Thesis: The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton, a novel which tells the story of conflict between the 'greasers' and the 'Socs,' captures the voice of ponyboy and his friends in a realistic way that relates to boys and their gangs even today. This story has a lot of issues that are going to be talked about in this paper such as the realism, the conflicts, the characters, Hintons style, the themes, etc. This book is pretty interesting and brings up a lot of good issues. There are a lot of reasons for reading this book, and also a lot to not read this book.
Its just your own opinion, and there are a lot of opinions in this paper. There is so much realism in The Outsiders that is why this book is so appealing to the younger generation. Kids like to read novels that they can relate to. Books that contain stories that could happen to them. Books they find appealing. Most of Hintons stories are derived from real life experiences. This book speaks well to young readers because of its idealism, honesty, and sincerity. Hinton took all her child life experiences and put them into writing.
Her works were so appealing that 'The Outsiders can be thought to be the best-selling young adult novel of all time, it has the appeal to teens and their genre. It adapted into both a prime-time television series and a movie' (Howard 8-9). Hinton has her own style, 'Hinton introduces the young people who live in the bad parts of town and their behavior reflects their sense of dignity and self-worth' (Howard 62). Mostly she liked to write about boys, she wrote about gangs. To boys this was exciting because most has never been around any gangs. This story is exciting and those difficult-to-serve kids at the culturally detached bottom of society can respond to this book, decency of the Urban Slum characters, who are nearly but not yet hopeless' (Howard 62). Howard explains this way, ' Ponyboy's hair was greased and long, today it might be shaved or dyed. There are still 14-yr-old 'greasers' who do well in school and know about Robert Frost and Jack London. And yes, young adults like Dallas, who see no future for them selves, die in bursts of gunfire on our streets' (Howard 51).
A lot of young kids have the need to be smart and be like everyone else, 'Im suppose to be smart; I make good grades and have a high IQ and everything, but I don't use my head. I lie to myself all the time. But I never believe me. ' (Hinton 7). So many kids appreciated Hinton they wrote letters to prove it, 'Hinton had received many letters expressing gratitude for writing a book about the way things real were' ( Sutherland 76 ). Although there were a lot of people that enjoyed Hintons works there were still some who disliked her works. A lot of people have criticized the book as being unbelievable and unconvincing.
Daly believes that Hinton believed she was writing from realism but really that is not what realism was like in those days. ' The irony is that, while the debate team focused on the gangs and the violence, the smoking, and the beer-drinking-all dreaded evidence of the New Realism-the major thrust of 'The Outsiders' had nothing to do with realism at all' (Daly 16). Not only does Daly think this way but, McCormick does not find the characters realistic. ' Hinton gives her characters enough flexibility to keep them from being complete stereo-types, but they are never wholly believable as real people' ( Howard 49).
Sometimes people have different wiews on what is real? What is believable? Townsend suggests that 'true feeling is hoplessly entangled with false, bad-film sentimentality and the plot is creakingly unbelievable (Howard 54). Of all them letters that Hinton received of gratitude there were still some that werent gratititude at all. One of the letters accused Hinton of just making a sensation or that teen-agers wont believe a word of it, most suggested it couldn't have been written by a teen-ager. ( Sutherland 76 ). There were many conflicts between the greasers.
They had some insecurity in walking alone because of there bad neighborhood and the Soc's. 'Greasers can't walk alone too much or they'll get jumped, or someone will come by and scream, 'Greaser! ' at them... ' (Hinton 6). 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). 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. 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 different they clashed. The gangs are like families they have a blood brother bond. They have male camaraderie (Malone 83).
Besides some of the differences there were some things they had in common. 'Both (gangs) lots suffer from parental absence or neglect and seek to realize themselves in feats of strength which lead to disaster and death (On the Hook 76 ). For example Ponyboy's parents are dead and Johnny's parents abuse him. The greasers hope for just some peace. They want to feel equal. ' You can't kill yourself, Johnny,' said Ponyboy. ' Well I won't. But I got to do something. It seems like there's got to be someplace without greasers or socs, with just people' (Hinton 44). Its like they are always fighting and its over such dumb things.
It seems they do it just to do it. 'Rat race is a perfect name for it, we're always going and going and going and never asking where. Did you ever hear of having more than you wanted? So that you couldn't want anything else and it seems like we're always searching for something else to want? ' (Hinton 36). Socs hated how the greasers lived, just who they were. 'Need a haircut, greaser? ' The medium-sized blond pulled a knife out of his pocket and flipped the blade open (8). The two groups were always gettining into some kind of fight. Some times it was really violent.
Johnny got jumped and was so scared after that, he carried a switchblade and would kill the next person that jumped him. Greasers are always getting jumped by Socs, and Socs getting jumped my greasers... its an ongoing pattern. Then there were them inside conflicts in The Outsiders. The conflicts make the plot go up and sown but also can result in a turning point. The Plot of the outsiders turns because of the conflict with Darry. The story progresses and you can actually see the boys maturing and growing with there experiences. As the story goes on, Ponyboys voice starts to change and grow in self-awareness.
After becoming friends with two Socs, He questions whether things have to be the way they are' (Roberts). The reason most socs dotn talk to greasers is because they are afraid of the embarrassment that goes along with it. 'Ponyboy... I mean... if I (Cherry) see you in the hall at school or someplace and don't say hi, well, its not personal or anything, but... ' (Hinton 42). Ponyboy begins to fall for Cherry (a Soc). Greasers feel a little disadvantaged. 'Listen I don't mind dying now. Its worth it. Its worth saving those kids. There lives are worth more than mine, they have more to live for' (Hinton 154).
Ponyboy and Johnny saved kids from a burning church. It was so surprising to everyone how a bunch of greasers could make a difference. 'I stared at the newspaper on the front page of the second section was the headline: Juvenile Delinquents Turn Heros. ' (Hinton 95). It shows how brave the kids really were. ' I swear you three are the bravest kids I've ever seen in a long time.. ' (Hinton 84). Dally is afraid of the consequences of jail. Dally doesn't want the boys to go back and end up in jail because you get hardened in jail. Dally doesn't want that to happen to them like it happened to him. There are three dfferent themes in The Outsiders.
The 1st theme, The Communion of sunsets which prompted Hinton to write the book. She talks about class seperation, sunsets, reminds us that class restrictions are day-to-day fences (Daly-29-30). This showed the flipside of class warfare. The kids were always watching sunsets. Society of orphans which was the second theme. Hinton always uses orphans in her books. (Daly 30-31). There are 3 groups: true, working, and uncertain (Daly 30-31). In the third theme Staying Gold it refers to the Robert Frost poem, and the only reason Ponyboy remebered it is because he never got what Frost meant by it (Daly 33-34).
The boys have some sort of obssession with this poem. A quote from Johnny left in a Gone With the Wind book, ' He meant you're gold when you're a kid ... like the way you dig sun-sets Pony. That's gold. Keep that way, it's a good way to be' (Howard 37-38). Hinton uses this poem as sort of a type of symbolism. Hinton uses symbolism for the structures of her characters. ( Howard 65). The themes are considered to be 'adult themes' to some people. There was the debate about censorship on Hinton's books because they saw the books as violent and having 'adult' themes and was not a novel teens should read ( Howard 28).
The themes of Hintons novels have modern, colloquial tone, but they are like fairy tale adventures (Malone 81). The themes are another reason for the appeal it has to people. Hinton likes to write stories about her own experieneces, that's just her style. She writes from her own experiences. ' She had written the book because one of her friends in Tulsa had been jumped and beaten up as had Ponyboy, the protagonist of the Outsiders (Sutherland 75 ). She writes stories about things she'd want to read about, her own personal interests. I'd wanted to read books that showed teenagers outside the life of ' Mary Jane went to Prom. ' When I couldn't find any, I decided to write one myself. I created a world with no adult figured, where kids lived by their own rules. ' ('S. E. Hinton 77). Hinton was a little confused as a child about what girls were talking about. She was more of a tomboy. ' When I was a teenager I didn't understand what girls were talking about,' Hinton explains, ' They were always waiting for something to happen, they got to stand in the john, rat their hair, and outline their eyes in black' ( Lyons 80 ).
Hinton considers her childhood years her most interesting time and that is why most her her works involve children and their lives. Hinton writes about kids because that is an intersesting part of life, feelings are more dramatic and they have more feelings than any other part of society, but are more afraid to show feelings (Lyons 80 ). Another part of Hinton's style includes how Hinton never makes reference to the place of location, they are in. Its always, ' the neighborhood,' 'The city,' ' The country. ' Teen's also like how they are reading something that was actually written by someone the same age as them. Because Hinton began composing ' The Outsiders' while still a teenager students find reading about her a natural extension of reading the novel itself. This heightens their awareness of her books as a product of artistic aims and choices... ' (Vanderstaay 89). Hintons style also was different because of her characters. Hinton says it was more comfortable to use a male character because she wrote it before the Women's Movement. Plus people at that time wouldn't have believed that girls would do the things she wrote about. '...
Hintons boys are usually impoverished, are often thugs and thieves, are variously abandoned by parents, brutalized by policemen, jailed, stabbed to death, shot to death, burned to death and so routinely beaten nearly to death that they think it's a drag to have to rush to the hospital for something as trivial as a fractured skull' ( Malone 81). Mostly this book as an adventure appeal that a lot of people like. She wrote about boys of all different situations. ' One of Susan Hinton's achievements in ' The Outsiders' is to hold up for scrutiny young people from economically, culturally, and socially deprived circumstances' (Howard 50).
The boys in her stories usually went through some rough situations that helped them grow. The narrator-hero of each is a tough-tender 14-16-yr-old loner making his perilous way through violent, caste-ridden world almost depopulated of grown-ups' ( Lyons 78). Some boys may question who they are but Ponyboy didn't. Hinton shows that Ponyboy doesn't question the aimless, sometimes-violent life on his gang (Roberts). Another part of Hintons style was that she wrote in first person. When authors write in first person they choose words their characters would actually use.
By Hinton doing this with Ponyboy it makes him real (Roberts). You can learn a lot from this book. It shows a lot of different situations that most people wouldn't klnow what to do in. But it shows how there can be a huge transition over a period of time in people. People can go through so many experiences that make them just sit back and look at the bigger picture, at who they really are, at the lives they really lead. They can grow from these experiences into mature, wise, human beings. The Outsiders By S. E. Hinton
Author: Wilma Daniels