Tuesday, May 14, 2013

What are the points of The Outsiders? What quotes and references from the book can support these points?

I think the "points" that this question refers to are themes found in the text. One such theme is about class divisions in society. The class division in The Outsiders is illustrated through the Greasers and the Socs. The Greasers are the poorer kids from one side of town, and the Socs are the rich kids from the other side of town. Ponyboy points this division out to readers frequently and quite early in the book.

We're poorer than the Socs and the middle class.

What's great about this book and theme is that Hinton does a wonderful job of showing readers that Socs and Greasers are all people with problems of their own. The book wonderfully illustrates this point through Cherry's character. She is the Soc who first causes Ponyboy to realize that the Socs' world is not perfect. She says that they have problems too.

Cherry no longer looked sick, only sad. "I'll bet you think the Socs have it made. The rich kids, the West-side Socs. I'll tell you something, Ponyboy, and it may come as a surprise. We have troubles you've never even heard of. You want to know something?" She looked me straight in the eye. "Things are rough all over."

Ponyboy responds by telling her that he believes her, and by the end of the book, readers get to see that belief in action when he speaks up for Randy.

"What'd he want?" Two-Bit asked. "What'd Mr. Super-Soc have to say?"
"He ain't a Soc," I said, "he's just a guy. He just wanted to talk."

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