The Outsiders
By: S.E Hinton
Summary of The Outsiders
Ponyboy Curtis, the main character and the narrator, goes through a rough two weeks. Ponyboy is part of gang or group labeled the greasers. They're a tight group. One night Pony and his friend, Johnny, decide to run away. Before the do though the get into a fight and kill one of the upperclassmen. They then run away to a different town and live in a church for about 5 or 6 days. A fire starts in a church and hurts Johnny and another friend, Dally. They both end up in the hospital, Dally hardly hurt and Johnny hurt severely. Dally leaves but Johnny stays until days later he dies. Dally gets hit hard and ends up robbing a store and getting shot, which kills him. Ponyboy developed a concussion from fighting. Later writing a book after his awakening called The Outsiders.
Recommendation
I really love this book mainly because it has really good characters and a really good story. I like how there is no happy ending to the book people die and it says he killed someone and it says kids smoke its like real life theres no “fairy tales”.
"Things are rough all over" ~ Cherry Valance
Theme
The theme of the book is ¨stay gold.¨ Meaning not to loose your innocence.
In the book Johnny tells Ponyboy says stay gold. He doesnt want Ponyboy to loose his innocence like he did.
Character Analysis
Ponyboy Curtis was a 14 year old boy living in the Oklahoma. His parents were killed just a few months before the book was written. He lives with his oldest brother, Darry, whose 20 and his other brother, Sodapop, who is 16. He has always been labeled a greaser. A city hood of the time. Hes part of group or gang, tightly knit together.
During this two week period the book was written Ponyboy evolves so much it seems like it was years. He had to go through three deaths, one with a soc or and upperclassmen, the other his greatest friend.During this time they, as in the other people in the gang, felt like ponyboy lost his innocence.Barriers being broken
The barrier in the book that ponyboy and all of his friends are trying to break is the separation of the social classes. I believe no matter how hard anyone tried social classes will still exist.
Extra Information
This book is a young adult fiction written by S.E Hinton. This book was written in 1967 when S.E Hinton was only 15. It wasn't publish until she was 18 though. She wrote this book based of the life of many of her friends. While not a greaser nor a soc, Hinton knew many of both social classes.