Emotions In The Outsiders

In S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders Socs and Greasers are enemies. Society put them against each other and labeled them. Greasers are the poor, dirty, no-good kids that nobody wants around. Socs are stuck-up, perfect, rich kids who looks down on everybody. In the book, two boys- Johnny and Ponyboy- start some trouble with a couple of Socs, and Bob is killed. They have to run from the police, all while the tension between Greasers and Socs is thicker than ever. Throughout the novel, it explains how “things are rough all over”. The Greasers have it the worse because they feel emotions so harshly, they are constantly getting jumped by the Socs, and they only have each other because their families are broken. The Greasers feel emotions so harshly. Throughout the novel, Ponyboy loses two very close friends, almost dies himself, and he is almost taken away from Darry and put in a boys’ home. With those things happening to anyone it would be emotional. But Greasers feel more emotion that the Socs do. Socs are “... sophisticated- cool to the point of not feeling anything” (38). But when you compare Greasers and Socs it’s a different story. “That’s why we’re separated … It’s not money, it’s feeling- you don’t feel anything

Socs are handed everything in life. Darry had to give up college so he could support his brothers after their parents died. Sodapop had to dropout of school in order to get a job. “... you don’t realize all Darry’s giving up just to give you a chance he missed out on. He could’ve stuck you in a home somewhere and worked his way through college” (175-176). “... I had expected Darry to do all the understanding without even trying to understand him. And he had given up a lot for Soda and me” (176). Greasers don’t have all they want. They don’t have fancy clothes, or cool cars, or a lot of material things. Although, they had each