The Outsiders by S.E. Hilton

The Outsiders” takes you through a journey of struggle, violence, and death. It examines the life of a recently orphaned young man born into poverty confronted with the prejudices that he could not change. He struggles with the many conflicts between the lower class and the upper class youths.

The Outsiders focuses on the life of Ponyboy Curtis who has two brothers, Darry and Sodapop, which belong to a group of young people that were called greasers. The Greasers defined as a group of hoodlums with a background of being poor, mean, and violent. Ponyboy’s brother, Darry, stepped in to support his family after their parents died in an automobile accident. Darry was a smart and serious person that worked most of the time, and was very hard on Ponyboy .He often yelled at Ponyboy to do better in school. Soda, the middle brother considered very handsome and likeable, was happy most of the time. The brothers often fought over Ponyboy’s future. They closely associated with two members of the greasers, Dally who was one of the oldest gang members and certainly the toughest, and Johnny who was shyer than Ponyboy. Dally seemed to enjoy being a criminal and thought the law was a joke. Johnny’s parents abused him, so he always seemed scared which made him the pet of the group.

This story has many tragedies. The first tragedy in the story was when the socs jumped Ponyboy, who was walking home from the movies by himself. He was two blocks from home when he saw a red Corvair following him. Ponyboy briefly envisions the time when the socs jumped Johnny. The socs beat Johnny up very badly and made him cry. The Corvair pulled up beside him and five socs got out. One of the socs made a comment about cutting Ponyboy’s hair off. When trying to cut his hair off other members of the greasers showed up. The socs immediately took off running when the saw the greasers.

The next tragedy in the story was takes place when Ponyboy and Johnny were walking Cherry and Marcia home. They met at the drive-in. While walking, a blue Mustang came down the street that belonged to Cherry and Marcia’s boyfriends. They continued to walk down the street and acted normally. The mustang passed them by.