![]() It's one of the sad facts of life.īut that also means, despite all these cliques, we're all in the same gang. Everyone, at some point in their life, has been on the outside looking in. ![]() More than likely, though, that's not exactly news to you. Since we get the perspective of Sodapop, Ponyboy, and the Greasers, we really get a feel for what it's like to be-that's right-an outsider. Sure, we get two rival gangs, but they're grouped as the rich kids (the Socials) and the poor kids (the Greasers). The Outsiders deals with this same phenomenon. Yup: cliques are for life.īut, because by definition cliques have to exclude most people to include a few, they can also cause a lot of hard feelings, loneliness, and tension. Expats sit in cafes and pretend to be Hemingway. even though it's from a movie that came out in 1999.Īnd this phenomenon doesn't go away, even in adulthood. After all, there's safety in numbers, and people naturally gravitate toward others who may have similar interests: this is why all drama kids congregate together, the entire rugby team inexplicably has the same haircut, and the phrase "one time at band camp" is still being thrown around. Once formed, these cliques can be very hard to break into-or out of. They move in small packs, kind of like meerkats. One quick look around your school cafeteria will confirm it: people are cliquey creatures. What is The Outsiders About and Why Should I Care? Can't go wrong with Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, Tom Cruise, Emilio Estevez, Diane Lane, Matt Dillon, and The Karate Kid. Not too shabby.Īlso not bad? The movie version. Did we mention Hinton was born in 1948? For all you non-mathletes out there, that means she was in high school when she wrote it. Hinton wrote The Outsiders in 1965, and it was published in 1967. Violence? Anger? The Outsiders has got it. ![]() These gangs go at it like the Capulets and Montagues, and Ponyboy's world spirals quickly out of control. The biggest ordeal in Ponyboy's life is the war waging between his friends and family (called Greasers), and the "Socs," or wealthy kids who live on the other side of town. ![]() Ponyboy is pretty smart and has a lot of opportunity in front of him, but he comes from the "wrong side of town" and hangs out with a bunch of similarly weirdly-named friends who drop out, smoke cigarettes, and get busted for robbing stores and stealing cars. The Outsiders is narrated by a fourteen-year-old called Ponyboy Curtis (weird name, but a cool kid). Buddies have always looked out for each other.Īnd being fourteen has always been the pits. There have always been straight-laced girls interested in daring bad boys. As The Outsiders shows us, the world has always been split along class lines. Music was-according to your grandpa, at least-way better.īut some things haven't changed at all. If you enjoyed The Outsiders, you might like Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.Want more deets? We've also got a complete Online Course about The Outsiders, with three weeks worth of readings and activities to make sure you know your stuff.Ī lot of things were different in the 1960's. Hinton is also the author of That Was When, This Is Now (1971), adapted into a film starring Emilio Estevez and Morgan Freeman Rumble Fish (1975), also adapted into a film by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Mickey Rourke, Nicholas Cage and Dennis Hopper Tex (1979) Taming the Star Runner (1988), and many others. 1950) wrote her first book, The Outsiders, in 1967, when she was seventeen years old. It confronted America with a new breed of anti-hero from the wrong side of the class divide, and became a bestselling classic of youthful rebellion. Hinton was only seventeen, laying bare the hopes and terrors between teenage bravado in a world of drive-ins, drag races and switchblades. The Outsiders was an audacious debut written when S.E. But a single, murderous catastrophe is to wrench him from his old life and overturn everything he thinks he knows. Ponyboy, a fourteen-year-old brawler, chainsmoker and dreamer, is a fiercely loyal greaser. The Greasers and the rich-kid Socs are at war on the Tulsa streets. This Penguin Modern Classics edition is published with an introduction by Jodi Picoult, author of My Sister’s Keeper. Hinton’s The Outsiders is a young adult novel of enduring power. Adapted into an award-winning film by Francis Ford Coppola, and starring Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe and Tom Cruise, S.E.
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