S.E. Hinton’s Successful Style In the book, The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, the main character, Ponyboy, narrates his life as a greaser and the struggle between two rival gangs, which causes tragedies. Because The Outsiders narrates a story about teenagers struggling in a gang, it is more appealing to teenage audiences. This book also foreshadows certain events, which can draw in readers. Hinton also uses very vivid imagery to make the book more descriptive and sets a better picture into the reader’s mind. To entertain and attract readers, she uses effective methods of foreshadowing, teenage vocabulary, and uses vivid imagery to attract and keep the reader’s interest. Hinton used a lot of foreshadowing, an effective technique for getting readers …show more content…
Hinton uses a lot of descriptive imagery, or words that make an image in the reader’s mind. In particular, Hinton describes the dead Soc, “Bob, the handsome Soc, was lying there in the moonlight, doubled up and still. A dark pool was growing from him, spreading slowly over the blue-white cement,”(56). Hinton uses a set of very descriptive words to help the reader make an image in their mind. The author describes the Soc, the setting, and the blood. The reader does not need to be informed that the dark pool coming out of Bob is blood; the context of the page already gives the clue that blood was flowing from Bob. Using imagery, Hinton finds a way to create an excellent image in the reader’s mind. The descriptive words can interest and attract readers, and make readers understand and see the story, not only read it. Additionally, Hinton describes Dally, “He had an elfish face, with high cheekbones and a pointed chin, small, sharp animal teeth, and ears like a lynx. His hair was almost white it was so blond, and he didn't like haircuts, or hair oil either, so it fell over his forehead in wisps and kicked out in the back in tufts and curled behind his ears and along the nape of his neck. His eyes were blue, blazing ice, cold with a hatred of the whole world,”(10). Readers have a clear image from the illustration by Hinton, who compares Dally to an animal and his eyes to blazing ice. Thus, Hinton uses a lot of effective imagery in The Outsiders to interest the readers and paint an image in the reader’s