Outcasts In The Outsider

An outsider. Someone who is excluded from society due to their social status, ethnicity or appearance. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (TPOBAW) by Stephen Chbosky explore the idea of outsiders within their novels. In The Outsiders, outsiders are portrayed by the greasers, a lower class gang. In TPOBAW, the main character, Charlie and his later friends are outcasts because of their social status. Some of the reasons they are outcasted is because of social status, personality and experiences.

In the Outsiders text, Ponyboy Curtis (Ponyboy) and Johnny Cade (Johnny) are unified because of the gang they belong to. Similarly, in TPOBAW Charlie and Patrick are unified because they belong to the same friendship group.

In The Outsiders Johnny is shy, but he doesn’t hesitate to save his friend when the time comes, that is what makes him an outsider and belong to the greasers. In TPOBAW Patrick is an outsider because he is an extrovert that isn’t afraid to speak his mind and belongs to the ‘outcasts’ group of the school. An example of this would be when he tells Mr Callahan “Either you call me Patrick or you call me nothing” then Mr Callahan responds by calling him nothing . Another time he spoke his mind was when he stood up to Brad when he said “whatever, faggot”. In The Outsiders, Jonny’s shy nature is shown when he talks. It is able to be figured out that Johnny is quiet and reserved. Ponyboy describes him as “a little dark puppy that has been kicked too many times and is lost in a crowd of strangers”. This quote helps us to understand the way that Johnny looks, and understand his timid nature. In this, it is found that people may be outcasts for many reasons that could be completely

They also use the idea that some characters are the way that they are because of bad family history. Johnny was and is abused physically and verbally at home by his parents. Charlie was molested by his aunt Helen when he was younger. Johnny says “I think I like it better when the old man’s hittin’ me. At least he knows I’m there” to Ponyboy. Even though he didn’t like being abused he thought it was better than being ignored. That is why he is shy and considered an outsider. The fact that he was gang up on and beaten by the Socials (the upper class people with the most power) contributes to the way he acts and behaves as an outsider. Charlie was molested by his Aunt Helen at a young age. This affected Charlie and explain does not have many friends and is considered an outcast. Stephen Chbosky uses Irony in which Charlie says his Aunt Helen is his “favourite person” but in she is his least favourite person. This shows that there are factors that contribute to why someone could be considered an outsider.

Both novels The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton and TPOBAW by Stephen Chbosky show that an outsider can be classified by may different things. Both text explore the ideas of a group of outsiders and how they cope with society. It is seen that outsiders are isolated from society and even their own