The Outsiders Trauma

S.E. Hinton’s realistic fiction novel The Outsiders is a book about a 13 year old boy who lives in a town where the rivalries between two Social groups cause a lot of violence. The main character Ponyboy is a Greaser, the poorer and more law-breaking group. The other group, the Socs (short for Socials) are the richer, snobbier, “west-side kids”. Throughout the book, the conflicts between the Greasers and Socs lead to more and more violence and trauma as their differences fuel their fights. Over the course of the story, S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders teaches us the importance of having resources to deal with trauma, because without them, the fear, sadness, and anger often lead to violence. One way the author shows us a character with a traumatic

Pony and Johnny were sitting in the empty lot in their town, talking, when they both got tired and accidentally fell asleep. When Ponyboy woke up, he was scared because it was two in the morning, way past his curfew, and his older brother, Darry, would be mad that he was late. Darry started yelling at Ponyboy when he came home saying, “Ponyboy, what on earth is the matter with you? Can’t you use your head?” (page 50) They both got angry and started shouting at each other when, “Darry wheeled around and slapped me so hard it knocked me against the door.” (page 50) Ponyboy was frightened and stunned because Darry had never hit him before, so he ran away. Darry hit Ponyboy because he was stressed and confused. After their parents died, it was Darry’s responsibility to be the parent figure for them. He gave up his chance to go to college so he didn’t have to put them in a boys home. He also worked way too much. On page 16 Ponyboy says, “Darry didn’t deserve to work like an old man when he was only twenty. He had been a real popular guy in school; he was captain of the football team and had been voted Boy Of The Year. But we just didn’t have the money for him to go to college ....” This shows that Darry lost out on a lot of opportunities before his parents died, and he had a lot on his plate because he was working. Without having anybody to talk to about all of his stress, his emotions just built up inside of him, until he exploded and hit Ponyboy. If he had gone to therapy, he would have been able to better deal with all of his stressful emotions, and he would have known how to be a better parent figure to Pony and Soda. He may not have lashed out if he had access to more