THE OUTSIDERSS.E. HINTON

By: Mahnoor Syeda Alam

CHARACTERS Ponyboy Curtis: The novel’s 14-year old narrator/protagonist, and the youngest of the greasers. His literary interests and academic accomplishments set him apart from the rest of the gang. Due to this parents death in a car accident, he lives with his 2 older brothers, Darry and Sodapop.

Darrel Curtis: Ponyboy’s eldest brother, known as “Darry,” is a twenty year old greaser who is raising his younger brother because his parents have died in a car crash. He is strong, athletic, and intelligent, he has quit school and works two jobs to hold his family together. He is known as the unofficial leader of the greasers

Sodapop Curtis: Ponyboy’s handsome borther, Sodapop is the middle Curtis boy. Ponyboy describes him as “Happy-go-lucky,” and is a bit envious of his brother’s good looks and charm.

Two-Bit Mathews: The joker of Ponyboy’s group. Real name Keith, Two-Bit is a wisecracking greaser who regularly shoplifts. (he is known for this “skill” he possesses.)

CONT.

Steve Randal: Sodapop’s best friend since grade school, a seventeen year old greaser who works with Sodapop at the gas station where they both fix cars together. He is cocky and intelligent, tall, and lean. He sees Ponyboy, the main character, as Sodapop’s annoying kid brother and doesn’t like it when he tags along.

Dallas Winston: the toughest hood in Ponyboy’s group of greasers, Dallas, known as “Dally”, is a hardened teen who used to run with gangs in New York. He is considered one of the hardest, most dangerous, and very mysterious members of the greaser gang.

Johnny Cade: a sixteen-year-old greaser, Johnny is the most sensitive of the greasers, being the child of alcoholic and abusive parents. Though he does not succeed in school, Johnny approaches intellectual matters with steady concentration. Since his parents done care for him, he sees the greaser gang as his true family.

PLOT

The Outsiders is a story of a group of young, lower-class, Oklahoma youths who call themselves greasers (because of their long, greasy hair). Greasers are constantly threatened and on the look out for their rivals, who are the upper-class youths from the West-side of town. The Socs, short for Socials, gang up on members of greasers who may be wandering alone and beat them up. The constant brutality between the two groups causes strong devotion for both sides to defeat the other, and a very strong sense of loyalty to ones gang.

CONT.

Ponyboy can count on his brothers. And on his friends. But not on much else besides trouble with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kids whose idead of a good time is beating up "greasers" like Ponyboy. At least he knows what to expect - until the night someone takes things too far. The night Ponyboy and Johnny taste the true, bitter, horrifying reality of life, when they are face to face with their mistake, and they have no where to turn, except their own.

MY EXPERIENCE…

I think this is an amazing book, mainly because it shows how the greasers have such an extent of loyalty to one another, they are literally willing to die for their gang. It’s a very breath taking and anticipating book, and I think that a lot can be learned from it, aside from the violence and crime and all…..

MULTIMEDIA

The Outsiders Trailer (link) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doKfBmjIOMA

S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders-Book Trailer (link): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0izmGO60fW4