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The Outsiders

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The novel, “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton, is classified as Young Adult Fiction. In this novel, Hinton writes about real life situation teenagers go through. As for the teenagers in “The Outsiders”, social class is a major issue that brings most of the conflicts throughout the story. In this story, there are two types of people: the “Socs” and the “Greasers”. The Socs are a young and wealthy group who believe they are superior over the less fortunate.

The Greasers are an example of a less fortunate group. The Greasers are “hoodlums” who live in the ghetto and are basically uneducated criminals who live in poverty.The Greasers get there name from the casual way the gang dresses, long hair that it greased constantly, and leather jackets. Ponyboy is the main Greaser character.

Ponyboy has two brothers, Sodapop and Darry, and all three of them are in a gang. The Curtis’ boys have been through a lot since their parents died, and they are living each day trying to fend for themselves. Ponyboy is an intelligent young man who is constantly pushed to become something better than what he grew up to be by his two brothers.

Ponyboy is walking home from school where he had been abruptly confronted by the West Side Soc who asked Ponyboy is he “needed a haircut” while he held his switchblade close to Ponyboy’s face. The Socs begin to beat Ponyboy up until Ponyboy’s brothers hear his death scream and quickly gather the gang along to the scene. Months before, another member of the

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East Side(Greaser’s) had been beaten up as well, but Johnny’s beaten is much more fatal. Later that evening, Ponyboy and Johnny, two of the most quiet and youngest gang members, decide to go watch a drive through movie with their friend Dally(another Greaser, who is possibly the worst of them all). The biggest mistake that happened that night, is the part in the book where

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