The Outsiders Setting Analysis

Picture being so scared walking home alone that you had to carry a switchblade around. In The Outsiders Ponyboy, and his friends who are called the greasers, live in a violent, bad neighborhood without their parents. They are against a group called Socs who are a higher class, in a much better neighborhood and they jump the greasers all the time out of nowhere. The setting causes the characters to be tense and anxious, for example, Johnny and Darry who can never calm down and loosen up. They always have to look behind their back everywhere they go. To begin, the setting has a large affect on the characters in The Outsiders. For example, Ponyboy a 14 year old boy greaser who is high-strung most of the time, always looking around cautiously when he is walking alone. “I was sweating something fierce, although I was cold. I could feel my palms getting clammy and the perspiration running down my back. I get like that when I’m real scared”(Hinton 4). Ponyboy can never have no worries when he is walking home all by himself, not knowing what could happen next. To add on, Johnny one of Ponyboy’s good friends is the most cautious and scared one of the group. He was jumped by many Socs one night and had gotten beat up very badly. Ever since then, he never walked by himself and was very anxious. In fact, Johnny is so scared, that he carries a switchblade in his pocket,

The setting is important because it is usually what creates the conflict and puts the story together. In addition, the setting also creates the mood of the reader. Additionally, the setting is the reason why all the characters act they way they do. The setting in The Outsiders is an old and bad neighborhood which could cause the reader to feel sad for the characters or angry. To conclude, the setting in The Outsiders plays a very important role on creating the characters’ personalities and showing how cautious, and tense they