Key Facts about The Outsiders

Title: The Outsiders. Author: S.E. Hinton. Genre: Coming of age, struggle between socio-economic classes. Time written: Tulsa, 1960. Point of View: First-person narrative by Ponybo. Major conflict: The clash between the lower-class greasers and the upper-class Socs (or Socials), Ponyboy’s own struggle to grow and mature. Rising action: Johnny murders a Soc, He and Ponyboy go into hiding, The tension between the … Read more

The Outsiders

Author, S.E. Hinton forever changed the direction of literature written for young adults when she penned her premier novel, the Outsiders. Remarkably, Hinton was just 17 years old when the book was published, the Outsiders, she has stated, was written as her response to the fluffy and feminine high school dramas about dating and proms and … Read more

The Outsiders Summary

Ponyboy Curtis associates himself with a group of lower-class Oklahoma teens known as ‘greaser’; a named they’ve earned on account of their greasy, long hair. While walking home one evening after a movie, Ponyboy is confronted by members of the ‘Socs’, adversaries of the greasers who are teenagers from wealthy, upper-class families on the cities … Read more

The Outsiders Quotes and Analysis

Quotes and Analysis Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold. The most popular quote in the book, these are the words that Johnny utters as he lays dying. Stay Gold is a reference to the poem by Robert Frost that Ponyboy read to Johnny while the pair hid out in the abandoned church. As the poem says, … Read more

The Outsiders Themes and Symbols

Important Themes The majority of the book the Outsiders focuses on attempts to bridge the gap between social classes, namely between the rich and the poor. As Hinton suggests, the differences in socioeconomic status is not necessarily what makes the Socs and the greasers rivals, but rather their inability to come to terms with love, … Read more

The Outsiders Characters and Analysis

Characters and Analysis Ponyboy Curtis Ponyboy is the fourteen year old narrator of the Outsiders. He is the story’s main protagonist, and the youngest member of the greasers. His keen interest in literature and strong academic prowess set him apart from the rest of his friends. Since the death of his parents, Ponyboy has lived … Read more

The Difference of Initial Inference of Identity

S. E. Hintons novel, The Outsiders, is at first a narrative of Ponyboy, a young outcast boy who later becomes a young man filled with identity. At the end of the novel, it is revealed that the narrative is actually Ponyboys autobiographical account of his quest for a place in society. The symbols and motifs … Read more

Priest And Chaplain

The characters of the chaplain, in Albert Camus The Outsider, and the priest, in Franz Kafkas The Trial, are quite similar, and are pivotal to the development of the novel. These characters serve essentialy to bring the question of God and religion to probe the existentialist aspects of it, in novels completely devoid of religious … Read more

Book report on The Outsiders

Ponyboy Curtis – The novel’s fourteen-year-old narrator and protagonist, and the youngest of the greasers. Ponyboy’s literary interests and academic accomplishments set him apart from the rest of his gang. Because his parents have died in a car accident, Ponyboy lives with his brothers Darry and Sodapop. Darry repeatedly accuses Ponyboy of lacking common sense, … Read more