Discussion Topic
The school, colors, and symbols representing the greasers and Socs in The Outsiders
Summary:
The greasers in The Outsiders are often associated with the colors black and blue, symbolizing their tough, rebellious nature. Their symbols include switchblades and leather jackets. In contrast, the Socs are represented by the colors white and gold, symbolizing their wealth and social status. Their symbols include Mustangs and madras shirts.
What school do the greasers attend in The Outsiders?
Author S. E. Hinton never reveals the name of the school (nor the city in which the school is located, for that matter) that the Socs and greasers attend in her teen classic The Outsiders. The reader is told by Ponyboy that Cherry Valance "was a cheerleader at our school," but the name of the high school is never given in the novel. It can be assumed that it is the same one that Susan Hinton attended while she was growing up: Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She based The Outsiders on the actual rival gangs--the Socs and the Greasers--that often fought while she was a student there in the mid-1960s. She sympathized with the Greasers while she attended school, and eventually began work on her novel in 1965, telling it from the point of view the greaser, Ponyboy. Her other novels--Rumble Fish, Tex ,...
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That was Then, This is Now (which includes several characters from The Outsiders, including Ponyboy), and Taming the Star Runner--are presumably all set in the Tulsa area. Hinton later attended the University of Tulsa and still resides there.
What symbols represent the greasers and Socs in The Outsiders?
Some symbols of the greasers are the long hair, t-shirts, andsouped-up cars, and symbols of the Socs are muscle cars.
In Ponyboy’s world, there are two gangs. They are not named street gangs, but rather nicknames for social classes. The lower class kids are called greasers, and the rich kids are called Socs. Ponyboy explains that not all greasers are the same.
Greasers are almost like hoods; we steal things and drive old souped-up cars and hold up gas stations and have a gang fight once in a while. (ch 1)
Pony points out that he is not a hoodlum. His older brother tries to keep him out of trouble, and would kill him if he had a run in with the law.
I only mean that most greasers do things like that, just like we wear our hair long and dress in blue jeans and T-shirts, or leave our shirttails out and wear leather jackets and tennis shoes or boots. (ch 1)
The Socs are the rich kids, and “they’ve got all the breaks.” They live on the other side, and have a real sense of entitlement.
The girls who were bright-eyed and had their dresses a decent length and … looked at us like we were dirt-gave us the same kind of look that the Socs did when they came by in their Mustangs and Corvairs and yelled "Grease!" at us. (ch 1)
Despite the fact that the Socs are wealthy, they can be just as violent as any greaser. In fact, it is their jumping Johnny that causes Pony and Johnny to get into the fight with Bob and his friends that results in Johnny killing Bob.
What symbols convey the social status of the greasers and the Socs in The Outsiders?
Hinton uses visible symbols in The Outsiders to characterize further the differences between the Socs and greasers. The greasers are most well-known for their hair. In chapter five when Johnny suggested that he and Ponyboy both cut their hair, Ponyboy discusses the importance of hair to the greaser psyche:
Our hair labeled us greasers, too--it was our trademark. The one thing we were proud of. Maybe we couldn't have Corvairs or madras shirts, but we could have hair" (71).
Ponyboy's description of the importance of hair to a greaser underscores its significance to defining the boys' social status. Similarly, Ponyboy also draws attention to the symbols of the Socs' social status--Corvairs and madras shirts. The Socs' wealth enabled them to have much more expensive status symbols like the 'tuff' cars that appear in the novel: Corvairs, Mustangs, Stingrays.