Prejudice And Racism In Hinton's The Outsiders

Although most believe racism is in the past, it continues to follow and haunt many today. Bringing awareness to the topic of social inequality and persecution, specifically racism, is essential for people of all ages, especially teens, who may be directly experiencing these difficulties. Authors use various genres of literature to impact readers when writing about social inequity or persecution; they help raise awareness of such injustices and their negative impact on society. In doing so, they are more likely to reduce society’s tolerance for and acceptance of racism. Treating all races as one brings humans one step closer to creating a peaceful society. First off, racism greatly affects teenagers, and creates difficult lives for many of

A main theme in her novel is group identity, and racism is a form of group identity. In The Outsiders, set in the 1960’s, there are two main conflicting groups; the Socs and the greasers. The reader can relate the greasers and the Socs to current day blacks and whites. Both the greasers and the Socs and blacks and whites think that, at times, their group/race is better than the other. Violent fighting occurs often between the two groups. Throughout The Outsiders, the main character realizes how useless fighting is and that, in the end, it solves absolutely nothing. Then, as many suspected, history repeated itself, this time with blacks and whites. The civil war was won by the Union, with 620,000 soldiers dying during the war. During the War, Lincoln’s freed the slaves by the Emancipation Proclamation. Racial segregation, for nearly a century, became a big issue and was helped solved peacefully by people like Martin Luther King Jr, and Rosa Parks. As one can see, physical fighting is not worth it, as peacefulness can get as much of a result with less getting hurt. To continue, the main character in The Outsiders, a greaser, thought that Socs had it all; that their lives were perfect. He later realizes that things are rough all over, and that the Socs have as tough of a life as greasers do. Blacks often think that whites have it all, and don’t realize that they have struggles too. People need to understand these things in order for the world to become racial inequality-free, and they can, by reading The Outsiders, by S.E.