Empathy In The Outsiders

Delilah Dias
Mr. Bennet
ELA D Block
April 9th, 2023

S.E Hinton's 1967 young adult novel The Outsiders features a boy named Ponyboy Curtis. It describes his life as a Greaser; the stereotype of a greaser is seen as a gangster who lives in poverty, is not smart or well-educated, and does not work hard. Greasers are constantly harassed by Socs, the rich kids from the west side of town; they are known as being more intelligent and harder working. The novel also depicts his older brothers, Sodapop and Darry. Both his brothers are hard-working, but Ponyboy seems to have problems with his oldest brother Darry. Darry is introduced to the reader as 'cold' and 'hard as a rock' by Ponyboy. Ponyboy and Darry constantly argue and end up upsetting each

First is when the main character, Ponyboy, falls asleep in a parking lot with his friend, Johnny. When Ponyboy wakes up, he rushes home after noticing how late he is out. Ponyboy arrives home to his two older brothers, Sodapop / on the couch half asleep, and Darry, the oldest brother, waiting for him to come home. Instead, Darry starts arguing with Ponyboy and gets more aggressive toward Ponyboy. When Sodapop steps in and tries to stop Darry from yelling at Ponyboy, Darry tells Sodapop to shut up, not trying to listen to Ponyboy's side of the story. Then Ponyboy tries to defend Sodapop, but when this happens, Darry smacks him. This leads Ponyboy to feel unwanted and runs away. This immediately makes Darry regret what he did and feel ashamed. Next, after seeing a drive-in movie Ponyboy and his friends, Johnny and Two-bit, leave with two Socs, Cherry and Marcia; Cherry asks Ponyboy questions about his brothers when she gets to Darry, Ponyboy tells her that Darry is cold and mean; and that he does not like Ponyboy at all. Johnny and Two-bit, shocked, tell Ponyboy that it is not true, and then Ponyboy snaps back at Johnny, telling him that he is not wanted at home and for a reason lacking empathy for Johnny and his life at home. This makes Johnny feel hurt, and Ponyboy feels foolish about comparing his

Darry is surprised that Ponyboy does not know this already, but Ponyboy realizes that he never listens to Sodapop and his problems. After realizing this, Ponyboy and Darry start chasing after Sodapop. Once Sodapop stops running, they ask him why he ran away. Sodapop tells them that when they are always arguing, it makes him feel like a middleman and that they are tearing each other apart. Darry and Ponyboy never thought about how Sodapop felt. They were ashamed that they ever made him feel like that too. Ultimately in the novel, S.E. Hinton is teaching the readers that lacking empathy will affect both you and others. It is said that when you see through someone's eyes, that is how peace begins, and although that rings true in the book, it also finds itself true for our lives in the