THE OUTSIDERS: S.E. Hinton: Viking: Young Adult: 188 pgs.There are only two kinds of people in Ponyboys’ world. Greasers, are poor and have to fight for everything they are given. Socs (short for socials) on the other hand are rich and are given everything they want without question. The greasers and socs are often rumbling, attempting to determine who is better. Ponyboy has always been proud to be a greaser, until the night that his friend Johnny kills a soc. The murder causes Ponyboy to consider for the first time that the greasers are not the only ones feeling pain.
The Outsiders is a young adult literature classic. S.E. Hinton wrote this novel when she was in high school. She saw many of the things Ponyboy experiences and had hopes for a better world. Although the novel was published in 1967, teens of 2008 can still identify with the characters in this book.
1 comment:
There are so many things I love about this book. First, I love that the social dynamics of high school cliques are as relatable today as they were when S.E. Hinton wrote this book in 1967. Second, there's so much truth told in this book. Not everyone who belongs to a certain clique or a certain social class will fit the mold (ex. Ponyboy is a greaser, but he's also very intelligent and doesn't go looking for trouble, as the stereotype says he should). People also often do drastic things (violence) just to survive, not necessarily because they hate an individual or a group of people. The characters we put together so beautifully. I felt like I really knew each and every one of them.
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