Our experiences create the prism through which we understand the world, and help shape who we become. This means our unique experiences shape how we see and interpret the world, influencing how we are as individuals. These experiences act like a figure refracting our understanding of the world around us. This relates to how an author’s life experiences can influence the books they write. Their experiences could be based on identity, belonging in society, and struggling with acceptance, trauma and more. The author’s identity, belonging, and struggle for acceptance can construct the characters, the book’s setting, and overall narrative. The characters that the author writes reflect the trauma that they went through. Trauma can also relate to …show more content…
Firstly, S.E. & C.E. Hinton’s sense of identity and belonging in her life influenced the character’s inclusion in her most popular book, The Outsiders. Hinton has mentioned her personal experiences of feeling like an outsider during her teenage years in numerous interviews. This feeling of not fully belonging to any particular social group likely formed the social division between the Greasers and Socials. The Greasers are known as the working-class teenagers who live on the east side of town. The Socials are known as the wealthier teenagers who live on the west side of town. The differences between these groups create tension amongst them. A Greaser character, Ponyboy Curtis, said, “We’re poorer than the Socs and the middle class. I reckon we’re wilder, too. Not like the Socs, who jump Greasers and wreck houses and throw beer blasts for kicks, and get editorials in the paper for being a public disgrace one day and an asset to society the next.” (Hinton 4). Greasers are part of the working class and living in Oklahoma. This quote reveals how a Greaser feels about the social division and potentially how S.E. Hinton’s perspective of society was around