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

and we feel too violently” (38). The Greasers take everything to heart and that can end up hurting you in life. If you let everyone and everything get to you, it makes your life harder.
Another reason Greaser have it worse off is because they are always getting jumped by Greasers. Getting jumped by someone is hard enough, but when you constantly have to be on the lookout, it’s bad. Jonny was able to kill Bob because he carried a switchblade. But, the reason he carried it was because of Bob and his “gang” in the first place. “It occured to me then that they could kill me. I went wild” (5). The Socs are violent when they jump Greasers and many times blades are drawn. When Johnny was jumped it was even worse. “They had scared him. They had threatened him with everything under the sun. Johnny was high-strung anyway, a nervous wreck from getting belted everytime he turned around and from hearing his parents fight all the time” (33). “He would kill the next person who jumped him. No one was going to beat him like that again. Not over his dead body…” (34). Johnny was never the same after that, he was always jumpy and nervous. That experience changed his life, and it wasn’t for the better. When Greasers are jumped it’s a vicious and violent thing. The prey’s life is always worse than the predator’s.
A third reason the Socs have a better life than the Greasers, is because the Greasers have to work for their stuff.

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

other.
Some people may argue this isn’t the case and that Socs have the worse life because they they don’t feel anything. Greasers feel too violently, which can cause them to do something they might regret. Socs can still feel, they just choose to be cool and not show their emotions.
Greasers have a rougher life than the Socs. The Greasers feel too violently, which isn’t always a good thing. They also have to live in fear of getting attacked, and possibly killed. Plus, they have to work much harder for their things than the Socs do. Everything’s not handed to them.