Are Outsiders Simply Those Who Are Misjudged and Misunderstood? If you were to walk into a high school lunchroom, what is the first thing you would see? Groups, cliques, friend circles, and separations. Tables split up in detached formations, almost completely unaware of the other surrounding pupils nearby. The most common groups in high school are the populars and the outcasts. The kids who have endless friends, engage in team sports, and meet the ideal teenage standards, against the ones who are quiet, solitary, and unconventional. The ones that are outcasts fall into the second description. They don’t line up with society's norms therefore, they tend to be looked upon as bizarre and atypical. Outsiders are too often misjudged and misunderstood …show more content…
Most popular kids engage in a school sport which makes them well known and liked throughout their social atmosphere, not only by their peers, but by their teachers as well. Many outcast do not engage in these acts of physical teams like sports, but rather in other institutions such as a culture, theater, and various academic clubs. These tend to be labeled “uncool” and separate these kids from other students. Their “abnormal” interests, that vary from the conventional athletics, can make them looked down upon and questioned by others. Having these preferable extracurricular activities is normal, yet these kids tend to be misunderstood by the jocks who don’t have a particular preference to these clubs. Based on the same survey from stageoflife.com, interests are the second leading cause of teens feeling inferior to their peers at 49% (stageoflife.com). Also, “63% of teens say that their appearance is an important factor in their identity” (stageoflife.com). Kids feel that their ability in activities causes them to subordinate to others. Teens are often judged for these interests which should not happen since their enjoyments are irrelevant to popularity
Teens, in particular, have always sought to separate themselves into different social groups. Whether they’re named the nerds and the jocks or the preps and the rebels, one group has always been “in” and one group has always been “out”. It’s just the names and uniforms have changed(Doc A). This has never been more apparent in the novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Set in the 1960’s in Tulsa, Oklahoma, two groups of teens —the no-good greasers and the rich Socs— are at constant odds with each other. While it may be easy to tell who are the outsiders in the novel at first glance, lines become blurred as the reader gets deeper into the novel. It’s true the Socs and/or the greasers may be the outsiders referred to in the title of the novel, however, the title truly pertains to the individuals who see beyond the divide of the 2 groups aforementioned above.
1.You are a 8th grade language arts teacher, you teach at a private middle school and it is the end of January. Each month you assign your students a book and at the end of the month your students are required to lead a discussion, done completely by the students, about the assigned book. This month the students were assigned The Outsiders. The students lead an excellent discussion about the book; however, the next morning, Morgan and her mother walk into your class. Morgan’s mother expresses her anger toward you about having the students read such a violent book in class. After her mother has finished, Morgan tells her, “but mom, I really enjoyed the book.” Morgan's mother gives you a dirty look. What do you do?
In many high schools, there is an unspoken social order amongst peer groups; teenagers are either included in the popular group or the unpopular group. These social standings are determined by the popular group whether they will accept certain people based on shared interests and values but mainly on appearance. For example, some groups may isolate a student who does not have clothing considered attractive enough. Teenagers belonging to the popular clique label individuals as outcasts who do not fit the clique’s standards of a perfect appearance. This repression can cause a build up of anger if an outcast seeks to be accepted into that popular group.
Romeo and Juliet and The Outsiders Argumentative Essay The scared and bewildered look coming off of Johnny’s face, and the repentance and sorrow of Romeo. These were some of the unaccustomed feelings that not only the characters felt after they had just brutally murdered someone, but the audience felt as well. If only Romeo or Johnny knew what their future was going to be like, they could have saved themselves from the tragedy. Johnny is a character from a young adult fiction novel, The Outsiders, that took place in the mid-1960’s.
The high schools are made up of cliques and the artificial intensity of a world defined by insiders and outsiders. (Botstein pg.20) The insiders hold control. over the outsiders because of good looks, popularity, and sports power; the teacher. and staff do nothing to stop them, the elite.
In my opinion, outsiders are misunderstood and misjudged. They may just have their own opinion about something that others don't agree with. Maybe they do something that seems weird to other people. Yes, sometimes people are strange, but that isn't always the case. They are outsiders because people make them outsiders.
Throughout life individuals face many challenges testing their values and personality one situation at a time. In the evocative novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton themes of growing up and innocence are shown. Ponyboy is not your average 14 year old he is part of a gang known to many as the Greasers. He encounters many situations testing his values and beliefs. Having lost both his parents recently he and his brothers stick together like a true family but this relationship is tested when Darry hits Ponyboy. He also experiences the loss several close friends in a very short period of time. Throughout this novel, Ponyboy encounters many life changing experiences that prove he is a dynamic character.
Recent studies show that high school students no longer only talk to, and/or become friends with the stereotypical cheerleader, jock, or band geek that they are, but rather look much farther than that. Maybe a quarterback does not understand his algebra class, and his nerd of a classmate wants to learn how to throw a perfect spiral for physics. Tradeoff. The quarterback asks the nerd to help him, and visa-versa. Wait a minute. They actually had fun together, and are now fr...
In ”Revenge of the Geeks” ,an example can be found in this quote:“...Taylor Swift’s classmates left the lunch table as soon as she sat down because they disdained her taste for country music. Last year, the Grammy winner was the nation’s top-selling recording artist.” pg. 201. In other words, Taylor Swift was excluded from her friend group because they didn’t share the same interests. Similarly, in the poem “Sonnet, With Bird” it states “...I traveled to London to promote my first internationally published book. A Native American in England!” pg. 214. This shows that even Native Americans who travel the world can still feel like a foreigner at times. Lastly, from my own personal experience, I have a family member who always was an outcast during their teen years, but then when they matured as an adult they become very successful with their created business and they didn’t rely on being popular to boost their activity. On the other hand, some may think that kids who were outsiders choose to be by their actions and that people can only be an outsider if they want to be. In “Revenge of the Geeks” an 8th grader says “The smart thing repels girls.” pg. 226. He talks about how his intellectual abilities prevent him from attracting girls. However, many cannot control how they are and can’t control how they’re labeled, and will continuously be called an
It receives much more attention than academics. Football players are often treated like celebrities, yielding confidence, and at the same time creating pressure. High school sports are approached with clashing opinions. Some of these opinions are positive, and supportive of athletics. “Athleticism, among many activities, offers teens a physical outlet to express their troubles, anger, emotions, and other feelings” (Chen 1).
When life becomes overwhelming during adolescence, a child’s first response is to withdraw from the confinement of what is considered socially correct. Individuality then replaces the desire to meet social expectations, and thus the spiral into social non-conformity begins. During the course of Susanna’s high school career, she is different from the other kids. Susanna:
The teenage years are a time when adolescents try out various personas, often trying out different styles of fashion. Adversaries argue that uniforms suppress an individual’s freedom of expression. However, the clothes that people wear, or can afford to wear, often classify the group by which they are acknowledged. As a result, many teens are outcast due to the fact that they cannot afford the latest trends in clothing. This rejection can lead to a number of problems for the outcast teen: depression, inability to focus on schoolwork, or just a general feeling of inferiority. School uniforms put everyone on the same level. According to Karin Polacheck (1995), “Uniforms help to create balanced diversity by alleviating racial and cultural tensions and encouraging values of tolerance and civility.” School Uniforms permit students to relate with one another without experiencing the socioeconomic barrier that non-uniform schools generate. More importantly, students are not criticized on how much they spent on clothes or how fashionable they look, but rather for their talents and their
As preteens and teens push for increasing independence from their parents, they tend to turn to their peers for guidance, acceptance, and security. For those who are low in self-esteem and confidence, their safety lies in fitting in and having a place to belong. Most people find a group in which they connect with in a healthy way while others make their way in cliques that give them security but at the price of their own values and individuality. The movie Mean Girls portrays how high school female social cliques operate and the effect they can have on girls. I will argue how if one doesn’t have a strong sense of self-identity, the opinions of others will become their identity.
Adolescents is hard enough the way it is. Trying to be someone you're not makes it even harder. I hereby declare myself independent from “being cool”. There is a certain stigma that the student body has enlisted on it’s peers. I believe there is a certain shame that high school students and students in general have made the “norm”, in which students feel the need to “be cool” and fit in with the crowd. I, therefore, am sending this declaration to all the people who feel the need to be cool. I believe that all students should be able to express themselves the way they feel, whether it be dressing the way the want, wearing the makeup they choose, or the actions they portray. I believe I have the right to change the stigma of “being cool” to
When there are less kids, there is a greater opportunity for kids to be involved. They can be in several sports, performing arts, or any group they desire. I was involved in volleyball, football managing, basketball, track, cheerleading, softball, choir, and student council. I was always busy with projects or practices “promotes an overall feeling of unity and social solidarity (Schaefer 2016:18). Activities and “sports serve as a safety value for other participants and spectators, who are allowed to shed tension and aggressive energy in a socially acceptable way” (Schaefer 2016:18). At big schools, not every kids has a chance to be involved and so they have to get their anger out some other way, which can lead to bad things. Since I have been involved in many activities and had ways to relieve my anger I do not need another way; therefore, I have not gotten into bad situations. I am satisfied that I haven’t missed out on an activity that I have wanted to do because of my school. Sadly, this does not happen in all schools. Many large schools do not give the students the same chances because there is more competition. At these schools, kids have to compete to be on an extracurricular team. They really have to specialize in the organization or else they do not have the opportunity to be a part of the activity. Many have to specialize in this extracurricular activity