Injustice In S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders

Injustice is something people struggle with in today’s society. We are living in a world where we are harshly judged for every move we make, for our opinions, for who we are, for our identity. So many individuals constantly feel lonely, insecure, and outcasted. They feel the need to hide, and struggle to embrace their differences because they’re ashamed society would place a blanket statement of judgement over their head. In the coming of age novel, The Outsiders, S. E. Hinton illustrates these scenarios and claims against injustice. The protagonist Ponyboy, a greaser, lives in a unfair neighborhood where everyone is born with a societal hierarchy of three classes: greaser, middle-class, and Socs. With his parents so longer alive, Ponyboy,

Social divide hinders their ability to forgive one another and reunite as a whole, but instead motivates them to persist with a restricting mindset. Everytime the classes act mercilessly to one another, enmity between the two grows and the more the hatred, the worse the situation gets. All this tension piles up and is released through heinous acts like the one in the quote above. As a result, their viewpoint towards one another become more and more flawed because they judge one person’s behavior for only their bad side and regarded this nature to the rest of the class. Even though the Socs and greasers share some common ground with each other, their similarities are forgotten and overwhelmed by the detestation they have for each other. S. E. Hinton uses this scene to point out that people can often make the wrong call because of the seething hate we might have for someone. Using loathing as an excuse to use treat someone unjustly is also proven in the quote: “"It was the Socs"...Johnny's face was cut up and bruised and swollen, and there was a wide gash from his temple to his cheekbone. He would carry that scar all his life” (31-32). From this example, we can see that Johnny had been profoundly abused by