The Importance Of Honor In The Outsiders

Someone who has honor is someone who receives high respect or esteem. Does that mean that there is honor amongst the lawless? In The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, there is a war going on between two groups, the Greasers and the Socs. The Socs are a group of rich kids who don’t care for others and jump Greasers. The Greasers, on the other hand, are a group of poor kids, who mess around a lot, yet they stick up and protect each other. The Greasers can be considered lawless, which is why they are the main bait for the Socs. However, even though the Greasers are hoodlums, they are still considered honorable because they push obstacles out of their lives to save strangers, they go to extreme measures to save each other, and they always stick up for each other. To start, they push these obstacles out of their lives to save or help strangers. For instance, Johnny and Ponyboy ignored Dally and another man so they could run into the burning church to save kids stuck in there. “I started at a dead run for the church, and the man caught my arm...I jerked loose and ran on” (91). This shows that Ponyboy continued to run into the church even after the man told him not to. This

In particular, they encouraged and helped Dally, who recently recovered from the hospital, in fighting in the rumble. Dally even says, “‘We gotta win that fight tonight...We gotta get even with the Socs’” (125). Similar to previous evidence, they are willing to risk their lives for others, including strangers and their own group members. They constantly fight by each other’s side so that no one person is left alone. Also, this shows that they were going to fight not only for revenge, but for each other. They want to make each other happy and do their best with each other at all times. As a result, they are always going to be more than happy to stick up for each other especially when one person is truly