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Individuality In The Outsiders

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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 …show more content…

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

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Ponyboy from the novel “The outsiders” is very different from the Gang the Greasers In many ways. One example that Ponyboy is not like other greasers because he thinks deeper than the other members in his gang he notices the little things in life for example, “you know, Johnny said slowly, “I never noticed colors and clouds and stuff until you kept reminding me about them. It seems like they were never there before.” This means that when Ponyboy notices the little things he says them and has other People notice them too. Ponyboy has learned a lot throughout the story.

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785 Words | 4 Pages

“Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren’t so different. We saw the same sunset” (41). When Ponyboy thought of this quote in the novel The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, he was relating the two worlds of the greasers and the Socs. Ponyboy Curtis is the protagonist of the novel. He is split between the personalities of the greasers and of the Socs.

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314 Words | 2 Pages

They are similar because throughout both Ponyboy and Johnny are the main characters from the greaser gang until they kill bob then the rest of the greaser gang becomes more of the main characters. There are many different similarities between the book and movie “The Outsiders”, but there are also a lot of comparisons between the two.

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1152 Words | 5 Pages

Ponyboy is only 14 years old in, “The Outsiders,” but has gone through many hardships and struggles most teenagers will never go through. Throughout the story, he has lost others and even himself. The cause of this is the division between Socs and Greasers. Throughout the story, the author builds up the theme that, everyone is human, no matter what social class, race, sex, or age. As readers we see this when Cherry Valance is first introduced, the relationship of the Curtis brothers, and the truth about Bob.

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1534 Words | 7 Pages

Traumatic events can change people’s lives. They can change how you see the world, or how you respond to different situations. In the realistic fiction novel The Outsiders by SE Hinton, Ponyboy changes a lot throughout the story. In the book, Pony gets jumped by the Socs, but still goes to a movie that night where he meets Cherry. After this he goes home where his brother hits him, then he runs away after his best friend kills someone.

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What I believe Hinton was meaning when she titled this book The Outsiders would be that Ponyboy and his group were an outsider to the society. Greasers in general were an outsider to society. Ponyboy and his group were their own people, different than everyone else, they would do what they wanted, even if it meant

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1438 Words | 6 Pages

In the novel The Outsiders Ponyboy learns many things such as staying gold things are not how they seem and one's decisions can have a drastic affect on one's life. Ponyboy learns that they are alike in many ways and that the greasers and the socs are not that different. For instance when Randy comes up to Ponyboy in his Corvette and he starts talking about running

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451 Words | 2 Pages

"Stay Gold" (Johnny Cade). An individual who eventually learns to understand to empathize with this quote is the protagonist of "The Outsiders," Ponyboy Curtis. This fact is demonstrated throughout the novel as Ponyboy gradually learns about his friends, heroism, stereotypes, and life in general, which helped him to grow and develop as a person in the story. These lessons are highlighted by his understanding of the importance of empathy and comprehension, the value of family and community, and learning about the risks and consequences of violence and aggression.

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851 Words | 4 Pages

“Running away won 't help.” Johnny was right. Ponyboy had people that loved and cared for him... they just didn 't know how to show it!” In the book The Outsiders by S.E Hinton, proves that no matter what type of Social class you are; Greaser or Socs, family is most important and will help you get through the difficult parts in life.

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The persecution and also their personal matters caused the characters Pony, Darry, and Johnny to feel like outsiders, whenever it came to being a greaser. Pony, the main character of the book “The Outsider”, constantly felt conflicted about how different he is compared to the other greaser. These feelings that Pony harbored caused him to feel like he didn't belong in the group. The same can be said about Darry and Johnny who both had parental issues; however, Darry had to give up everything in the end for the greasers while Johnny just wanted to find attention and to be loved. Each character had their hardships and problems that they were going through.

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923 Words | 4 Pages

The narrator of the novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Ponyboy Curtis, is a complicated and emotional character. He goes through numerous changes in the book and you get a good idea of his feelings through actions towards others. He proves to be empathetic, caring, and a dreamer. He shows this during situations with his brothers and even with the other Greasers. During the story, Darry is always telling Ponyboy, although he is a intelligent kid, that he needs to use his head.

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431 Words | 2 Pages

He want Ponyboy to stay his good self. In conclusion, The Outsiders novel has many symbols that can teach about life. Through hair, sunrises, and ‘gold’, we can learn about life. We should always know who we are, what are life is, and what we need to

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122 Words | 1 Pages

In S.E. Hinton’s story, The Outsiders, group identity is so important that sometimes people overshadow their own identity. In our generation it is kind of the same way to some people, for instance people sometimes act and dress differently around the popular kids to fit in. While at home they do their normal routine and stay true to themselves. This is so important to the story for many reasons. It is also really important to kids this age in 2017.

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326 Words | 2 Pages

The Outsiders is a book based solely on the point of view of Ponyboy, the main character. The book revolves around the brotherly love of Ponyboy’s brothers and the rich gang, the Socs, who despise the Greasers－what Ponyboy is－because they are of lower social status. The Socs often remark the Greasers as ‘greasy’ and always needing a haircut. The Greasers, in retaliation, declare the Socs as cold-hearted and selfish. In truth, these remarks aren’t reality.

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907 Words | 4 Pages

In the novel, “The Outsiders” that was written by S.E Hinton, one of the characters within the book that has changed a lot was Ponyboy Curtis. Ponyboy Curtis’ change was a slow process, but a lot happened to him throughout the novel. He goes through many events at the start, middle and at the end of the novel too. At the start of the novel, Ponyboy was just an innocent and smart kid who lived with the gang known as, “The Greasers”, but by the end of the novel, Ponyboy is a different person compared to how he was in the beginning. The events that took place in the middle of the novel has some key events that make him change his personality and opinion on life, and that the reader learns that his personality and opinion changes because of the dramatic events he goes through like how Johnny Cade and Dallas Winston’s death.

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