The Outsiders Stylistic Analysis

In S.E. Hinton’s book The Outsiders, there is a colorful palette of characters, from the easy-going and charming Sodapop to the spoiled and arrogant Bob Sheldon, from the intelligent and athletic Darry, to skittish and troubled Johnny. In a couple hundred pages, the author brilliantly captures a full range of human behavior and emotion and illustrates how, though we may share similar values and experiences with some of the members of our clique, we are never truly defined simply by our adherence to any particular group. We can, in fact, find ourselves on opposing ends of the spectrum with some of our closest allies.

Ponyboy and Dallas are two vibrant characters, who share many common traits. United by their deep hatred of the Socs, these

Despite the fact that Pony and Dally share some similar values, friends and life experiences, these two characters are like oil and water when it comes to their personality and physical traits. In the first few chapters the reader senses that Ponyboy is a soft-spoken, introverted, and sensitive person, whose academic success and literary interests set him apart from the rest of his gang. “…nobody in our gang digs movies and books the way I do.”p. 3 and “I only wanted to lie on my back under a tree and read a book or draw a picture, and not worry about being jumped or carrying a blade or ending up married to some scatterbrained broad with no

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Finally, another major difference between these two key characters is their physical appearance. Ponyboy describes himself as not-bad looking, with “light-brown, almost-red hair and greenish-gray eyes” p. 1 He is small for his 14 years, and seems to fit his name ‘Ponyboy’ quite perfectly - young, innocent, cute. Dally, on the other hand, has much more ferocious features! Ponyboy describes him as having an “elfish face, with high cheekbones and a pointed chin, small, sharp animal teeth, and ears like a lynx” p. 10. His very blond hair and cold blue eyes filled with the hatred of the world complete the sinister elfish description that allows the reader to sense the hardened, almost wicked, nature of this character. As we can see from exploring the emotional and physical aspects, there is far more black and white than shades of gray for these