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The Outsiders
Ponyboy learns several important lessons throughout the novel. He learns that Socs also have issues despite their affluent backgrounds and that he shares similar interests with some of them....
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The Outsiders
When he is dying in the hospital, Johnny tells Ponyboy to “stay gold.” He is reminding him about a conversation they had about a Robert Frost poem, “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” The poem is about how...
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The Outsiders
The three Curtis brothers are Darry, Ponyboy, and Sodapop. The relationship between Soda and Pony remains fairly static throughout the novel. That doesn't mean the relationship is boring or...
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The Outsiders
In chapter 2, Ponyboy, Johnny, and Dallas (Dally) sneak into the Nightly Double drive-in movie theatre, even though admission is just twenty-five cents, because Dally hates doing anything by the...
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The Outsiders
S.E. Hinton's novel The Outsiders is rich with figurative language which she incorporates seamlessly into the novel to enrich the reader's experience and understanding of the characters. Many of...
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The Outsiders
Really, what both kids learn is that the other gang members are really pretty much like themselves. The main thing that Pony learns about the Socs is that they do not feel like they have it made....
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The Outsiders
In chapter 2 of The Outsiders, Ponyboy, Johnny, and Dallas go to a drive-in movie where they encounter two girls, Marcia and Cherry. The boys sit behind the girls where Dallas proceeds to talk...
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The Outsiders
There are several reasons. First, Johnny was so young. I remember losing a friend of mine who was 14 (I was 17) and I was in disbelief for months. People aren't supposed to die young. It isn't...
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The Outsiders
Cherry Valance tells Ponyboy, "Things are rough all over" (35). From Cherry's perspective the Socs have problems too, troubles that Ponyboy would never imagine. The Social set is cool, but that...
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The Outsiders
Early in the first chapter, Pony talks about the standard dress code of the Greasers. Their clothes define the group, to some extent. Ponyboy notes that they wear blue jeans and tee shirts, and...
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The Outsiders
Ponyboy is the best character to use for a specific man vs. self internal conflict. Ponyboy is much more introspective than the other Greasers. For that reason, he is the one Greaser that begins...
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The Outsiders
As narrator, Ponyboy describes his view of life as including small groups of friends who stay together and protect each other during the conflicts with other social classes. And, in Chapter Four of...
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The Outsiders
There are several events that lead to Bob's stabbing, beginning with Pony and Johnny's introduction to Cherry and Marcia. In chapter 2, Pony, Johnny, and Dally go to the drive-in movies, where they...
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The Outsiders
This poem that Ponyboy remembers whilst he and Johnny are hiding away in the church is explicitly related to the themes of the novel through its reference to the inevitable changes in nature that...
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The Outsiders
Two-Bit says the Socs do not fight fair because they gang up on a guy. When Johnny, Pony, and Two-Bit are at the movies with two Soc girls, Cherry and Soc, it is an usual experience for all of...
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The Outsiders
Ponyboy doesn't seem to enjoy the violence that the other greasers indulge in, but then again he doesn't shy away from it. The violence in the novel, at least from Ponyboy's point of view, all...
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The Outsiders
Ponyboy says in the first chapter that his parents died in a car accident when he was younger. Ponyboy is an orphan who lives with his two brothers, Sodapop and Darry. Darry, the oldest, raises...
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The Outsiders
I guess I would say that the two main conflicts that actually happen in the chapter (as opposed to the flashback to Johnny getting beaten up) are the conflict between Dally and the girls and the...
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The Outsiders
Ponyboy describes Mickey Mouse to Cherry Valance in Chapter Three of The Outsiders. Pony had never "old anyone about Soda's horse. It was personal," but he finds himself opening up to Cherry (39)....
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The Outsiders
Cherry helps the Greasers for a few reasons. She doesn't think the fighting is right, and wants the fighting to stop. Secondly, she has a huge crush on Dally. Her feelings for Dally motivate her...
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The Outsiders
During the church fire scene in Chapter 6, Ponyboy, Johnny, and Dally develop as characters, as their actions are brave and responsible. When Ponyboy sees the church on fire, he immediately feels...
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The Outsiders
Pony is proud of being a greaser but dislikes the violence. Ponyboy goes to great lengths to describe what a "greaser" is, and the benefits of that life. He also points out the drawbacks....
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The Outsiders
Ponyboy and his friends are watching a movie in town. When the movie is over he heads back to Two-Bit's house to get his car and drive the girls home. Two-Bit heads off to try to find a poker game...
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The Outsiders
As the story progresses, Johnny is shown as intelligent as well as sensitive. From the beginning to the end of the story, Johnny and Ponyboy become closer. Johnny may not necessarily change much,...
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The Outsiders
In chapter 6 of The Outsiders, Cherry drives to the vacant lot to explain to the greasers that she would be willing to testify in court against the Socs because they had been drunk and looking for...
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The Outsiders
Johnny and Dallas show how important friendship is when they each stand up for and support their friends at different times in the novel. They defend their friends and help them when they are in...
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The Outsiders
Cherry, whose real name is Sherri Valance, is a Soc girl that Ponyboy and Johnny meet one night when they go to the drive-in movie theater. Cherry is with her friend Marcia, and the two boys end up...
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The Outsiders
Dally and Cherry come from different worlds. When he offers to take her to The Dingo, she refuses. It isn't a place that a girl like her—a rich Soc—would hang out. Instead, The Dingo caters to...
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The Outsiders
In S.E. Hinton's classic novel The Outsiders, Ponyboy mentions that there are several different drive-in movie theaters in town. In chapter 2, Pony and Johnny meet up with Dally at the corner of...
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The Outsiders
Darry is a young man who's had to grow up very quickly. Orphaned from an early age, he had to step up to the plate and take care of his family. Ever since his parents were killed, Darry sacrificed...
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The Outsiders
Ponyboy's relationships with his two brothers are different because of the roles that Darry and Sodapop play in their brother's life. Darry has taken on the role of acting as Ponyboy's father...
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The Outsiders
In S.E. Hinton's classic novel The Outsiders, she illustrates the importance of friendship and family by depicting the close bond between the members of the Greaser gang and the lengths they are...
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The Outsiders
Darry certainly isn't a perfect leader, and lashing out at Ponyboy when he came home late isn't his best moment. And yet, he does show some good leadership qualities. Most notably, Darry realizes...
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The Outsiders
At the end of chapter 6, Ponyboy is picked up after saving the kids from the fire by Darry and Soda. Ponyboy hugs Soda first, of course, and remembers how Darry had hit him the night that he ran...
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The Outsiders
The Outsiders tells the story of the greasers and Socs, two loosely-organized teen gangs in mid-1960s Tulsa, Oklahoma. The greasers are "from the wrong side of the tracks," while the Socs are...
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The Outsiders
The reader learns about Sodapop's physical appearance as well as his personality through the eyes of Ponyboy, the narrator of The Outsiders. Sodapop, Ponyboy's middle brother, is handsome, with...
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The Outsiders
In chapter 2 of The Outsiders, several major events take place that move the plot of the novel forward. First of all, Dally, Ponyboy, and Johnny go to the Dingo for the Nightly Double. This...
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The Outsiders
The author of The Outsiders, Susan E. Hinton, began writing the novel while she was still in her teens. An avid reader, she had become bored with standard adolescent literature and she apparently...
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The Outsiders
Soda is "movie-star kind of handsome, the kind that people stop on the street to watch go by." Sodapop's personality is easy-going and usually relaxed on the outside. He is "always...
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The Outsiders
The blue Mustang in S.E. Hinton’s story of boys from the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum competing, often violently, with their more well-to-do counterparts from the more financially...
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The Outsiders
In chapter four, Johnny stabs and kills Bob Sheldon in self-defense to prevent him from drowning Ponyboy in the local park's fountain. Following the traumatic incident, Pony and Johnny decide to...
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The Outsiders
This is a pivotal chapter in the book as the greaser stereotype gets flipped contrary to everyone's expectations. Greasers are known for being detached, careless, and tough. Yet when Johnny and...
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The Outsiders
One of the most dominant themes in The Outsiders is that of class conflict. The beginning of the novel strongly introduces this theme as a group of Socs, the West Side rich kids, jump and...
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The Outsiders
There are several scenes throughout the novel that portray Johnny Cade's bravery. In Chapter 2, the boys go to the drive-in movies and sit near two Soc girls named Cherry and Marcia. When the boys...
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The Outsiders
The use of description/detail is one device used very effectively in the novel. The detail is spare in volume, but makes a vivid impact when used. An example would be when the church was burning,...
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The Outsiders
A round character has a complex, multi-layered personality, which reflects the emotional depth of a real person. Round characters are also physically and mentally fully developed and capture the...
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The Outsiders
Pony, Soda, and Darry wait in the hospital to hear how Johnny and Dally are after the church fire. Pony has a hard time answering the questions of police and reporters, but they find Soda endlessly...
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The Outsiders
The inciting incident begins the action of the story and is the moment when the protagonist experiences significant conflict. The inciting incident also changes the trajectory of the protagonist's...
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The Outsiders
Cherry Valance is unlike the other members of her privileged social group and is depicted as a genuine, sympathetic person. When she first meets Ponyboy, Cherry does not judge him for being a...
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The Outsiders
Ponyboy uses the phrase "hacked off" two different times in the novel, and the term can be found in chapters 1 and 7. In the first chapter of the novel, Pony gets jumped by a gang of Socs while he...
