighborhood someone lives in, and the school someone goes to does not determine their opinions, ideas, or dreams. Pony lives in a somewhat run-down neighborhood, and he, Darry, and Sodapop don’t have much, but they and their friends still try to be happy, and enjoy life when they can. Unlike the Socs, the Greasers are a family. If one of them gets shot at, four more of them jump out to protect them. “ “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 Valance is a Soc girl, but according to Pony, she isn’t exactly a Soc because she doesn’t chose to see sides like other Socs. She sees Socs as people who don’t feel. Life is good enough for them that things get repetitive and boring, which is probably part of why the Socs enjoy jumping Greasers. The Greasers, on the other hand, don’t have consistent lives. Only a few of them are in school, not all of them have jobs, and they’re always getting into just enough trouble to keep themselves alive, which is why they seem to have more emotions than the Socs. The two groups are so different, and, in retrospect, it’s all because of money. Money could solve almost all of the Greasers’ problems, like by earning them some respect, and it would mean they don’t have to work so hard to get by. When Cherry explains to Pony that Socs have troubles, just like the Greasers, he can’t imagine what kind of troubles they could possibly have, but he quickly learned. All Bob Sheldon wanted was for someone to tell him no, and when someone did it ended up costing him his life.

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.

While the Socs are in no way morally superior to the Greasers, they are given a higher opportunity to succeed solely based on their high-ranking social class.