Social Class Illustrated In Hinton's The Outsiders

In the novel The Outsiders the story takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the 1960’s.The story was set in the year it was written. The author was in high school when she wrote this, so she could relate well to the characters and made it relatable to other teens. In the story the time period doesn’t really have much of an impact on the story, but the social classes inside the town do. There are two different gangs inside the town. The Greasers who are the boys that live on the east side, they are more economically challenged, they are also known for their long greased hair. The other gang is, the rivals of the Greasers, the Soc’s, short for Socials. All of the boys in that gang are from middle to upper class families and very well off compared to the Greasers. In the book Ponyboy, one of the main characters

The first theme was bridging the gap between the rich and poor. At the beginning the Greasers and the Soc’s don’t get along, but when two members of the opposite gangs realize they have more in common than they thought they begin to bond and form a bond. Even though it was only temporary the gap was bridged between the Soc’s and Greasers. The rich and the poor. It shows that even though both groups have very different backgrounds and come from very different families shared passions and problems can make anybody going through or interested in the same thing connect. The second main theme is honor among the lawless. Even though the main characters were in gangs they still had an honor code and rules they needed to follow. It shows that even the lawless have laws and a code to follow. A minor theme was that anyone can be family regardless if you are related or not. Both gangs especially the Greasers showed that although not all of the members were related to each other they all treated each other and showed that they would protect and die for them like a family sibling or parent would (Themes, Motifs &