both a mother and a father. While most students can't relate to that, they can relate to being in a broken home due to divorce. The Curtis brothers have strong bonds with each other, butPonyboy admits that losing their parents drastically changed the family dynamic.

I think another connection between the book and real life can be found through Cherry's insight that things are rough all over:

Cherry no longer looked sick, only sad. "I'll bet you think the Socs have it made. The rich kids, the West-side Socs. I'll tell you something, Ponyboy, and it may come as a surprise. We have troubles you've never even heard of. You want to know something?" She looked me straight in the eye. "Things are rough all over."

She is the character that first gets Ponyboy to consider the Socs as actual people with problems of their own. Modern day readers can learn a lot from Cherry's insight by realizing that people are often much more alike than they are different, and Ponyboy lets readers know that he has learned this lesson after a conversation with Randy:

"He ain't a Soc," I said, "he's just a guy. He just wanted to talk."

Even though they might put a socially more acceptable face on it, in schools, there are still gangs. The "athletes", the "goths", the "geeks". In society people are still grouped and judged by color, religion, sexual orientation, money, and etc. All of these are different gangs and people are frequently forced into them through the choices of other people. 

Look at the school that you attend. There are definitive social groups and they don't always get along, right? You can use your personal experiences and compare them to the characters in the story for "text to self". Familiarize yourself with the links provided below and you can see the connection with "text to world" and more "text to self" you being a high school student. The text to text is a little harder for me to guide you toward because I do not know your literary history. Have you read any other books that deal with two groups of kids that don't get along? What happened? How is that similar (not the same) to the on-going conflict in the outsiders? What can you pull out of one book and show has the same message and ideas that The Outsiders have?

In S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, there are many events, life experiences, and conditions that foster the formation of strong, meaningful connections between people.

The Greasers are bonded by their shared social and financial status. They are all poor and live in the same low-income neighborhood. Similarly, the Socs are connected by the fact that they all come from well-to-do families and live in a high-class neighborhood.

Ponyboy, Sodapop, and Darry are brothers who have very different interests and personalities, but whose bond is strengthened by having all endured a common tragedy. The Curtis brothers’ parents were killed in a car accident, leaving the three young men to navigate the difficulties of life without parental guidance.

Ponyboy and Johnny are close friends when the novel opens, but their connection grows stronger when Johnny kills Bob for attacking and almost drowning Ponyboy. The two go into hiding together after Bob’s death.

There are numerous events in The Outsiders which demonstrate people connecting through shared experiences, but two of those are when Pony and Cherry talk at the movies and when Randy talks to Pony while Johnny is in the hospital.

Though they come from vastly different backgrounds, Pony is impressed when Cherry makes an effort to really get to know him at the movies. When Johnny joins them and Cherry smiles, Pony is pleased with her judgment. She also isn't scared of Dally the way most people are, and Pony is shocked when Cherry throws a Coke in his face and never flinches in her defiance toward him. Cherry initially refers to Pony's friends as "trash," but she opens up as they get to know each other, telling Pony that she is thankful that he doesn't engage in "dirty talk" or try to take advantage of her. Instead, she is impressed with Pony's manners and intelligence. Later in their conversation, Pony confesses that the Socs once beat up Johnny so badly that Johnny almost died. When he finishes his story, Cherry insists that "all Socs aren't like that" and then tells him that Socs "have troubles [he's] never heard of." Pony can't imagine what those troubles might be, but this conversation bridges a gap between their two worlds and helps Pony to begin to see that "things are rough all over."

Just before the big rumble, Randy finds Pony and tells him that he's not going to show up to the fight. He explains that he is "sick" of all the fighting and that he truly mourns the loss of Bob, who was a "good guy." He explains,

He was the best buddy a guy ever had. I mean, he was a good fighter and tuff and everything, but he was a real person too. You dig?

These are certainly feelings which Pony can relate to, as his own best friend remains hospitalized, fighting for his life. Randy doesn't want to fight anymore because he believes it "doesn't do any good." He has realized that being a Soc or being a greaser doesn't really mean anything. Therefore, fighting doesn't mean anything. Pony tells him, "I'd help you if I could," and he honestly means it. For the first time, Pony is able to see that "things are rough all over" and that having money doesn't free people from grief and loss. Pony ends their conversation by encouraging Randy, assuring him that he, Randy, would have saved those kids in the church, too, if he'd been given the chance. The two part ways cordially, and Pony no longer feels a seething hatred toward Randy, because he can finally recognize the shared pain in their life experiences.