The Outsiders
By: S. E. Hinton
Characters: Ponyboy is the protagonist of The Outsiders. He is the youngest of three. Even though he is a greaser he is also a dreamer. Sodapop is Ponyboy's older brother. He is a highschool drop out. Soda is "movie star kind of handsome." He's the type of guy who gets drunk off of life. Darry is Soda and Pony's oldest brother. He is their legal guardien since their parents died. He works too hard and two long. Johnny is the gang's pet. His hero is Dally. He gets beaten and yelled at by his parents. Dally is a typical gang member and bad boy. He is the most dangerous greaser. The only thing he cares about is Johnny. Two-bit is the funny guy in the gang who always makes every one smile. He like fights, blonds, and shoplifting. Steve is Soda's best friend. He works at the gas station with Soda and his specialty is cars.
Point of View: The point of view of The Outsdiers is first person narrative. Ponyboy is the narrator. He is writing an essay for school of his life which end up being "The Outsiders."
Setting: The setting is in the innner city and also in the country. The story takes place around the 1960s.
Conflicts:
The major coflict in this story is socials vs. greasers. Two gangs which are divided by the amount of money you have and were you live. Another conflict in the story is Ponyboy vs. Darry. The two brothers do not stop fighting throughout the whole book. There brother Soda seems to always be in the middle trying to be the peace maker.
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Plot Line: The story starts with Ponyboy waking out of the movies. He starts walking home when he notices a car of socials, the enemy of the greasers, starts fallowing him. Soon they get out of the car and jump him, luckily his gang is there in a second to help him out. The next day Darry and Pony get in a fight about Pony staying out too late. Darry ends up hitting Pony. Pony and Johnny run away to the park and sure enough a car of socials finds them. They get in a fight and becase the socials are drunk they start drowning Pony in the fountain. So Johnny gets out his switchblade and kills one of the socials. They run away with the help of Dally and find themselves in the country in an abandoned church. After they hide out there a while Dally comes to get them with a letter Soda wrote Pony saying Darry was real sorry for what he did. Then the church starts to burn down from one of the cigarets they left one and Johnny and Dally get hurt in the fire. Johnny dies after the socials and the greasers have there big fight in the hospital. Dally gets so upset he makes the cops chase after them and they shoot him. At the end Pony's teacher makes him write an essay which becomes "The Outsiders."
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Theme: Every one sees the same sun set.
In the story Ponyboy feels different. He is a greaser but it doesn't seem he is by choice. He dreames of better things than being part of the gang his whole life. He loves to read and see movies. When he meets Cherry Valance, a social girl that goes to his school, he realizes that even though he is a greaser and she is a social they are not so different. Even though he is poor and she is rich they have a lot in common. Even though people look down on the greasers and look up to the socials they still see the same sun set.
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Recommendations:
This is a realy good book! This was the third time I read it. It is the only book that I have ever read more than once. It is also the only book I have read fully through by myself. It probably will not be the last time I read it either. It is not the typical story you see most of the time. It's not one of those fantisy stories were everyone already knows what going to happen in the end. It's real. It doesn't have a happily ever after ending like everyone wants. The Outsiders can make you appreciate the little things a lot more, like the sun set.
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