The Theme Of Identity And Choices In The Outsiders

In the novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, there are many ideas worth being talked about and explained, but the ones that really stand out are identity and choices. There are multiple ways in which the author exemplifies this idea in the text, for example, sometimes the choices you make in the past can affect you in the future, like when ponyboy chooses to walk home alone even when he knows it’s dangerous. Secondly, not only do the choices you make effect your identity, but often your identity will affect your choices, like when ponyboy is convinced that he is a stereotypical greaser so he begins to act like one. Finally, your choices can also affect the way people see you, like when ponyboy and Johnny rescue the children from the burning church

Even though he could’ve asked someone from the gang to tag along or waited for Darry or Soda Pop for a ride, Ponyboy chooses to walk home alone after he has seen a movie because he likes to watch movies undisturbed. He knew he shouldn’t have walked home alone because there was a chance of him getting jumped as shown in his quote, “Greasers can’t walk alone too much or else they’ll get jumped.” Even though Ponyboy knows the consequences of his choice, he still decides to walk home any way, which ends badly with a group of socs in a red car following him and eventually jumping him. What the author wants us to learn from this experience is that if you properly assess the consequences of your actions, you would pick the better choice instead of the wrong

An example of this in the text is when Johnny and Ponyboy rescue all of those children from the burning church. After rescuing the children, everyone begins seeing the boys as heroes instead of the greasers that they are, as shown in the newspaper which was headlined, “Juvenile Delinquents Turn Heroes.” This just shows us that even though Johnny and Ponyboy come from a bad background, if they make the right choices, they can break free ang change the way people look at them. What the author wants us to learn from this is that it is not where you come from but the choices we make that define who we