...In the novel The Outsiders by S.E Hinton, The main character Ponyboy Curtis is looked upon as an “outsider” or someone who doesn’t belong in a normal group. In the novel, Hinton takes Ponyboy’s character one step further by putting him in different situations that show him as an outsider. The novel is about two different groups, the greasers, which are known as the outsiders, hence the name of the novel, and the Soc’s which is short for Socials or the socially accepted crowd. These two groups hate one another, constantly fighting each other throughout the whole novel. Ponyboy is a big reason these two groups fight. Even though Ponyboy deep down inside of him is really intellectual he puts up an act and carries on the greaser’s attitude so that nobody can really see who he truly is, “There isn't any real good reason for fighting except self-defense” (Hinton, 143)...
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...The outsiders is a book about two juvenile gangs. The lower class are the Greasers from the east side and the upper class are the Socs who are from the west side. This story takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the 1960's. Ponyboy Curtis and his two brothers Darry Curtis and Sodapop Curtis are living on their own because their parents recently died in a car accident. Ponyboy was leaving to the movies when a group of gang, the Socs jumped him. His two brothers Sodapop and Darry rescued him from the Socs. Two bit Matthews, Ponyboy, and Johnny walk Cherry Valance and Marcia back home that are from the Socs. They realize that Cherry is nothing like the Socs they had met before. Bob and randy that are from the Socs sees them and thinks that the...
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...Throughout the novel The Outsiders, Ponyboy Curtis probably changes more throughout the course of the Outsiders than any other character. Ponyboy’s innocence plays a major part of the novel. In the course of the novel Ponyboy matures and feels many different types of feelings in certain events. One example of this is when Johnny and him saved the kids from the burning church and were part heroes part criminals. In this example Ponyboy’s actions describe how he is maturing and how he is witnessing important events unfold in the book. Towards the start of the Outsiders Ponyboy is an intelligent young teen, who is part of the track team. Although, he lacks the perspective to understand everyone around him. This means he can only see his part of the story and fails to see why others act the way they do. One example of this is how Darry, Ponyboy’s older brother, is always treating him bad. Ponyboy is constantly always thinking about how Darry bully’s him and is mean to him for no reason. Also,...
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...Feeling like an outsider,isolated or an outcast makes people feel like they don't belong. Being isolated is an awful feeling that any person wants to feel. Also when feeling like an outsider can feel like the outcast. Like in the book The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton feeling “isolated or an outsider” a lot in this novel. Ponyboy is portrayed as an outsider for he doesn't fit in his gang,he doesn't like fighting he makes friend outside of his gang friends. Ponyboy is viewed that he doesn't fit in because he smarter than everyone else. Typically Greasers don't care about school and usually drop out like Ponyboy's brother Sodapop. Also Greasers do bad things in school and don't care about there'd reputation. Hinton writes, “I never could please...
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... Insider and Outsider? I know all of you must be asking, how can someone be both an insider and outsider? In the book The Outsiders by S.E Hinton many of the characters are both insiders and outsiders throughout the book. The genre of this book is realistic fiction because it was similar to what happened to S.E Hinton in high school, but the characters and story are fake. This book’s setting is based on Hinton’s hometown Tulsa Oklahoma. In this novel there are two different gangs of people, Socs and Greasers. They both have a rivalry and fight all the time. The book is through the eyes of the main character Ponyboy, whose parents died and is being raised by his two older brothers. Some of the main characters...
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...The two novels The Last Song and The Outsiders both display numerous characteristics of teenage rebellion, where as one is more modern while the other is in an era of irresponsible excess. The more modernistic novel, The Last Song, displays a different outlook, compared to the severity of The Outsiders. There are several reasons behind these teens rebellious outburst, such as abandonment, environment, and revenge. Also, the punishments these teenagers must face are more severe in the more classical novel compared to the more current novel. The rebellious actions shown throughout both novels are quite similar, while displaying the same actions with a modern twist. Overall, today's teens display less severity, compared to the volatile actions of the teenagers in The Outsiders. The severity of the rebellious actions varies between a more modernistic outlook, compared to a classical approach. Ronnie, the main character of The Last Song, rebels against her father by refusing to play the piano. She refuses to use her incredible piano playing skills purposely to hurt her father's feelings. Ronnie also hangs with the wrong crowd, which gets charges filed against her. Although, Ronnie seems like a troubled teen, she does not engage in usage of alcohol or any illegal substances. Ronnie's mother becomes angered with the incidents that continuously occur with Ronnie. “Mom probably believed that the louder she yelled about Ronnie's grades, or Ronnie's friends, or the fact that Ronnie continually...
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...Immigrants vs Ponyboy In the novel, The Outsiders, by S.E Hinton, and the memoir, “The Latehomecomer” by Kao Kalia Yang, describes being an outsider in society. Ponyboy, the main character in The Outsiders, is connected to immigrants in many ways. Some reasons are including that he is treated like an outsider or differently in society, he is split in his identity, and that he does not socialize with people in his area, other than his gang. An outsider is a person who does not belong to a particular group and is treated like an outcast, and immigrants are an example of many that are treated like outsiders. My first reason is that Ponyboy is treated differently than others in his gang and in...
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...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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...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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...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 are relatively minor characters in the movie, and the viewer is given little insight into their lives. The same is true for the rest of the gang, even Dally. Dally's death loses much of its impact because viewers aren't able to get to know him. Only the reader is aware of the fact that Dally's gun is unloaded, and the symbolic death of Dally in the spotlight is gone...
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...lead to a hero’s downfall. Although Ponyboy is usually seen as the hero in The Outsiders, Johnny is the most heroic character in my opinion. He was willing to sacrifice his life in order to save multiple lives in a burning church. As a result, he was nearly killed because of a falling pillar that hit his back. Johnny is selfless, loyal, and daring. One quality Johnny shows in The Outsiders is selflessness. He displays this trait when he saves the children from the burning church. The children are stuck inside the church while it burns down, and Johnny immediately goes to save them. Ponyboy also saves the children, but he sees something different in Johnny which represents his selflessness: “I blinked myself-- Johnny wasn't behaving at all like his old self... I caught one quick look at his face; it was red marked from falling embers and sweat streaked, but he grinned at...
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...lawless? I think not. In the book The Outsiders by S.E Hinton is a book about a group of greasers who live in a poor neighborhood and are against a group of soc’s. The greasers do a lot of dishonorable things and they always get mistreated because of it. But the soc’s since they live on the south side they are rich and they can always use anything against the greasers to get them in trouble. The greasers from The outsiders are not honorable because they steal, murder people, and threaten to kill people with blades. In The outsiders, the greasers do a lot of dishonorable stuff. For example, Dally robbed a grocery store and was running from the cops. In the book it quotes that “ It was Dally... he just robbed a grocery store and the cops are after him we gotta hide him..” (157). This is dishonorable because what person robs a store and then pulls a gun out at the cops and starts shooting and calls that honorable. Doing all that stuff was cowardly of Dally because since he didn’t want to feel...
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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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...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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...What Life Lessons Can We Learn? What life lessons can you learn in an extraordinary time in your life? During the novel The Outsiders Ponyboy learns numerous life lesson, and also learns multitudinous thing about the people he is closest to. In this essay we will explore three different life lessons Ponyboy learned and how they influenced him. The first life lesson is nothing gold can stay. Johnny gave Ponyboy his copy of Gone with The Wind before he died. Inside was a note were Johnny told Pony to stay gold, and not to let the world change who he is. This changed Pony because he finally understood what the poem meant, and realizes that he should stay the way he is and not let someone else change him. Johnny also told Pony to tell Dally...
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