I think a good place to start is to look at the Capulets and Montagues as being similar to the Greasers and Socs. I do not mean in terms of socioeconomic status or anything like that. I mean that the groups are similar in that they hate the other group based pretty much on name only. Take Sampson and Gregory, for example. They are Capulet supporters, and the play starts with them picking a fight with a Montague servant named Abram. The fight happens for really no other reason than Montague people hate Capulet people and vice versa. This is exactly like the Socs and the Greasers. It is why Johnny is jumped and beaten to within an inch of his life. Socs hate Greasers, and Greasers hate Socs.
I remembered how awful Johnny had looked when he got beaten up. I had just as much right to use the...
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streets as the Socs did, and Johnny had never hurt them. Why did the Socs hate us so much? We left them alone. I nearly went to sleep over my homework trying to figure it out.
I think another area of similarity can be found within each group. For simplicity, let us just look at Greasers and Montagues. Both groups have various members of different ages, talents, strengths, and weaknesses, and both groups share deep bonds. Benvolio, Mercutio, and Romeo all support each other fiercely while teasing each other mercilessly. This is exactly the kind of thing that readers see among the Greasers. Readers know that Two-Bit will absolutely defend Pony and Soda no matter what the circumstance, but we also know that those same gang members constantly give each other grief about everything.
Darry stared at him for a second, then cracked a grin. Sodapop isn't afraid of him like everyone else and enjoys teasing him. I'd just as soon tease a full-grown grizzly; but for some reason, Darry seems to like being teased by Soda.
Finally, I do see some similarities between Ponyboy and Cherry and Romeo and Juliet. While Ponyboy and Cherry are not a romantic couple in the way that Romeo and Juliet are, they are able to bridge the two warring gangs. They are able to look past the name label that the other person has, and that is what Romeo and Juliet do with each other as well.
At first glance, it might appear as if the characters in The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton and Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare do not have much in common; however, when one isolates the core of the conflicts, it becomes clear that the relationships in both stories are rooted in rivalry and secrecy.
In both The Outsidersand Romeo and Juliet, an overarching theme is rivalry. Whilesocioeconomic status separates the greasers from the Socs in The Outsiders, last names separates the Montagues from the Capulets, who appear to be relatively equal in terms of socioeconomic status. Due to these rivalries, there are instances of deadly interactions in both stories. In The Outsiders, Johnny kills Bob (whether his actions were justified or not is debatable). In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo kills Tybalt and Paris, and Tybalt kills Mercutio. These deaths have profound effects on the main characters. In Ponyboy's case, the Johnny's death and other events in the novel inspire him to write. Because Tybalt killed Mercutio, Romeo's best friend, Romeo kills Tybalt in a rage, which one could argue also leads to Romeo and Juliet's suicides.
Beyond the rivalry, there are relationships shrouded in secrecy in both stories. In Romeo and Juliet, the love and marriage between Romeo and Juliet is kept a secret from both families until the end. In fact, the only other people who know about their marriage are the Nurse and Friar. This leads to some of the play's central conflicts. On the other hand, in The Outsiders, the development of the relationship between Cherry and Ponyboy also demonstrates a crossing of barriers. This relationship develops in secrecy and isn't revealed to the public, as Cherry refuses to interact with Ponyboy at school. The love between Romeo and Juliet and Cherry's demonstration of friendship (while shallow) demonstrates that feuds can be overcome.