Rivalry In The Outsiders By S. E. Hinton

“The Outsiders” by S.E Hinton is a young adult fiction about a rivalry between two gangs divided by social class. This causes the issues throughout the text that affect the protagonist Ponyboy Curtis, and the world the gangs live in during the 1960s in Tulsa, OK. Ponyboy was jumped while walking home from a Paul Newman movie alone. The rich kids, also known as the Socials or Socs, jumped Ponyboy. While a soc held a knife against Ponyboy’s throat, the Greasers including his older brothers Darry and Sodapop rescued him. Darry reprimanded Ponyboy for walking alone which Ponyboy hates since he has better relationship with Sodapop. “Soda tries to understand, at least, which is more than Darry does” (Hinton 2). Later that night Sodapop tells

As they were walking them home, Bob and Randy pulled up and demanded the girls to get in the car, all while they were all intoxicated. The girls leave with their boyfriends and Pony and Johnny walk home. When pony arrives home he enters into an argument with Darry. Darry slapped Pony and he ran away with Johnny to the park, meanwhile, the Socs pull up starting trouble and a fight breaks out. Johnny pulls out a switchblade from his back pocket and stabs Bob because the five Socs were drowning Pony in a fountain. Johnny kills Bob and the first thing they think of is run to see Dally. Dally gives each of them dry clothes, a loaded gun, and fifty dollars. Dal tells them to catch the train to Windrixville and climb Jay Mountain and go to the abandoned church on the top of the hill. When they get there they get a week’s supply of food and a stack of cards. Johnny also buys Pony a book called “Gone With The Wind”, and a pack of cigarettes. Their photos and descriptions were in the paper so they had to cut and dye their hair and wash all the grease out. Each of them were smoking and Pony threw a cigarette down in the church and forgot about it. Then Dally drove to Windrixville and decided to take them to Dairy Queen. Dally informs Ponyboy they have a spy and it is Cherry. “She said she felt that the whole mess was her fault, which it is, and that

Johnny and Ponyboy ran into to save the children from the fire. Ponyboy got some minor burns but Johnny was messed up real bad. Pony wakes up and he is in an ambulance. Once he gets back to town Sodapop and Darry visit him in the hospital. The next day Pony sees that Dally is okay but Johnny might not make it. Then Steve says to Soda that Sandy went to live with her grandma in Florida. That night, the Greasers and Socs have a rumble and Pony hurts his leg. Dally and Ponyboy go to the hospital to see Johnny after the rumble to tell him the news. Before Johnny dies his last words to Pony were, “Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold…”(Hinton 126). Pony receives a ride home from a man. When Pony arrives home, he tells everyone that Johnny is dead and Dallys going to blow. Dally couldn't take it so he went and robbed a bank. “Dallas is gone," I said. "He ran out like the devil was after him. He's gonna blow up. He couldn't take it.”(Hinton 130).“The phone rang, and after a moment's hesitation, Darry turned from me to it. He said “Hello” and then listened. He hung up quickly.“It was Dally. He phoned from a booth. He's, just robbed a grocery store and the cops are after him. We gotta hide him. He'll be at the lot in a minute.We all left the house at a dead run, even Steve, and I wondered vaguely why no one was doing somersaults off the steps this time. Things were sliding in and out of focus, and it seemed funny to me that I couldn't run in a