Individuality In The Outsiders

Have you ever viewed a piece of media that was astonishingly great, and had a theme that you can learn from? For me, that was The Outsiders—the movie and novel alike. From these 2 pieces of media, I was able to learn individuality and apply it to myself. Though many themes are present in The Outsiders, individuality stood out to me, as it is heavily developed, through character and plot. The Outsiders heavily develops the theme of individuality in the novel and film adaptations alike.

In The Outsiders, the theme of individuality is heavily developed through the character Ponyboy Curtis. In the book and the movie alike, Ponyboy is a unique character who is not like the people in the society around him. For instance, on page 2 of the novel, it

For instance, in Ponyboy’s inner monologue in chapter 1, he states that, “I'm different that way. I mean, my second-oldest brother, Soda, who is sixteen-going-on-seventeen, never cracks a book at all, and my oldest brother, Darrel, who we call Darry, works too long and hard to be interested in a story or drawing a picture, so I'm not like them.” The usage of first person thoughts in the book lets us know more about Ponyboy’s family, and it showcases individuality, as Ponyboy is dissimilar to them. In the movie, we are not able to tell what Pony is thinking for the majority of the film, which reduces the extent to which individuality is demonstrated. Additionally, the novel also states that, “Greasers are almost like hoods; we steal things and drive old souped-up cars and hold up gas stations and have a gang fight once in a while. I don't mean I do things like that.” The usage of this monologue is to contrast Pony to the other Greasers. This shows how different Pony is to his gang. However, the film lacks inner thoughts, meaning that the film is unable to provide as much demonstration of individuality as the novel. Therefore, the novel is stronger than the film in terms of developing the theme of