Book Information:
Summary:
The Outsiders is about the life of a 14-year-old boy, Ponyboy. Ponyboy is struggling with the life he lives and what is right and wrong in it. But ultimately, he is proud that he is a “Greaser” with his two brothers, who take care of him. Darry, the older brother and Sodapop, who is around Ponyboy’s age, lost their parents and now take care of eachother. The boys are Greasers, a gang that refers to the boys as lower class and from a different area of town. The Greasers' enemys are the Socs, or a gang of boys from the other side of town who are more well off or first class.
Ponyboy and another gang member, Johnny, find themselves in a bad situation, ultimately ending in a murder of one of the Socs. The story continues with the two boys running away to hide from police.
The whole book revolves around a group of boys trying to do what is right in some very wrong situations.
I think this book is aimed for teens. I personally believe it would be more appealing to teenage boys but I have a lot of girl friends who enjoyed this book. I guess it was just me who didn’t find it all that interesting. It is sort of ironic I feel that way given the author was a teenage girl herself.
Although the book was set in a different time period, it does deal with some situations all teenages will go through. Self-image, drugs and alcohol, peer pressure; it is definitely a good book to read in the beginning of those teen years to address and familiarize teenagers with those situations and open up conversation before they are thrown into that world.
Themes
Social Groups
The Outsiders has one very large theme, the division of two groups of people. That division is because of social class or money. Everyone, including the females in the book have been automatically divided into the two groups based on social standings. With one’s money standing comes multiple different characteristics that were trust upon them. Whether they were smart, went to school, what they wore, how they talked and acted was all based on the groups they associated with and not on individuality. A few of the characters struggle within the book to decide if they want to act like the rest of the group or make their own path.
"They were the only kind of girls that would look at us, I thought. Tough, loud girls who wore too much eye makeup and giggled and swore too much." pg. 15
Ponyboy and another gang member, Johnny, find themselves in a bad situation, ultimately ending in a murder of one of the Socs. The story continues with the two boys running away to hide from police.
The whole book revolves around a group of boys trying to do what is right in some very wrong situations.
I think this book is aimed for teens. I personally believe it would be more appealing to teenage boys but I have a lot of girl friends who enjoyed this book. I guess it was just me who didn’t find it all that interesting. It is sort of ironic I feel that way given the author was a teenage girl herself.
Although the book was set in a different time period, it does deal with some situations all teenages will go through. Self-image, drugs and alcohol, peer pressure; it is definitely a good book to read in the beginning of those teen years to address and familiarize teenagers with those situations and open up conversation before they are thrown into that world.
Themes
Social Groups
The Outsiders has one very large theme, the division of two groups of people. That division is because of social class or money. Everyone, including the females in the book have been automatically divided into the two groups based on social standings. With one’s money standing comes multiple different characteristics that were trust upon them. Whether they were smart, went to school, what they wore, how they talked and acted was all based on the groups they associated with and not on individuality. A few of the characters struggle within the book to decide if they want to act like the rest of the group or make their own path.
"They were the only kind of girls that would look at us, I thought. Tough, loud girls who wore too much eye makeup and giggled and swore too much." pg. 15