Bianca Greenan Ms. Copeland ELA D Block 30 March 2023 TITLE S. E. Hinton’s 1967 fiction novel, The Outsiders, is about the life of a 14-year-old boy named Ponyboy Curtis. In The Outsiders, two different “groups” separate all the characters: the Socs and the Greasers. The Socs and Greasers don’t like each other because both groups are stereotyped and do not understand each other. The Socs are a group of wealthy teenagers living on the West side of town. They are the popular kids who drive “tuff” cars and wear nice clothes. They are enemies of the Greasers. The Greasers are poor kids that live on the East side of town. They are called Greasers because of their greasy, slicked-back long hair. Because the Greasers are poor and vulnerable, they …show more content…
Johnny Cade is a skittish 16-year-old boy Greaser. He is best friends with the main character, Ponyboy. Johnny has lived a harsh, scary life alone, aside from his family-like Greaser friends. At home, Johnny doesn’t have a loving family. Both of his parents abuse him. He doesn’t like sleeping at home, so he often sleeps in any of the other Greasers' houses or outside. “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.” (Hinton, 12) The author shows that Johnny has a tough life by giving examples like this when introducing Johnny and throughout the book. This quote shows that Johnny has a tough life because he doesn’t have a safe, loving family. Before the story began, Johnny had gotten beaten and traumatized badly by the Socs. Johnny is used to being abused by his father, “But those beatings had been nothing like this. Johnny's face was cut up and bruised and swollen, and there was a wide gash from his temple to his cheekbone”(10). Johnny had gotten beaten and scared badly by the Socs, and since that day, he has become super jumpy and skittish. “Johnny never walked by himself after that. And Johnny, who was the most law-abiding of us, now carried in his back pocket a six-inch switchblade.” …show more content…
Cherry is a Soc and popular cheerleader who goes to Ponyboy’s school. She is an important part of the story because she teaches Ponyboy something that changes how he views the world. “Things are rough all over,” Cherry says to Ponyboy on page 35. Cherry and Ponyboy were talking together about why Johnny is like the way he is being so jumpy and Ponyboy told Cherry the story about what happened. After the story, Cherry says "All Socs aren't like that"(34). She explains that not all Socs are how they might seem to be to Greasers. When she says this, she means that life is hard for even herself, though you might not assume it to be that way because of how Socs are stereotyped. Life is rough all over, so no matter who you are, life is rough. On page 34, Cherry says, “I'll bet you think the Socs have it made. The rich kids, the West-side Socs. I'll tell you something, Ponyboy, and it may come as a surprise. We have troubles you've never even heard of.” Cherry says, as a Soc herself, that most people think that all Socs have such an easy, perfect life. In reality, they have problems you might never have even thought of. Socs have so much time and money that they don’t know what to do with it all. The Socs are always looking for something to fulfill them and make them feel something, but they already have too much that they don’t get that feeling. That is the reason why
Throughout the novel, a strong theme displayed is family relationships, even if it had been portrayed positively or negatively. Ponyboy Curtis is the protagonist and narrator of the book, so the Curtis brothers are one of the main families described in the book, which consists of Ponyboy’s brothers. Even though they had lost their parents not a while ago, they still tried to stick together. Unlike Ponyboy's family, Johnny Cade is less fortunate with his family and he’s unwelcomed in his own home. Even though the greasers were not blood related (excluding the Curtis brothers) most of them considered the gang as their family.
Johnny the “mascot” member of the greasers as Ponyboy says, confesses to Ponyboy the youngest member of the greasers and the smartest one that he is "scared of his own shadow" and that he has "never had anybody to be scared for [him] before." (Hinton 4) Johnny says this because the higher class rich kid gang, the soc, beat him up severely. Now due to that trauma, he has to look over his back as he's scared he's going to get jumped. Thanks to the trauma of almost dying to a jump Johnny thinks of himself as weak; he tries to prove himself through many actions which lead to trouble.
Johnny had sacrificed his life to save not only the kids lives but also his dearest friends Pony's. According to the article, "We dropped the last of the kids out as the front of the church had started to crumble. Johnny shoved me toward the window. "Get out!". " Saving those kids and his friend really does show how much he cares more about others than he does himself.
In contrast to the start where he was mean and tough and didn't care about anyone but himself. To expand on that he also says, “I just don't want you to get hurt.” (pg 80) This tells the reader that he does have a soft spot and isn’t just an animal who doesn’t care about anything. He cares about at least one thing Johnny.
Greasers are kids with slicked-back hair and not a big money background. The socs are rich kids with mustangs and corvettes. These teens have a big rumble after one socs is killed by a greaser. In the book The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Randy and Sodapop are relatable to today’s teens because they are thoughtful, harmful, handsome, and heartbroken.
A quote in the section where Johnny was introduced to the readers said, “ His father was always beating him up...... I think he hated that worse that getting whipped. ”(Hinton PDF chapter 1 page 11) This quote showed that Johnny had a horrible family and his father used to beat him up after getting sober, while his mother, a selfish
Johnny, the second youngest Greaser, gets jumped by Socs, and has feared them since the incident. Johnny, the loyal gang member, gets described as the gang 's pet. Yet, he still believed in doing the right thing and was the most law-abiding kid in the group. For example, one
Johnny probably had one of the worst lives of the greasers, yet he still managed to stay optimistic even after being beaten on an almost daily basis. Johnny would also stand up for people even after being isolated for most his life, as shown when Dallas was harassing Cherry and Marcia. Finally the most loyal of them all, even on his deathbed he stuck by his friends and only allowed them to vist and not his horrible mother that ignored him for most his life. After an abusive childhood most people would give up but Johnny cade stood amongst the Greasers with pride, not
All of this points out that Johnny felt threatened and his friend needed help, so he did the only thing he could
Johnny is kind of forced to mature quickly, because being in a gang means you dont have time for “childish things” so Johnny isnt able to be a normal teenager. In a way being in the gang made him miss out on his childhood but, he didnt really have a choice since the socs were bullying him. On pg 16 Ponyboy says,”I remembered how awful Johnny had looked when he got beaten up. I had just as much right to use the streets as the Socs did, and Johnny had never hurt them.” here hes talking about one of the many times the Socs bullied Johnny, but now he has the gang to protect
After Johnny had been jumped the first time was scarred, so he started carrying a switchblade and would use it if he had to. “And Johnny who was the most law-abiding of us, now carried in his back pocket a six-inch switchblade. He’d use it, too, if he ever got jumped again”(Hinton, 34). This is what made Johnny murder because Johnny was a kid, afraid of his own shadow, who grew up in a rough environment, and killing was his last
“The Outsiders” is a novel written by S.E. Hinton. Originally Published in 1967, Hinton was only 18 when her novel hit the shelves. Instead of using her real name Susan Eloise Hinton, she used her initial’s so people wouldn’t know she was a girl making the book less desirable. The Outsiders is considered a cult classic and is typically assigned reading across the U.S. She always loved reading but did not like the books they had for young adults
At the beginning of the novel, Johnny lacked confidence and self-esteem. At times he thought about attempting suicide. S.E. Hinton describes Johnny as, “A little dark puppy that has been kicked too many times and lost his crowd of strangers” (11). This is because Johnny 's parents are abusive: his mother verbally and his father
Have you ever experience the loneliness? Have you ever be an outsider? Do you care about other people feeling? The book “The Outsiders” written by S.E. Hinton’s novel, is about a boy named Ponyboy, which is on the greaser side. There are two main gangs of people.
Ponyboy lived with his two brothers Darry and Sodapop after his parents were killed in a car accident. Ponyboy had some friends in the gang: Steve, Two-Bit, Dally but his best friend was a boy named Johnny who was considered the gang`s mascot. Ponyboy was a boy who always wanted to be tough but an accident that happened in the story might make him change of mind on what he wanted to be. He also finds a way of how to finish the gang that was taking place from many tima.