The Outsiders

Ponyboy Curtis is a perceptive, conflicted teenager, who is extremely loyal and selfless. In the story, Ponyboy gains significant insight into the lives of rival Soc members after having an...

In S. E. Hinton's classic novel The Outsiders, the Greasers and Socs are rival gangs, which are engaged in a tragic, ever-going conflict that leads to death and trauma for both social groups. The...

The character Two-Bit Mathews is introduced to the reader early in S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders. Hinton’s story about the perpetual and futile feud between the Greasers, represented by, among...

Three major characters die in S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders. All of the deaths are tragic, as the boys who die are much too young to lose their lives so early; as well, all of the deaths call into...

In The Outsiders there are both internal and external conflicts. The two overriding conflicts are man versus himself and man versus society. Throughout the novel, Ponyboy endures an internal...

Because of the various conflicts in the novel, there are several themes which you could aptly discuss in The Outsiders. In addition to the ones mentioned by the other educators, one prevalent theme...

After Johnny's and Dally's deaths, Pony engages in some deep introspection and realizes that maybe settling for the way Greasers have always lived isn't his best option for having a meaningful...

Pony comments that his gang members are like family. This is because they are all very close since they have to depend on each other for everything. Pony goes to the movie by himself, and feels...

Greasers are different from the Socs in that they come from the wrong side of the tracks. They are outcasts from respectable society, members of a class looked down on and despised by those from...

Johnny leaves Ponyboy a note in the copy of Gone with the Wind that Johnny gives to Ponyboy. Johnny, who knows he is dying, tells Ponyboy that he doesn't mind dying now because he saved several...

The meaning of the poem is that the things that are most beautiful in life are also the things that have the shortest lives. He says the first leaves of nature are their most beautiful and that...

Ponyboy's assignment is to write a theme about "anything (he) think(s) is important enough to write about...it isn't a reference theme...(it is his) own ideas and...experiences". The...

According to Ponyboy Curtis, the protagonist and narrator of S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders, Greasers and Socs dress themselves differently. The Greasers, the group with which Ponyboy identifies,...

In Chapter 2 of The Outsiders, Cherry Valence tells Ponyboy that "things are rough all over." She tells him this shortly after he finishes telling her why Johnny acts so "hurt and scared." Cherry...

Another central theme in The Outsiders concerns friendship. At one point, the narrator states: "You take up for your buddies no matter what they do. When you're in a gang, you stick up for the...

S.E. Hinton uses the motif of sunsets to create a connection between two unlikely characters, Ponyboy Curtis and Cherry Valance. Although Ponyboy is a greaser and Cherry is a pretty, popular Soc...

Ponyboy says that sunset line to Cherry in chapter 3. Cherry is about to leave with a group of Soc boys in order to prevent a fight from breaking out in front of her. Just as she turns to leave,...

In Chapter 9 of The Outsiders, the boys are preparing for the rumble with the Socs. Before the rumble, Ponyboy asks some of the boys why they fight. Soda likes to fight because it's like a...

Dally can be violent and impulsive, but he genuinely cares about Ponyboy. Towheaded and shifty-eyed, Dally was anything but handsome. Yet in his hard face there was character, pride, and a savage...

The novel begins and ends with the same sentence about Ponyboy stepping outside from a movie theater thinking about Paul Newman and a ride home. In Chapter 12, Ponyboy reads Johnny's moving letter...

In chapter 7, Ponyboy reads a newspaper article entitled, "JUVENILE DELINQUENTS TURN HEROES" and learns several significant pieces of information regarding the events surrounding Bob Sheldon's...

After killing Bob, a Soc, Johnny and Ponyboy escape to this church out in a pretty remote, mountainous location (which is wonderfully symbolic after Ponyboy's dreams of a simple life in the...

Cherry is my favorite character in the entire novel. The reason for that is because she is able to fluidly interact with the Greasers and the Socs. Perhaps the reason for that is because she...

The Socs and greasers are the two rival groups of teenagers in S. E. Hinton's teen novel, The Outsiders. There are obviously more differences between the groups than similarities. SIMILARITIES All...

Let's look at the opposition first. The difference between Socs and Greasers is outlined for the reader in the opening chapter by Ponyboy, who is himself a Greaser and thus is able to give an...

Ponyboy is faced with a number of conflicts throughout the novel. The most obvious conflict is the one between him and his older brother Darry, who after their parents’ death, took over as the...

Johnny Cade is depicted as a vulnerable, quiet member of the Greasers, who comes from an abusive home and is considered the gang's pet. Unlike the other Greasers, Johnny does not enjoy breaking the...

Chapter four of The Outsiders is the chapter that sets up the rest of the book. Pony and Johnny are in the park hanging out by the fountain. The two boys are talking about nothing too important...

In chapter 7, Ponyboy reads the newspaper article entitled "JUVENILE DELINQUENTS TURN HEROES," which elaborates on the boys' lives and their heroics. Ponyboy mentions that the article begins with...

Ponyboy suffers a concussion after being beaten in the head during a rumble. In Chapter 11, Randy comes to visit him because he has missed several days from school. Randy tells Ponyboy that he came...

Friendship: As Johnny lies near death in the hospital, Pony comes back to visit him. Pony sees that his friend is weak and pale, and the nurses have made ominous statements about how poor Johnny's...

There are two ways in which S.E. Hinton foreshadows that the church will catch fire. One is that at the end of Chapter 4, Ponyboy says, "But this church gave me a kind of creepy feeling. What do...

The quick answer to this question is Ponyboy’s statement Things gotta get better, I figured. They couldn’t get worse. I was wrong. The words “I was wrong” make the reader think, “oh boy, what’s...

In Chapter 3, Ponyboy has a personal conversation with Cherry Valance at the drive-in and begins speaking about Sodapop's favorite horse, Mickey Mouse. Ponyboy tells Cherry that Sodapop used to...

An example of a simile comes in chapter 1, when Ponyboy describes Dally as being "as wild as the boys in the downtown outfits." This is a particularly useful simile as it gives us an insight into...

Head: Johnny’s biggest problem is that he is afraid. He is constantly abused by his father, but when he was jumped by the Socs he was badly hurt. “Johnny was scared of his own shadow” after he...

Gone with the Wind is an American novel written by Margaret Mitchell in 1936. In The Outsiders, it symbolizes the closeness between Ponyboy and his friend Johnny. When the boys are first hiding out...

Ponyboy Curtis and his brothers Sodapop and Darrel (nicknamed Darry) lost their parents approximately eight months before the start of the Novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. When this happens,...

The answer to this is that Dally (Dallas Winston) asks to borrow Two-bit's switchblade. This happens in Chapter 8 of the book. Dally is in the hospital recovering from his injuries that he got...

Sodapop, or Soda, is Ponyboy’s second-oldest brother behind Darry. Soda is sixteen-going-on-seventeen, and according to Ponyboy, Soda “never cracks a book at all,” and he also never drinks. Ponyboy...

In The Outsiders S. E. Hinton's protagonist, Ponyboy, is the narrator. He loves to read, and so figurative language comes easily to him. In many of his descriptions, Ponyboy employs...

Personification is a type of figurative language which is "a figure of speech in which abstractions, animals, ideas, and inanimate objects are endowed with human form, character, traits, or...

Before Johnny dies, he has a brief exchange with Ponyboy. Johnny tells Ponyboy to "stay gold." Johnny is referencing the Robert Frost poem that Ponyboy read to him while the two boys were hiding...

Ponyboy is smart because he excels at school and he is an avid reader. His eldest brother, Darryl ensures that Ponyboy attends school everyday and keeps his grades up. He is afraid that if Ponyboy...

Ponyboy says (thinks) that line to himself at the end of chapter one. He has just finished introducing the reader to the members of the Greaser gang and his brothers, Sodapop and Darry. The final...

For the first time ever, Ponyboy considers the idea that Bob is an actual person. Before this moment in chapter eleven, Ponyboy never gave a thought to the fact that behind the tough Soc exterior...

Cherry Valance and Ponyboy go to school together, but they get acquainted when Dally, Pony, and Johnny meet Cherry and Marcia at the movies. Dally starts harassing the girls and Johnny intervenes,...

Early in chapter one, Ponyboy is attempting to tell his readers a little bit about himself. He describes himself, and several members of the Greaser gang. At one point, Pony describes the gang as...

The Outsiders is an examination of 1960's youth culture and the effects of peer pressure on young men. Slang has evolved and changed significantly in the decades following the Second World War....

In Chapter 4 of “The Outsiders”, Ponyboy and Johnny “run away” from home and go to the park because Ponyboy got into an argument with his brother Darry. They never intend to actually leave for a...