The Potential for the Greasers and Socs to Recognize Eachother as Part of a Whole World

This is a small thesis I just wrote (on my own) about The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. I have become a very big fan of that story and also of That Was Then, This Is Now in the past several months. I am aware that The Outsiders has been read in middle and high schools nationwide since it was first published.

Since I took Communications instead of English when I was in middle school, I didn't get to read The Outsiders myself at that time. I was actually first introduced to it by my first YouthFriends mentee back in March when her class was just getting finished with it. She had really taken a liking to it so I thought I would read it for myself. Since reading it for the first time myself, I have seen why most kids even today take the liking to it that they do. As the SparkNotes for The Outsiders mentions, the story isn't about simple rivalry between two socioeconmic classes, it's also about the development and maturity of the protagonist, Ponyboy Curtis. Aside from the constant rivalry, there is also a constant feeling of displacement with Ponyboy due to being a new orphan and Ponyboy's best friend, Johnny due to constant parental abuse at his home. This rings a bell with so many kids today who feel displaced for reasons from both parents having to work to widespread neglect due to parental selfishness or passiveness and having no sense of structure otherwise.

Here is my personal analysis of The Outsiders:

Thesis for The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton:

The Potential for the Greasers and Socs to Recognize Eachother as Part of a Whole World

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton centers on a character, the narrator named Ponyboy Curtis (his real name). Ponyboy belongs to a group of mostly adolescents and those in their early twenties called Greasers who are known for their leather jackets, old jeans, t-shirts, sneakers and last but not least, their slicked, greasy hair which they tend to grow out. The Greasers are also known for their poverty. Opposite the Greasers is the financially wealthy class called the Socials or Socs for short. The Socs are known for their well-groomed looks and recent-model cars. The Greasers and Socs are in constant conflict with each other, according to Hinton, mostly due to the Socs boredom and constant excuses and attempts alleviate their boredom. One contrast is that the Socs also fight each other for the sheer pleasure of it while the Greasers believe in what they call a “fair fight”, which is simple revenge for something that was done to them (ex. When Dallas Winston slashes Tim Shepard’s tires out of anger at Johnny for standing up to him and not getting the girl).

Even though Ponyboy is gifted and more mature than most of the Greasers, even he struggles with perceiving the Socs as equally human. Until he meets Cherry Valance who is the girlfriend of one of the male leader of the Socs named Bob Sheldon. Ponyboy and Cherry quickly discover that they click and have a lot in common-particularly watching sunsets. They quietly attempt to make an underground friendship the night in the drive-in movie. Unfortunately, Cherry and her friend, Marcia get caught by Bob and the other Socs and tensions escalate.

 Later that night, when Ponyboy decides to run away after his older brother, Darry slaps him out of exasperation, Bob and his gang wander into the Greaser’s territory looking for Johnny and Ponyboy. It escalates in an attempt to drown Ponyboy and kill Johnny. In both self-defense and in an attempt to defend Ponyboy, Johnny ends up murdering Bob.

When Dallas Winston comes by to check on Johnny and Ponyboy at the rundown church that they have been staying in for approximately the last week as a result, he informs them that Cherry has since been acting as a spy for the Greasers. This was likely considered a betrayal on her part with the Socs though it shows how much courage Cherry really had. After Ponyboy arrives back home and Johnny is still in the hospital, Cherry meets with him in secret to make peace with him. Initially, Ponyboy feels that she is a double traitor to the Greasers for not visiting Johnny in the hospital. Cherry then explains that her boyfriend, Bob had had a more positive side to him, which the Greasers had never had the opportunity to see and that he had had it in him to naturally command the respect and be the leader of an entire crowd. Ponyboy then begins to see how similar Dallas Winston is to Bob because both, despite being “bad boys“ are naturals at leading. Ponyboy and Cherry say their goodbyes by briefly bringing up the subject of sunsets again.

It is the commonality of sunsets that sets the tone for the potentiality of a final reconciliation between the Socs and Greasers. It is Johnny’s assertion and his and Ponyboy’s interactions at the drive-in movie theater which motivate Cherry to do her part in attempting to bridge the gap between the Greasers and Socs. At the age of fourteen, Ponyboy is still impressionable enough to change his pre-conceived notions about people outside of his community. And throughout the novel, we see his blatant disregards and hatred for the Socs start to chip away as he increasingly recognizes the commonalities between the Socs and Greasers.

In this novel, Hinton successfully debunks the stereotypes of those in groups of what is considered delinquent and of those in groups of the higher class. She demonstrates that just because someone is from an impoverished and generally deviant part of an area does not necessarily mean that every individual from that group is boorish and offending. Simultaneously, she also demonstrates that being from a prim and proper background does not necessarily make one so. The only difference is that those from the latter background tend to be able to get away with a lot more because of that general expectation.

The peace between Cherry and the Greasers may have only been temporary in reality. However, it demonstrates a universal desire and also what our country has and still is fighting for: the recognition of the uniqueness of individuality in a positive light and the recognition of oneness in commonality.