...Outsider Themes Have you ever thought that something as little as a theme can change the entire plot of a book? In the novel, The Outsiders, by S.E Hinton, life is divided by the two main social groups: the Greasers, who are known to cause trouble and have a reputation of being dangerous, and the Socs, the people who are known to get all the breaks and are able to get away with anything they do. Ponyboy and his gang live their daily life rivaling against their enemy, the Socs, until things turn and events change the way they live their lives. People then realize things are not the way it seems to be and they find out the true meaning of life, the hard way. Throughout the story, many different themes are displayed, yet the two main and effective themes are changes over time and loyalty. First of all, changes over time can be found through each scene and event in the book. The first example is...
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...In the book The Outsiders , written by S.E. Hilton, the Greasers are discriminated against by the Socs because they are labeled by the Socs as worthless. Ponyboy is trying to be himself but the Socs make it difficult. The Socs give him a lot of trouble but the gang always has his back. The three topics addressed in the novel are the power of friendship, the fight between rich and poor, and what it means to be a hero. First, the novel focuses on the theme of the power of friendship and how Ponyboy knows that he had the support of his family and gang. For example,“We ran into the darkness"(62). This shows, that Ponyboy and and Johnny went together instead of separating, which shows their friendship. Also, Ponyboy didn’t even need to go with Johnny because Johnny was the one that killed bob, but he went because Johnny saved his life. In addition,”I hadn’t realized Johnny had been right behind me all the way."(92) This displays that Johnny went right behind Ponyboy without even...
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...The Irrationality of the Universe Though The Stranger is a work of fiction, it contains a strong resonance of Camus’s philosophical notion of absurdity. In his essays, Camus asserts that individual lives and human existence in general have no rational meaning or order. However, because people have difficulty accepting this notion, they constantly attempt to identify or create rational structure and meaning in their lives. The term “absurdity” describes humanity’s futile attempt to find rational order where none exists. Though Camus does not explicitly refer to the notion of absurdity in The Stranger, the tenets of absurdity operate within the novel. Neither the external world in which Meursault lives nor the internal world of his thoughts and attitudes possesses any rational order. Meursault has no discernable reason for his actions, such as his decision to marry Marie and his decision to kill the Arab. Society nonetheless attempts to fabricate or impose rational explanations for Meursault’s irrational actions. The idea that things sometimes happen for no reason, and that events sometimes have no meaning is disruptive and threatening to society. The trial sequence in Part Two of the novel represents society’s attempt to manufacture rational order. The prosecutor and Meursault’s lawyer both offer explanations for Meursault’s crime that are based on logic, reason, and the concept of cause and effect. Yet these explanations have no basis in fact and serve only as attempts to...
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...been adopted and reproduced by American Literature. These traits of Southern Gothic are portrayed through the themes of novels and short stories. These themes include race, good vs. evil, unrequited love, being an outsider, and violence. Some stories that would fall into the true Southern Gothic genre include “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’connor, “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. The short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor is about a family that plans a trip to Florida...
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...Sixteen years after a sixteen-year-old wrote this book, Francis Ford Coppola turned this novel into a movie. The book is a coming-of-age novel, but the movie focuses on the characters' loss of innocence. The movie follows the story line very closely. The reader is only told that this story takes place in the southwest, but the movie places it in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the year 1966. It also changes the conflict from the East Side versus the West side to the northside versus the southside. This minor directional change was probably made due to the relative time proximity to the musical West Side Story, which won the best picture Academy Award in l961. However, as with all movies, character insight that is critical to understanding the story is lost when the format goes from the written word to the screen. Ponyboy is telling us the story, the same as in the book, but the 91-minute film only glosses over many character relationships. <a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/CNSite/;navArea=CLIFFSNOTES2_LITERATURE;type=Lit_Note;kword=SE_Hinton;kword=The_Outsiders;contentItemId=139;tile=3;sz=300x250;ord=123456789?" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/CNSite/;navArea=CLIFFSNOTES2_LITERATURE;type=Lit_Note;kword=SE_Hinton;kword=The_Outsiders;contentItemId=139;tile=3;sz=300x250;ord=123456789?" width="300" height="250" border="0" alt="" /></a> With the exception of Ponyboy, the viewer misses out on knowing most of the novel's characters. Darry and Soda...
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...There is more conflict in the world than you may realize. The Outsiders is full of conflicts. Susan Eloise Hinton started the novel when she was 15 and did the majority of it when she was 16. She used her initials because the publisher was afraid, that if buyers would be able to tell that she was a girl, not many people would buy it. In the book The Outsiders there are two main groups, the Socs and the Greasers. Socs, are the “nice” kids that are more upper class. They still get in fights, but they can get out of them more easily. Greasers are the ones with lower hand. They are more well known to usually be trouble makers. The Outsiders is in the eyes of a greaser named Ponyboy, who seems to go against the stereotype of a greaser. He is in advanced classes in school and is considered “nice”. One of Ponyboy’s friends, Johnny, commits murder while Ponyboy is there to witness. He and Johnny run away, and they wonder if they should turn themselves in or not. In the end of the novel, Johnny ends up dying and leaves the rest of the group in pieces. In The Outsiders the main conflict is Person vs Society. Throughout the novel, the characters experience the power of friendship. Dallas Winston acts like a person who doesn’t care about anyone or anything, but he holds a few things very closely. Throughout the story,...
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...the better or the worse. We all grow up eventually. Some people grow up because they want to drive or have a house of their own. But the real truth is that growing up is never fun we'll all face a problem or problems as we grow up. The outsiders by S.E Hinton in a perfect representation of that. Growing up is very important because it gives us change. In the outsiders most of the gang has to grow up without parents or people that love them. ILL be explaining growing up and how it can have a positive or negative effect on our future. People usually think that growing is a Huge thing and most kids want to grow up. In the outsiders ponyboy says that johnny was only 16...
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...A Bridge To Wisemans Cove by James Moloney (1996) is a book about a 15 year old boy named Carl Matt who doesn’t exactly know where he is going in life as he fights to fit in. Moloney has positioned the reader to see Carl as an outsider through the use of his family and body weight. Moloney has also constructed Carl as an unhappy and isolated character. Through Moloney’s character construction of Carl Matt the reader is positioned to see him as an outsider that is not happy with the life he is living. Moloney places Carl in some uncomfortable situations that encourages the reader to see him as an outsider. He has constructed Carl as a lonely character as his family is falling apart, with his mum leaving, Sarah gone and his dad who walked...
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...In S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, the characters demonstrate friendship. The gang members help each other out when their buddies are hurt. Furthermore, they stick up for each other when times are rough. Hinton’s novel demonstrates generosity and kindness all throughout the book.From helping each other out with murder, to just being there for each other, the characters in The Outsiders show a theme of friendship. Dally shows a sense friendship to Ponyboy and Johnny. When Johnny kills Bob, he goes a with Ponyboy to find Dally for help. “ ‘Git goin,’ ” he messed up Johnny’s hair, “ ‘Take care kid,’ he said softly. ‘Man I thought New York was the only place I could get mixed up in a murder rap.’ ” said Dally ( ). Dally is showing sacrifice and...
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...Don't judge my looks I’ve looked around and noticed that Appearance is key in Today’s society. Today's world is a world of hypocrite that say don't judge people by their looks but that’s exactly what they do. In the book The Outsiders by S.E Hinton has a great way of showing this. In this essay I will be explaining that appearance can mean everything. Most people look at what a person is wearing atomically assume. This is showed in the beginning of the novel The Outsiders Ponyboy, the narrator, is describing how the people he knows look like. An example of this is when Ponyboy says “we wear our hair long and dress in blue jeans and T-shits, or leave our shirttails out and wear leather jackets and tennis shoes or boots”(3). Ponyboy is trying to say that they dress like that because that’s how they know to dress, they grew up dressing like that. He uses the word “we” to show us that when people see someone dressed like that they assume that their greasers. Another example is when a Socs say “we’re gonna cut all that greasy hair off” (5). The Socs is trying to say that Ponyboy's hair shouldn’t be like that. So as we can see people judge who you are by the way you dress even if they don’t know you....
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...“It's not as bad as it sounds.” (Huckleberry Finn) Compare how the theme of outsiders is presented in Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, D.B.C Pierre’s Vernon God Little and Sylvia Plath’s Ariel. Throughout the history of literature, the idea of an outsider unable to find his place within society is explored frequently in all three texts. The theme of the outsiders is presented in all novels but separated due to the different time periods in which they were set, thus resulting in controversy and criticisms making it difficult to find a place within literature. Mark Twain’s ‘Huckleberry Finn’ is the story of a young boy, Huck Finn, who is faced with a restraint enforced upon him by society and later acknowledges this restraint once he comes to the realization that there is no escape from the society. ‘Vernon God Little’, like Huckleberry Finn, is also a story of a young boy framed as an accessory in a High School Massacre and is rendered to be an outcast in a society which revolves around manipulation and gullibility. Both Pierre and Twain portray the limitations and issues placed upon a young boy growing up in society. Sylvia Plath was viewed as a feminist icon, her collection ‘Ariel’, adopts the theme of outsider, as she believed women were classed as second-tier in a male dominant society and posed as a response to patriarchy in which oppressed women. The three texts intertwine in the portrayal of the outsider and act as a commentary on the societies in which these writers lived...
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...Live for the day, because tomorrow may never come, an often-heard motto in the 1920 s and the themes of two well-known novels of the 1920 s. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway and The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, are two novels about the lost generation. They are striving to find an order for their world, a world that has been shattered. They attempt to reach their allotment dream, and the downfall of those who attempt to reach its imaginary goals. Not only are the themes of these two novels similar, but the characters within the novels have many similarities. An example of two characters that are similar would be Jay Gatsby, from the novel The Great Gatsby and Robert Cohn, from the novel The Sun Also Rises. These two characters, Jay Gatsby and Robert , are similar because they are both the romantics of the novels, they are also the rich outsiders. Robert Cohn and Jay Gatsby are both outsiders of the novels and are not wanted by the crowed. The title The Great Gatsby is like a paradox, for Jay Gatsby is neither great no Gatsby. Jay's real name is Gatz and he can not be great, because he is not accepted by the person, he most desires to be with, for he is an outsider. Gatsby being part of the "new rich" makes him an outsider as well as him living in West Egg, for it is the less...
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...The theme of the outsiders is friendship can keep you sane. You can see this first in the part of the book when after Ponyboy got jumped everyone ran to him. They all started caring for him and making sure he was alright. “ It was Darry,” (Hinton 6). This is when Darry came up to him. “ Soda came looping back,” (Hinton 7). This is when Soda came for him as well. Soon after Steve came, then Two-Bit, Dally, and lastly Johnny. They all really cared for eachother. Everyone cared especially for Johnny because he was the “pet” of the gang. Even Dally had a soft spot for him. You could see this theme in the middle when everyone was worried sick about Johnny and Ponyboy. No matter what they stick together. When Ponyboy and Johnny went to...
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...The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton is about gang rivalry between two social classes, the poor and powerless Greasers and the rich and appealing Socs. The Greasers disliked the Socs because they believed the Socs had everything easy with their money and privileges. On the other hand, the Socs have been always drunk and choose to pick fights with the Greasers. These gang fights, or “rumbles” would usually consist of violence, brutality, and competition, and result in bruises, wounds, and at times, death. Moreover, violence is a “behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something.” Throughout this novel, there are many significant events that portray the theme of violence. To begin with, physical violence is represented in The Outsiders. The Greasers carry around and use weapons such as guns and switchblades whenever a Soc wanted to fight or jump them. As an example, in chapter 4, Johnny stabbed Bob with a switchblade at the park and stated that he had killed him in self- defense...
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..."Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold." (148) While reading the book "The Outsiders" by Se Hinton staying gold is mentioned many times in the book. The book is about a greaser named Ponyboy from Tulsa Oklahoma, Ponyboy goes through trials with some of his best buddies. I think that one of the best themes showed in the book is staying gold even when things around you are changing. I think this because they talk about Robert Frosts poem "Nothing Gold can Stay" (77) Secondly the book talked about people through out the book doing golden things to help the greasers out, and lastly before Johnny passes he tells Ponyboy to stay gold. First of all I think that one of the best themes from this book is staying gold while everything else is changing, one of the reasons why I think this is because in the book it mentions...
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