“The Outsiders is about two weeks in the life of a 14-year-old boy. The novel tells the story of...

First Edition 1967

Summary of the book

“The Outsiders is about two weeks in the life of a 14-year-old boy. The novel

tells the story of Ponyboy Curtis and his struggles with right and wrong in a society in which he believes that he is

an outsider.”cliffnotes.com

Susan Eloise HintonShe started writing The Outsiders when she was 15 years old. It received a contract from a publisher on the day she graduated from high school.

"The whole status thing drove me nuts," she says of her high school years. "It drove me nuts that people would get worked up over who they should and should not talk to in the hall."

Will Rogers High School 1959

“One day, a friend ofmine was walking home from school and these "nice" kids jumped out of a car and beat him up because they didn't like him being a greaser. This made me mad and I just went home and started pounding out a story about this boy who was beaten up while he was walking home from the movies-the beginning of The Outsiders.It was just something to let off steam. “

“I didn't even realize that these guys, who were my good friends, were greasers, until one day we were walking down the street and some guys came and yelled, "Greaser!" It's funny to look at people you've known all your life, to suddenly see them as everyone else sees them, with their slicked-back hair and cigarettes hanging out of their mouths and their black leather jackets and respond, "My God, they're hoods." You know them and know they're not hoods, but they just look like hoods. I had friends on the rich side of town, too, and saw that they had their share of problems, also.”

Awards for The Outsiders:

New York Herald Tribune Best Teenage Books List, 1967

Chicago Tribune Book World Spring Book Festival Honor Book, 1967

Media and Methods Maxi Award, 1975

ALA Best Young Adult Books, 1975

Massachusetts Children’s Book Award, 1979

So, who are these characters in The Outsiders?

Starring…

The Socs and the greasers

www.dictionary.com

Character ListPonyboy Curtis  Cherry Valance  Darrel Curtis   Marcia Sodapop Curtis  Randy Adderson  Two-Bit Mathews  Bob Sheldon  Steve Randle Paul Holden  Dallas Winston   Jerry Wood  Johnny Cade   Tim Shepard Sandy  Curly Shepard Mr. Syme 

The following slides will show you a few images of life in the 1960s, when the story in The Outsiders takes place.Times and the way things look may be different than today, but the question is, are we still the same people?

Let’s begin with the drive-in movie theatre.

The first drive in theatre opened in 1933. By 1958 there were 4, 063 of them in the U.S.

The Outsiders 1983 Movie

We will watch the movie after reading the book. Check out The Outsiders website.