How are the characters from S.E. Hinton’s ‘The Outsiders’ and Derek Landy’s ‘The Skulduggery Pleasant series’ portrayed as outsiders? The Outsiders is a famous, modern classic novel written by Susan Eloise Hinton or S.E. Hinton. This timeless novel was written in 1967 which has made the novel appropriate to its time. An outsider is a person who does not belong to a particular group, set or party. In every text there is always at least one outsider, in this case Ponyboy Curtis and The Greasers are all considered outsiders in S.E. Hinton’s the Outsiders. In comparison to these, the characters of Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain from the Skulduggery Pleasant book series, are also regarded as outsiders. Skulduggery Pleasant being a series …show more content…
Ponyboy tells us in the novel, that he is a member of the gang called "Greasers" These misfits are considered outsiders for the stupid reason that they don't fit in with Socs. The Greasers are from broken homes, poor economic situations and little education opportunities. The Socs have the best of everything, which makes them more popular. As Cherry tells Ponyboy, "You greasers have a different set of values. You're more emotional. We're sophisticated—cool to the point of not feeling anything ... Rat race is a perfect name for our life." This results in a sophisticated and soliloquy like speculation that perhaps it is just natural for the two classes to be separate and …show more content…
Skulduggery and Valkyrie both have two different sides the good and the evil. These evil sides or bad moods as Valkyrie calls them have different names, Lord Vile and Darquesse. Lord Vile is the product of Skulduggery’s anger and grief. Vile is cold, cruel and an obsession with murder and destruction. He has no sense of remorse, as he "killed whole battlefields" without a second thought. Like Lord Vile, Darquesse is a split personality of Valkyrie. “Have to be honest with you Darquesse, I cannot feel that. That must be one of your special abilities, because to me, it looks like you just killed a whole bunch of people for no reason.” "Oh," said Darquesse. "That's so sad”. (said with
Assumptions made based solely upon theses stereotypes are constant throughout The Outsiders. Ponyboy and the other Greasers assume that since the Socs are well-off financially, their problems are trivial. This helped to perpetuate stereotypes plastered onto the Socs. Since the Socs were thought of as model teens in
People should have a conversation with someone and get to know them before judging them. Ponyboy changed the way he thought of the Socs. At first he thought of the Socs as thugs who enjoy jumping Greasers. He later learned that Socs have problems that Greasers don’t know of and not all Socs hate Greasers.
This started to happen when he was in the church trying to hide away from the police because of the murder of one of the Soc’s. “I was trembling, and it wasn’t all from cold” (Hilton p.57). This shows that Ponyboy was scared, starting to break, and noticed that maybe this “hard bad boy” life isn't for him. Ponyboy put more and more thought about what it takes to be a greaser, which made him realize that maybe the gang life wasn’t good for him. “We were good fighters and could play cool, but we were sensitive and that isn’t a good way to be when you’re a greaser” (Hinton, p.88). Ponyboy is expressing that it is hard to be as strong as the other boys and sometimes he just couldn't or he couldn't be ok with what they were doing. “It drives my brother Darry nuts when I do stuff like that, ‘cause I’m supposed to be smart’ I make good grades and have a high IQ and everything, but I don't use my head” (Hinton, p.4). Ponyboy knows he has the potential to be something else and while being in hiding in the church it helps him realize that if he really wanted to he could be whatever he puts his mind
In the book The Outsiders, written by S.E. Hinton, Ponyboy, along with his brothers and friends, has to face the daily struggles of being a greaser among the Socs. This fiction book focused on Ponyboy’s life and the problems he ran into with the Socs. He and his gang of friends had fights with the Socs that happened often, and had to deal with a Soc being killed by one of the Greasers, though it was an act of self defense. The three topics addressed in this intriguing novel are the fight between rich and poor, the power of friendship, and what it means to be a hero.
The Outsiders, an enthralling novel by S.E Hinton, is an excellent story about the hardships and triumphs experienced by the Greasers and the Socs two rival gangs. S.E Hinton tells a thrilling tale about the Socs and the Greasers that are two gangs and she characterize how they live. Ponyboy, his brother and his friends have to deal with the challenges relating to their environment. The three most important topics of The Outsiders are survival, social class and family support.
After all, they are the “out” group— the clique that society condones. Ponyboy, the protagonist, also identifies himself as part of them. While reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, he felt Pip, the main character reminded him of the greasers–”the way he felt marked lousy because he wasn’t a gentleman or anything, and the way that girl kept looking down on him” (Doc B). Greasers are lookeed down opon in society becuase they aren’t rich, and the image associated with them is negative. They are believed to be a general menace to society; people think they all steal stuff for kicks, attack innocent bystanders for no reason, and are uneducated hoodlums. They are outsiders to society as a whole. Pony, no matter how smart or talented he may be, will always be treated as an outsider by the Socs just because he’s a
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is about a group called the greasers, a group called the socs and what’s different between the groups and what’s the same. The greasers are the kids with little money, who feel a lot, and are tough. The socs are rich kids with not enough emotions and they never get in trouble. The Greasers have it worse because they have broken families, are always getting jumped by the socs, and are expected to steal and be rude because of their backgrounds.
He knows that Ponyboy has a chance because he is very smart. How they both reacted to not having parents shaped and effected who they are. “Johnny was high-strung anyway, a nervous wreck from getting belted every time he turned around and from hearing his parents fight all the time(2).” This explains how Johnny was effected by his parents. His parents constantly fighting and beating him made him who he was. A part of him was effected by all the chaos and pain he had to go through every day. “We're poorer than the Socs and the middle class. I reckon we're wilder, too. Not like the Socs, who jump greasers and wreck houses and throw beer blasts for kicks, and get editorials in the paper for being a public disgrace one day and an asset to society the next. Greasers are almost like hoods; we steal things and drive old souped-up cars and hold up gas stations and have a gang fight once in a while. I don't mean I do things like that. Darry would kill me if I got into trouble with the police.” Social roles are a part of self-image that makes a person who they are. In the novel Ponyboy explains the groups that the Greasers and Sochs were split into. This
The Outsiders S.E. Hinton is about two gangs, the Socs and Greasers, who do not get along and are fighting each other as well as society. Both of the gangs are judged by their appearance, social status, and where they are from. One character that stands out in the story is Ponyboy because he is dynamic with many sides to his personality, and he is the protagonist of the story. Ponyboy can be described as sensitive, smart, and brave.
Greasers are real people just like Socs, but they do not fit in as easily. They feel as though they don’t belong anywhere. Or in other words, they are outsiders. Hence the title name. Ponyboy especially feels like this due to the fact that he does not fit in very well with Socs or Greasers. The rest of Pony’s gang feels more like the fit as Greasers. In conclusion, the title of the novel fits with the theme because they do not fit in anywhere, and they are outsiders.
The Outsiders is a book about Greasers And Socs. The Greasers are the poor east side kids they would wear their hair long and greasy and they will dress in blue jeans, T-shirts, or wear they shirttails out and wear a leather jacket and tennis shoes or boots. The Socs are the rich west side kids that worn nice clothes, drove nice cars, and had all the pretty lady’s. They both was gangs in Oklahoma. The Socs they would jump Greasers, wreck houses, and throw beer blasts for kicks.
Ponyboy doesn’t act like any regular greaser who is tough and likes to pick fights. Ponyboy cares about other people and will do things to benefit others. “I didn’t know what he was talking about, so I just went on picking up the glass from the bottle end and put it in the trash can. I didn’t want anyone to get a flat tire.” (pg. 172) Instead of leaving the
Typically, greasers are depicted as people similar to hoods, as Ponyboy states, "Greasers are almost like hoods; we steal things and drive old souped-up cars and hold up gas stations and have a gang fight once in a while" (Hinton 4). Yet, even though Ponyboy is a greaser, he avoids getting into trouble for the sake of staying together with his family. He explains that, "I don't mean I do things like that... Since Mom and Dad were killed in an auto wreck, the three of us get to stay together only as long as we behave. So Soda and I stay out of trouble as much as we can, and we're careful not to get caught when we can't" (Hinton 4). Alternatively, Pony also enjoys activities such as reading and watching movies. Even simpler things, such as sunsets and clouds, are something he found beauty and enjoyment in. This sets him apart from the greasers because according to Pony, he states that, "And nobody in our gang digs movies and books the way I do" (Hinton 3). Since nobody other than Ponyboy himself shares the enjoyment of these particular pastimes, which is drastically different from pursuits such as shoplifting and fighting in rumbles, Ponyboy is divergent from the standard attributes of the greasers. Therefore, Ponyboy is a thoughtful and dreamy individual who holds different interests and aspirations than the
The Outsiders written by S.E. Hinton is a book about two different groups that don’t get along, the Socs and the Greasers. The two unions may act like they are tough and have no emotion on the outside, but on the inside, they are full with feelings and are very caring people. After Johnny was hurt, Ponyboy says to himself “A pain was growing in my throat and I wanted to cry, but greasers don’t cry in front of strangers”(Hinton 102). The 2 social classes may put on a front in public, but deep inside they care about others and have
The Outsiders is about the life of a 14-year-old boy. The book tells the story of Ponyboy “Curtis” and his struggles with right and wrong in a society in which he believes that he is an outsider. Ponyboy and his two brothers, Darrel (Darry), who is 20, and Sodapop, who is 16, have recently lost their parents in an automobile accident. Pony and Soda are allowed to stay under Darry's guardianship as long as they all behave themselves. The boys are greasers, a class term that refers to the young men on the East Side, the poor side of town. The greasers' rivals are the Socs, short for Socials, who are the "West-side rich kids."