The Outsiders Book Report

Theme:
The theme to me is There is no line that separates us. In the story The Outsiders the two main groups who are figuratively and literally on the opposite sides of town, the East side and the West side where the prime meridian of the city separates the Greasers and the Socs. When Pony and Johnny are at the movies and stop Dallas Winston from annoying the two Soc girls in front of them, the girls start to talk them and the boys realize that Socs aren’t very different from Greasers, besides the slicked back hair and the fancy blue Mustangs. Another example is Randy, he was a the right-hand man of the big Soc, Bob. Randy was a mean guy at the beginning of the story but as it progresses he starts to realize that just because of your parent(‘s)

working class and how much money you have doesn’t mean you have to be divided. Near the end of the story Randy replaced the line in his life with himself turning into the Switzerland of the story where he’s in the middle of the two group’s conflict on either side. Another example is Cherry, she was a Soc and had nothing to do with Greasers until she met Pony and Johnny and the movies and later on became a spy for the Greasers.

Favorite Character:
My favorite character in the book is Randy.

I chose him because he showed everyone that it doesn’t take much to change who you are. Since he is a Soc he acted like a rich kid who is a jerk to anyone who isn’t his kind. He drove around in fancy Mustangs with his best friend Bob, but when Johnny stabbed Bob when they got in a fight at the park Randy changed. He changed into a better man, that better man became friends with the Greasers because he saw that they are much alike, they are all humans and live in the same town. He wanted peace in the feud between the two groups, but it didn’t work because it ended up in a rumble with the Greasers on one side and the Socs on the other side, Randy made his choice and and stood for the Socs one more time. After the rumble he was done he really wanted to change for good. Randy is a flat character he didn’t stand for much until the end after his best friend died. He is dynamic because he changed at the end of the book and became the person he was meant to

be.

Plot Summary:
The story begins where the main character and narrator Ponyboy Curtis is walking home the movies. As he was walking home a few Socs came along and jumped him, but he was close to his house so he was yelling for help and his older brother came out and fended of the Socs. Later that week Pony decided to go to the drive-in movies with two other Greasers, Johnny and Dallas (Dally) Winston. The three of them were sitting in the second row behind two Soc girls so Dally decided to annoy the girls. The two girls had enough and told him to stop and he didn’t but he was thirsty so he asked Pony and Johnny if they wanted Cokes, they said yes. When he came back with the Cokes for everyone he asked the girls if they wanted one as well so the redhead one said yes and when he handed it to her she opened it up and proceeded to splash Dally in the face. Johnny saw what happened and he also saw that Dally was going to hit the girl so he stood up and told Dally to stop it and leave them alone. The girls asked Pony and Johnny to sit up with them and told them their names. They got talking and told each other about themselves. They found out that the girls names are Cherry and Marcia. After the movies the teens were walking home when they were confronted by the girl’s boyfriends, Bob and Randy. The two Socs boys wanted to fight the Greasers for having their girls but Cherry said no and her and Marcia went home with them. When Pony had got home Darry yelled at him for getting home late and then continued with slapping Pony’s face. Pony got mad and so he ran away as far as he could, but he didn’t run away alone he took Johnny along because Johnny was getting abused by his parents. They didn’t stop until they got to the park and they started to walk through the park when a blue mustang pulled up and out came Bob and his companion Randy. The Socs were mad at the boys for being with their girls so they tried to jump them. While Johnny was fighting Randy he pulled out his switchblade and fought off Randy enough to help Pony who was being drowned by Bob. The only option Johnny had was to stab Bob and he killed Bob to save Pony from drowning. Randy ran from the scene and the two boys passed out. Later, when Pony woke up he woke up Johnny and they both continued to run away some more. They got some help from Dally, he gave them clothes, a gun, and money. Dally told them to go to Windrixville where the was an abandoned church to hide out in. Days passed and Johnny cut Pony’s hair and bleached it to change his appearance and to make time pass Pony bought a book called Gone With The Wind. Dally came to visit them to see how they were doing, so they went out to eat. When they came back the church was on fire, Johnny told himself that it was their fault. When they got closer there was a huge crowd because there was kids inside and no one went in to save them so Pony and Johnny ran in to save the little kids. Pony came out first and his back was on fire so Dally hit him in the back and made him pass out. However, when Johnny was coming out he was hit on the back with a piece of wood. The two boys were rushed to the hospital were Pony turned out fine but Johnny was seriously burned and injured. Darry and Soda came to the hospital while Pony was still being treated and when he got out Darry was there and they both made up and said sorry for everything that had happened. Dally took it hard that Johnny was injured badly, he didn’t want to leave him alone. Since there was a quarrel between the two groups and with the death of the Socs leader Bob they organized a rumble with the Greasers. Because the Greasers are a very small group of guys they brought some extra help. There was only two rules no weapons and first to run away loses. It ended up that the Socs lost because they ran first and Pony was really beat up. As soon as the rumble was over Dally and Pony rushed to hospital to go see Johnny since he wasn’t doing so well. When the two got there the told Johnny they had won the rumble, but he didn’t care about that because he was dying. The only thing Johnny said was for Pony and he said Stay gold Ponyboy, stay gold and then he was gone. Dally was Johnny’s role model and Johnny was Dally’s. He was loyal to Johnny that he robbed a store and had a gun with police chasing him he stopped in front of where all of the Greasers were, stood facing the cops with the gun pointed at them and the police had no choice but to shoot Dally. He died to be with his best friend.

Conflict:
To me the greatest conflict only lasted for one chapter.

That conflict was Dally versus nature, but its was also against himself because he thought it was his fault for not stopping Johnny. Even though it’s not the biggest conflict it’s the greatest since it shows how depression and sadness can get the best of you. It’s so important because it shows that Dally was not just a brick wall but he was caring person, who showed loyalty. He said he became hard in jail, he really wasn’t because he showed that he really cared for Johnny when Johnny was dying. I said it was Dally versus nature versus himself because it was nature of things that took Johnny’s life, but it was really Dally versus himself for letting Johnny to go into the burning church. This conflict didn’t last because Dally cared too much for Johnny that depression got the best of him and it ended up taking his life. Dally knew that Johnny wouldn’t want him to kill himself for Johnny but he couldn’t control his emotions from taking over when Johnny had died. It was Dally that won in the end, but he didn’t win because he actually lost to

himself.