The Outsiders

The Outsiders

By S. E. Hinton

Viking Press, 1967. 188 pages. Coming-of-age.

ISBN: 9780140385724

Reading/Interest Level: Ages 12+

Curriculum ties: Gang violence, family bonds

Booktalk Ideas: Ganging up: Sometimes arguments get out of hand and become physical, but what would happen if you ended up killing someone? That’s what happened to Ponyboy, a teen who was just trying to fit in with his crew.

Challenge Issues: Youth alcohol use and smoking

Challenge Response: First Defense File

Reader’s Annotation:

When some greasers have a run in with a group of socs (short for “socials”), tensions run high and someone will die. A gang war is the only way they can see to solve their problems, but rumbles never end well.

Plot Summary:

Ponyboy is a greaser, a lower-class youth in Oklahoma. One night while he was out watching a movie, he encounters a few of the members of the greaser’s rival group, the Socs, short for Socials who are upper-class youth from the other side of town. The Socs threaten to kill Ponyboy but he’s saved when other greasers show up.

Tensions run high between the greasers and the Socs, and one night when a fight breaks out Ponyboy is nearly drowned by a Soc and when he wakes up he discovers that his friend, Johnny, killed a Soc. Johnny and Ponyboy lay low for a few days and next they hear tensions between the greasers and Socs have escalated even further and there is supposed to be a rumble to bring an end to the current fighting.

Events leading up to the rumble bring further devastation to Ponyboy and his friends. Coming to terms with death and loss is hard for everyone, and no one will ever be the same.

Critical Evaluation:

This is an excellent character-driven novel that stays true to the social conditions at the time of writing. S. E. Hinton, while not a greaser herself, knew many who were that also approved of the portrayals in this book.

Ponyboy is a very likable character who clearly just wants to fit in both with his friends and his family. One way to do that is by being a greaser, just like his brother. His brother however, knows the costs and devastation associated with being a greaser and wants Ponyboy to live a better life that he will ever have.

When Johnny feels guilty for killing a Soc, he tries to atone by saving children who are in building that’s on fire. That one heroic act cost Johnny his life, and whether or not his sacrifice was enough, only the reader can decide.

It’s not just the greasers who feel guilt and a need for atonement. Even Cherry, a Soc who feels somewhat responsible for a Soc’s death, turns spy for the greasers leading up to the rumble. That instance shows that Hinton’s characters have all their own motives and feelings, and are not solely defined by their social class.

About the Author:

Susan Eloise Hinton was born in 1950 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Outsiders was published in 1967, when Hinton was only 17 years old and attending Will Rogers High School. She began writing the first draft of the novel when she was 15, and writing and rewriting took a year and a half before she was happy with the final copy.

The publisher — believing that the book would have more credibility if people assumed that a male had written it — advised her to use her initials, S. E.

Hinton was not a member of a gang when she wrote The Outsiders, but she was a friend to many greasers. She has stated that her biggest compliment was that her greaser friends liked the book. Although she also had friends who were Socs, she definitely did not consider herself a part of that group. Her mother's reaction to the novel was shock; she said, "Susie, where did you pick up all of this?"

Education

The success of The Outsiders enabled Hinton to attend the University of Tulsa where she earned a degree in education in 1970. However, during her student teaching, she decided that she did not have the physical stamina to be a teacher. She found herself teaching all day and then worrying about the kids all night.

Hinton did meet her future husband, David Inhofe, in a freshman biology class, and it was due to him that she finished her second book, That Was Then, This is Now. Hinton was suffering from writer's block, and he forced her to write two pages a day. If she failed to produce two pages during the day, they wouldn't go out that night. They were married in 1970, and That Was Then, This is Now was published in 1971.

-from CliffNotes.com author page-

Justification of Selection:

This book, though frequently challenged, is a great way to teach students about gang violence and the harsh realities of it. Because it was written by a teenager, it accurately reflects the feelings and language of the time. This book has also won several awards for its honest portrayal of teen gang life.