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The Outsides By S. E. Hinton: Character Analysis

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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

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In life the Greasers struggle far more than the Socs. To begin with the Greasers struggle more socially than the Socs. “On the front page of the second section, headline: Juvenile delinquency turn heros.” This shows that they were always known as a Juvenile delinquency until they saved those kids. This also shows that they were

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The Greasers think that they are rich and are jet-set. Another reason the Greasers hate the Socs is because they have more power. In the book The Socs have influence and are more privleged. The Greasers have less influence in the society. The Socs could get away with something the Greasers could not.

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Arli LaFever The Outsiders Final Essay Spring 2018 Will the Socs hide their emotions so they don’t have to accept that they are the real outsiders? As depicted in the novel, the Socs, not the Greasers, are the true outsiders in this story. The evidence of the Socs being the true outsiders is shown through how they hide their emotions, how they go to Greaser territory to fight, and how they treat others. All of these reasons prove that the Socs are the true outsiders.

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One difference between the Socs and the Greasers is that all Greasers live on the East side of town. The East side is the poor part of town. They are poor because most Greasers are not related to each other and have little family to rely on. Some that do have family are not raised properly and may be physically, mentally, and emotionally abused. The closes families are the Curtis brothers, Ponyboy Curtis, Sodapop Curtis, and Darry Curtis.

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Both groups feel like outsiders but the true outsiders are the ones that understand it goes beyond the different groups. The Greasers are considered to be the outsiders. When Ponyboy took out his switchblade during class, one of the Socs said, ‘They are right. You are a hood.” (Doc B)

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On page 3 S.E Hinton writes, “We’re poorer than socs and the middle class” said Ponyboy which meant they couldn’t get everything what they needed or wanted. Ponyboy meant that Greasers couldn’t live like the Socs and the middle class because they were poor. Being poor also meant that Greasers had to ditch school to get a job to support their families and themselves. “It wasn't fair for the Socs to have everything.

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Hinton, the author of the young adult fiction novel, The Outsiders, wrote a story about how a group called the greasers and a group called the Socs are very different but how there are some similarities between them. First off, Socs have better things than the greasers. They have better cars that are more expensive than any car the greasers would have, and they always dress to impress. On the other hand, greasers have beaten up old cars, and wear “blue jean and T-shirt, or leave” their “shirttails out and wear leather jackets and tennis shoes or boots” (Hinton 3). But the one thing that brings them together, is who they hang out with in their cars and the feelings it causes.

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When Ponyboy was thinking about what the people in the gang do what they do, he assumed that Greasers and Socs are divergent. Ponyboy thinks to himself, “We deserve a lot of our trouble...both of them have too much energy, too much feeling, with no way to blow it off.” (Hinton 16) This quote has a deep meaning because it shows that the Socs choices are more narrow, displaying that when a Soc does something wrong, they could lose their fame and their luxury. On the other hand, the greasers have boundless choices because they have nothing to lose. They are already at the bottom, so most of the things they do, won’t really change what they already have.

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Owing to 60’s counterculture movements, the public rejection of traditional views became mainstream, allowing for wider perspectives to emerge. The novel responds to such growing social reform , utilising Ponyboy to represent hundreds wishing to break free from the cycle of poverty, thereby echoing frustrations on the American Dream’s inequality. Ponyboy analyses the landscape around him to decide on a neutral stance in the greaser-soc feud. His clarity on social conflicts is evident as he comments on page 4: “ I'm not saying that either Socs or greasers are better; that's just the way things are. “After establishing Ponyboy’s socio-economic status in chapter 1, the frustration felt by greasers is alluded to in Chapter 9 where Ponyboy laments his social standing, indirectly presenting a rhetorical question on the nature of the world and communicating feelings of dissatisfaction at being wrongly suspected for stealing just because of his greaser identity.

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Both the Socs and Greasers deal with the tendency to fight with each other,have troubles with their lives,and engage in criminal activities. The first struggle the Socs and Greasers both have is that they both deal with the tendency to fight with each other. Like it says in the book The Outsiders on pg.2 Johnny

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In the 1960’s in Tulsa, Oklahoma there was a difference between social classes and a ongoing war in this town. The Greasers were a group of people mostly dressed in leather jackets, and jeans. While the Soc’s (Rich kids) wore madres, and khakis, and even drove Mustangs. In the very beginning of the story there were clear differences between the Soc’s and Greasers.

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Outsiders Essay Have you ever wanted to experience what the 1960’s for a teenager were like? “The Outsiders”, by S.E Hinton is a perfect take on two rival gangs in the sixties. These two gangs are the greasers and the socs. They constantly are brawling and getting in trouble with each other.

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In The Outsiders, the Greasers are being judged for how rich they are and what their social status was. It implies that the Greasers were kicked around, nobody wanted to be friends with them because it would ruin their reputation, and they seemed like bad people. While the Socs were what everybody wanted to be rich and perfect, but they were not really perfect. Ponyboy had to live with these rules that were created over time by people, while people treated him and the others like trash. While in The Wave, students got judged if they didn’t join The Wave.

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Like Cherry said “It’s not just the money. Part of it is, but not all. You greasers have a different set of values..(38)” meaning that Socs and greasers were different because of how they were raised. There have been many examples of the importance of good parents, this is

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The Outsiders Final 5 Paragraph Essay In S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, two different gangs, the Greasers and the Socs detested each other. Using Ponyboy Curtis, the author demonstrates a Greaser’s opinion of the Socs. Ponyboy had an evolving conception of the Socs. At the beginning, he disliked the Socs because they are rich and he thinks they have no problems.

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