Examples Of Belonging In The Outsiders

We can say that the book the Outsiders is a book that is all about the will to belong in a society. they grew up on the outside of society. They weren’t looking for a fight. They were looking to belong.
This quote from the book leads us to consider three different aspects of the topic: , the first being that they grew up outside of society, the second being that they weren’t looking for a fight and the third being that they were looking to belong.

First off, the protagonists in the Outsiders “Grew outside of society”
This can be read throughout the entire book with different characters mentioning it in different ways.
For example, when Jerry asks the boys if they came from heaven after they saved the kid, they tell him that they are Greasers, he asks them surprised what that means, and they answer by saying “Greasers. You know, like hoods, JD’s.”

Another example is when Ponyboy realizes that Cherry may live in a different, more rich area, yet she still sees the same sunset as him. In that moment we can see Ponyboy realize that even though the Greasers lived their whole lives in the outside of their society, they aren't all that different from those that lived in the society.

Secondly, we can also say that the protagonist of The Outsiders “weren’t looking for a fight”
This can be read in some different moments of the story.
For example, probably the most famous example of this, when Johnny kills Bob, the entire scene shows how they didn’t want to fight and yet had too. Johnny has huge regrets after killing Bob because he knew it wasn’t a good thing to do and he shouldn’t have done it. But in the scene he doesn’t do it willingly he is forced or else Ponyboy would have been drowned by the Socs.
Another example can be found in the beginning of the book as we see Ponyboy get beat up. We can read the famous “Need a haircut,