Examples Of Stereotypes In The Outsiders

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“There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept responsibility for changing them.” -Denis Waitley. This quote can be interpreted to mean that if you accept things as they always were, then stereotypes will never change. However, if you want to change societies generalizations then you need to change your actions. The theme of the novel The Outsiders is do not let stereotypes define who you will become and how you act. In the novel, Cherry chose her social status over friendship, which affected Ponyboy heavily. “ ‘If I see you in the hall at school… and don’t say hi...it’s not personal or anything, but…’ (45)”. Ponyboy takes offense to that comment, as he believes his being a greaser caused her to make that choice. “ ‘It was because we’re greasers… We could have hurt her reputation or something.’(47)”. Cherry did make that comment to Ponyboy because he was a greaser, but that was only because she had been taught it was how you treated people of lower social class. Cherry showed she did like spending time with Ponyboy by waiting in line with him to get refreshments at the drive-in movie and even opening up to him while they waited. This went against the typical social types. …show more content…

She felt that speaking to Ponyboy and Johnny caused her boyfriend to be angry. The assault would not have occurred if she had no chosen to sit and converse with them. Dally even said, “‘Hey, didn’t I tell you we got us a spy...She said she felt it was her fault.’” Thanks to Cherry, Johnny was charged with manslaughter and not murder. He was surprised that a soc would help the greasers. “Johnny gagged and I almost dropped my hot fudge sundae.” Cherry showed by helping the greasers that she did not care about stereotypes and did not let them define her

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