Loyalty And Family In The Outsiders By S. E. Hinton
«The Outsiders» is a novel written by Susan Eloise Hinton in 1967. Hinton wrote the novel when she was only 17 years old. In an interview with the “New Yorker” in 2014 she said she had grown bored with the trite plots of books written for her demographic at the time, “Mary Jane wants to go to the prom with the football hero”. She decided to write her own book that had a more authentic look at teenage struggles. After she was done writing the book she was lucky that one of her friend’s mother had contacts at a booking agency. Editors told Hinton that she should go by the name “S. E. Hinton” so readers would think it was a male author that had written the book. The book is about gangs called the Socs and the Greasers, in the American suburbs around the 50s and 60s. The gangs dislike each other and often get into fights.
The main character in the novel is Ponyboy Curtis, he is also the narrator of the story meaning this novel is written in the first-person point of view. Ponyboy is a part of the gang “Greasers”. Ponyboy is 14 years old and is the youngest in the gang. Ponyboys parents died in a car accident and now Ponyboy lives with his brothers Sodapop and Darry. Sodapop is the “handsome” brother and is the middle child and Darry is the oldest brother. Darry is the unofficial leader of the Greasers, other greasers call him “Superman”. Johnny is a 16 years old Greaser. Johnny had alcoholic and abusive parents, making him nervous and sensitive. Because of his parents not caring about him, he sees the Greasers as his real family. Bob is the boyfriend I talk about later that dies. Bob has three rings which he wears when he fights.
The setting of the novel is Tulsa in 1965. Tulsa is never named as the setting for the novel, but in a lot of interviews, Hinton says the book is inspired by what she has experienced and she lived in Tulsa at that time. A lot of information about the setting is not found in the book, but on her website on the FAQ page. Everything is split in their city between the Greasers and the Socs. The Greasers have gotten their name because of their use of grease in their hair. The Greasers are poor, they are known for robbing gas stations, fighting, and shoplifting. The Socs are a lot richer, They drive expensive cars, expensive clothes, drink too much, and beat up poor kids.
Ponyboy Curtis is walking home from a movie, he is attacked by a group of Socs. The Socs gang up on Ponyboy and threaten to slit his throat. Ponyboys gang, the Greasers comes to the rescue and chases the Socs away, saving Ponyboy. The next night, Ponyboy goes to a movie with Johnny and Dally, in front of them sits a pair of Soc girls. Dally is flirting with the Soc girls, but Johnny tells him to stop. The guys walk with the girls until their boyfriends show up drunk, they leave so they don´t get into a fight. Ponyboy and Johnny get attacked by the Socs, Ponyboy blacks out. When he wakes up he sees Johnny and the corpse of the boyfriend of one of the girls. Ponyboy and Johnny disappear in a church cutting and dying their hair to disguise themselves.
After Bob´s death, the tension between the Greasers and the Socs has escalated. The Greasers and the Socs get into a big rumble. The Greasers defeat the Socs. After the rumble Ponyboy rushes to find Johnny, he finds Johnny dying. When Johnny dies Ponyboy feels disoriented and dazed when he stumbles home late at night telling the others about Johnny´s death. Dally goes mad and robs a grocery store making police come looking for him. Dally raises a gun against the police that makes the police gun him down. Everything that’s has happened to Ponyboy makes him pass out. When he wakes up, he is at home in his bed. Sodapop tells Ponyboy that he is really angry and mad about how Ponyboy has been acting. Sodapop asks Ponyboy and Darry with tears on his face to stop fighting. Ponyboy finally understands the value of his family and friends and their loyalty. Ponyboy decides to tell Dally and Johnny´s stories and begins writing a term paper for his English class. This term paper is actually the book, you can see that by reading the last and the first sentence in the book because it is the same sentence.
The big themes in this book are loyalty and family. Loyalty and family are really central in this book. A gang is like a family and the only thing holding a gang together is loyalty. Being loyal is a way of showing class, pride, and honor. Ponyboy doesn´t like some people in his gang, but he would still do anything for them and defend them if they are in danger. That’s his way of showing his loyalty to the gang. The gang is loyal to each other because of how far they go back, growing up together and having faced hard times together. The Curtis brothers are all in the same gang, Ponyboy, Darry, and Sodapop. They are a real family in a gang, making their bond super strong.
This book gave me a lot of insight into how street life was before and maybe still is in the suburbs. It shows the emotions and lifestyle of the characters pretty well and shows us how they handle different conflicts. The book is not only about crime and gangs, but also deals with loyalty, family problems, and frustration. The book really encourages people to stick together, even though it might be tough sometimes.
