Honor Among the Greasers Noah Hertzman, Painter, LA Pd. 4/5, 10/30/14 The book The Outsiders was written in the 1960's, at a time when, in many cities and suburbs, there was fierce rivalry between social classes. S. E. Hinton wanted to stop this violence and disagreement by sending a message that no matter how unfair the situation is, both the greasers and Socs are just ordinary people, and their emotions are genuine. Her feelings are expressed in the actions, speech, and thoughts of the characters in the book. Throughout the novel, the greasers show compassion, loyalty, and fairness to each other, proving that there can be honor among the lawless. No matter what they are doing, the greasers always stick up for each other, and this becomes evident at the drive-in movie theater. After Dally stops harassing Cherry and leaves, she says that she was scared of Dally and didn't like his dirty talk, but then Johnny speaks up and says that Dally's okay, and Ponyboy explains, "You take up for your buddies, no matter what they do. When you're a gang, you …show more content…
Two-Bit mentions that Dally would probably have a fight with Tim Shepard because he got caught slashing their gang's truck's tires. The girls say, "'You don't believe in playing rough or anything, do you?' 'A fair fight isn't rough,' Two-Bit said. ‘Blades are rough. So are chains and heaters and pool sticks and rumbles. . . . Us greasers usually stick together, but when we do fight among ourselves, it’s a fair fight between two.'" (37). As mad as Tim Shepard may be at Dally, he still will fight him without the help of his gang, and without weapons, because greasers don't usually believe in dealing real harm to anyone, and they play it