Symbols In The Outsiders

The Symbolism shown in The Outsiders is focused mainly on the differences between social class and personality. The Outsiders takes place in Oklahoma in the Mid-Sixties where there is high tension and conflict between two social classes, mainly two gangs of different social classes, the Greasers and Socs. The narrator, a young boy at the age of fourteen lives as a greaser. The most prominent symbols in The Outsiders are hair representing identity, eyecolor representing personality, and the cars that the Socs drive.

Hair is a large symbol in The Outsiders because it is a sign of the greasers.When getting ready for the rumble, Ponyboy says,“Greasers may not have much, but they have a rep. That and long hair” (113). The greasers are proud of their hair and use it for a symbol instead of cars because they cannot afford them. In the church when Ponyboy and Johnny are cutting each others hair Ponyboy says, “Maybe we couldnt have Madras or Covairs but we could have

Hinton shows personality through eyecolor, for example Darry and Dally, the two people who make Ponyboy feel most uncomfortable, both have icy-blue cold eyes. When Ponyboy describes Dally’s eyes he says, “His eyes were blue, blazing ice, cold with the hatred of the whole world”(10).
Dally’s eyes are being described as “cold with the hatred of the world” which gives the eyes a dark and negative connotation. Another example is Johnny’s eyes. When describing Johnny for the first time Ponyboy says, “He had big black eyes...He had a nervous, suspicious look in his eyes”(11). What Hinton is showing the readers through eye color is a look into the personality of the character. Hinton describes the tougher meaner people to have icy-blue, small, cold, eyes, but the younger more innocent characters like Johnny have big, dark, soft looking eyes. The symbol of eye color as a show of personality is used as a way to move the story and character development