The Attitudes Of Society In The Outsiders, By Harper Lee

The society that we live in today influences our lives in ways that we don’t even realize in everyday life. For example, we often look down upon people who are simply just not like the rest. Kind of like the Greasers in the book, The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton. The Socs terrorize and look down upon the Greasers because of the attitude of society that has always been there. Or in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, where Tom Robinson wasn’t believed by the jury just because he was simply a black man. These are all people who suffered as a result of the attitude in society.

Ponyboy, the main character from S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders, is one of these people who sees’ this and suffers from it. The Socs love to jump the Greasers and hurt the

He gets beat up by a gang of Socs for the first time. Ponyboy has the classic “greaser hair” which automatically makes him fish food for the piranhas in a Corvair. If Ponyboy didn’t have that hair or dressed the way he did, Pony would’ve probably gotten home safe without a scratch on him. “We’re gonna do you a favor, greaser. We’re gonna cut all that long greasy hair off” (5). Another way that Ponyboy suffers as a result of the attitude of society is the fact that he lost Johnny because of all of the fights between the Socs and Greasers. Johnny and Pony get jumped by a gang of drunk Socs which leads to Pony’s head being held underwater and Johnny stabs Bob Sheldon, the “leader” of the Soc gang, in self defense to stop them from drowning Pony. Johnny and Pony have to run away because Johnny just killed someone and they

That character would be Tom Robison from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Tom Robinson was a black man who got accused of raping Mayella Ewell. This book was set in Alabama in the 1930s, so there is a lot of racial discrimination against every person of color, but mainly black people. Atticus is chosen to defend Tom for the trail and Atticus wants to try his hardest with the case. Therefore causes backlash on the Finch family. People were calling Atticus foul names referring to Tom. “He’s nothin’ but a n*-lover” (94). Almost everyone discriminated against black people because of the past history of slaves still being quite fresh. To even acknowledge black people back then was super frowned upon by society. The verdict of the very long trial was guilty. For a black man to win a case was very rare back then. Tom went to jail leaving his wife and kids. Tom got himself killed in jail because, what I think, it was better to be dead than to face a lifetime of scorn for a crime he didn’t do. “Tom’s dead” (268). Tom died because of the prejudices, discrimination, and stereotypes that were seamlessly a part of society for hundreds of