Courage In S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders

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Life is scarier than we think it is. We are always surprised by the unexpected and we don’t know what awaits us around the corner. The Greasers have been overwhelmed with the unexpected nevertheless they are ready, waiting anxiously for those miscalculations to occur. The most imperative and dominant themes that concoct S.E.Hinton’s The Outsiders are courage, social class and the importance of family and support. Courage is the ability to do something that others wouldn’t, therefore it is fundamental in the life of the Greaser’s in S.E.Hinton’s The Outsiders. The Greasers are victims of prejudice, marginalization and maltreatment by the Socs. Greasers need courage to overcome their problems and to move on from the situation their social …show more content…

The importance of having a family and friends that support you is indispensable. Ponyboy’s parents died in a car accident leaving him in custody of his brothers Sodapop and Darry. Ponyboy and Darry have a strange relationship. Darry is very protective and strict with Ponyboy because he feels that he is responsible over Ponyboy. Instead, Sodapop is more closer to Ponyboy in different ways. Ponyboy even admits, at page 2, that he loves Sodapop more that his parents, which had passed away. He is protective but at the same time lets Ponyboy live his youth. Ponyboy also depends on the gang as his family. This is seen at page 17 when Ponyboy and Sodapop are talking together before going to sleep. The gang is always there to support him during struggles and acts like brothers for him. The same concept goes for Johnny. Johnny’s parents beat him and make his life horrible. Johnny has no family apart from the gang, who are always ready to lend a hand and to protect him from trouble. Without the gang, Johnny would be lost because the gang is everything for him. “His father was always beating him up, and his mother ignored him, except when she was hacked off at something, and then you could hear her yelling at him clear down at our house.” This quote at page 12 explains how Johnny is treated at home and how hard it is for him to live with family members that maltreat you all the time. Having family and friends that are always there for you is like having the answer to a question you have never been able to resolve:

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