because it accurately captures the feelings of all the major characters in the book.  In the story, all of the people that we meet (and especially the main characters) feel like "outsiders."

By this, I mean that they all feel that society is against them in some way.  They are dissatisfied with their lives.

You might think that only the Greasers are outsiders because they are the ones who society looks down on the most.  But even the Socs feel that society does not understand them and does not give them the approval and support that they need.

The title of the novel relates to how Pony and the Greasers are considered outsiders or outcasts in their society. Throughout the novel, Hinton explores how society unfairly judges and perceives adolescents from poverty-stricken areas. As a Greaser, Pony and his gang are viewed as ignorant criminals who have nothing to contribute to society. Pony continually laments being "marked lousy" simply because he resides on the East Side and is a member of the Greaser gang. Despite his outward appearance and dysfunctional home life, Pony is an intelligent, articulate young man, who is sympathetic and kind. Tragically, Pony is viewed as an outsider who will never fit in or live up to society's standards.

The title also corresponds to how the Greasers view the Socs. Before Pony befriends Cherry, he views all Socs as superficial, callous, and selfish. Essentially, Pony initially perceives all Socs as outsiders, until he genuinely gets to know them. Pony discovers that Cherry and Randy also experience difficulties in life and have sensitive personalities. The title of Hinton's classic novel also applies to all of the misunderstood adolescents throughout the nation. Ponyboy writes the story to give society's outsiders hope by encouraging them to stay innocent and appreciate the positive aspects of life. Overall, the novel's title corresponds to the theme of being unfairly judged and misunderstood by society at large.

The title of this story helps to support the theme, which is one of class conflict as we see working class kids in the form of the Greasers ranged against middle and upper-class kids in the form of the Socs. This is the central conflict that drives the novel forward as it is this conflict that leads Johnny and Ponyboy to run from the law after killing a Soc. In one sense, therefore, the title refers to the way in which the Greasers are the outsiders of the novel. As Ponyboy reflects, when there is trouble, it is always the Greasers that are treated unfairly by society and literally are outcasts. The Socs, Ponyboy tells us, "get editorials in the paper for being a public disgrace one day and an asset to society the next." The Greasers are therefore outcasts of society and blamed for every wrong.

However, the significance of the title also deepens when Ponyboy comes to realise how similar Socs and Greasers are. Through his friendship with Cherry and the conversations that he has with other Socs, Ponyboy comes to realise that in many ways they are very similar, although they come from such different backgrounds, and that Socs experience the feeling of being outsiders as well.

Lastly, at the end of the novel, Ponyboy has a picture of the way that the term "outsider" applies to all young people:

I could picture hundreds and hundreds of boys living on the wrong sides of cities, boys with black eyes who jumped at their own shadows. Hundreds of boys who maybe watched sunsets and looked at stars and ached for something better.

The term outsider then also comes to refer to the way in which so many young people are outsiders as they grow up and go through the teenage years. The title therefore is widened in terms of its application as the novel continues.

The title of the book refers to the social position of the Greasers, Ponyboy's "gang".  Handicapped by their lower socio-economic status, the Greasers are looked down upon; shut out from the advantages that are open to their more wealthy counterparts, the Socs.  Although members of both groups get in trouble - the Socs "jump Greasers and wreck houses and throw beer blasts for kicks", while the Greasers "steal things...and rob gas stations and have a gang fight once in awhile" - the Greasers are more frequently identified by their transgressions against the law because they come from "the wrong side of the tracks".  They are the "outsiders", the ones for whom access to opportunity is perpetually more complicated, because of preconceptions and stereotypes (Chapter 1).

One of the central themes of the story, however, is that, underneath it all, the Greasers and the Socs are more alike than they are different.  As Cherry Valance observes to Ponyboy, "things are tough all over", and, after talking with her, Ponyboy realizes that there are individual differences within both groups, and, despite the gulf that separates the classes, they all "see the same sunset" (Chapter 2).

There are two gangs of teenagers in the novel The Outsiders--the Greasers from the East Side of town and the Socs (short for Socials) from the West Side of town. The two groups differ in almost every way. First of all, they come from two different social classes. The Greasers are poorer than the Socs; they dress differently and come from very different backgrounds and experiences. The Socs would be the popular kids in school; the Greasers the hoods in school. The Greasers are the outsiders in this story because they don't belong to the conservative society of the time. They play by different rules because they have to in order to survive. They ban together as a group because they have to protect each other. The Socs ban together to party and have fun. The Greasers are not accepted by the "normal" mainstream crowd but are looked at as below or not as good as the Socs because of their economic status. For example, Ponyboy is being raised by his brothers, Darrel and Sodapop, after losing their parents in a car accident. It's a non-traditional family, unlike the Socs who live in a more nuclear family environment. Even though Hinton describes them as having very different backgrounds and values, in the end, we see the outsiders' compassion and caring exhibited by Ponyboy and his gang of friends.