Examples Of Stereotypes In S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders

In the book, “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton there are two main social groups, the Socs and the greasers. The Socs, and the greasers are enemies in the town of Tulsa and often get into fights just because they are different. Socs and greasers often stereotype each other just based on one experience with one their friends. To start off, there are many instances of greasers stereotyping Socs, but here are just a few examples. First, when Ponyboy was looking through Sodapop’s yearbook he stumbled upon a picture of Bob and thought to himself, “What was he like? I knew he liked to pick fights, had the usual Soc belief that living on the West Side made you Mr. Super-Tuff, looked good in dark wine-colored sweaters, and was proud of his rings. But what about the Bob Sheldon that Cherry Valance knew?” (162). In this instance, Ponyboy realizes that he had stereotypes Bob as just a “typical” Soc, mean and tuff without realizing that he was a just a boy too, just like him,

Instead of just seeing them as just a person. Another example is when Ponyboy thinks to himself, “I really couldn’t see what Socs would have to sweat about-good grades, good cars, good girls, madras and Mustangs and Corvairs-Man, I thought, if I had worries like that I’d consider myself lucky”(36). In this example, Ponyboy stereotypes Socs as having no troubles at all, that Socs have got it good in everything, even when he only knew what was on the outside of the Socs, their fancy clothes and good looks, but never knew any of them on the inside, their personality, worries, and fears. Finally, the last example was when Johnny and Ponyboy were about to get into a fight with some Socs and Ponyboy said, “You know what a Soc is? White