What Does The Outsiders Represent

What is the purpose of symbols? Symbols are used to make a reader think more about the novel they’re reading and think about what the novel represents. Symbols help the reader understand the author's purpose of writing the novel. The Outsiders by S.E Hinton is a novel that is in the POV of Ponyboy who's in a gang. The gang is called the Greasers and includes Ponyboy,his two older brothers and some of their very close friends. There is another gang called the Socs. These two gangs fight because of their differences. In this novel the author uses symbols to represent the two gangs along with other things as well. The three symbols I will be talking about are gold, representing being alive. Long greasy hair representing the Greasers. And finally

In The Outsiders gold doesn’t represent the shiny mineral but it represents being alive,being different in a good way, and not being cold. In the book there is a poem that Ponyboy recites about being gold and he doesn’t quite understand what the author of the poem is trying to say. That is until Johnny tells Ponyboy in a letter. “When you’re a kid everything’s new, dawn. It’s just when you get used to everything that it’s day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That's gold. Keep that way, it’s a good way to be.” (Hinton. Pg. 178). This symbol represents being alive because it tells people that being gold is not just shiny but it’s not being cold and used to everything bad just because you have been alive for so long and on earth. It shows Ponyboy that he has something that not everyone like him has and that it is

The broken pop bottle shows that Ponyboy is caring, harmless, and not like the other gang members. In the novel Two-Bit hands Ponyboy a broken pop bottle to defend himself from the Socs’. Before the Socs’ leave Ponyboy tells Cherry “”I couldn't use this,” I said dropping the pop bottle”. (Hinton. Pg.45) This shows that Ponyboy isn’t like the other gang members and truly wouldn’t hurt anyone. This shows that Ponyboy is caring to other people despite their differences, and this doesn’t change. Later in the book, after Ponyboy went through alot with Johnny and Dally’s deaths the Socs’ come up to them and again Ponyboy is handed another pop bottle. Ponyboy breaks it but does not use it and after he starts picking up the broken glass. This represents some of Ponyboy’s most valuable traits in the