Book report
Title
The outsiders
Author
Susan Eloise Hinton
An American author who is best known for writing young adult fiction. The Outsiders was Hinton's first published book in 1967; Hinton started the book at the age of fifteen. Hinton based the characters, the Greasers and the Socs, off of teenage gangs and alienated youth in her hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma during the 1960s. The Outsiders has sold over fourteen million copies since it was published. In 1983, The Outsiders became a movie, and was later released onto DVD. After experiencing a writer's block and going into a state of depression, Hinton met somebody in her freshman biology class, who inspired her to continue writing.
Summary
There is a 14 year old named Ponyboy, who lives with his older brothers: Sodapop and Darry. His parents died in a car accident, so Darry, as the oldest, takes care of his younger brothers, as well as for the house responsibilities. While Ponyboy was walking home from a movie, he is assaulted by a group of socs, a group of teenagers that belong to the upper class in Oklahoma. He gets saved by his friends, who are part of the greasers, a gang with less economic resources than the socs. The socs and the greasers are rivals because of the difference on the social scale. Ponyboy goes to watch a movie once again, but this time with his friends, Johnny and Dally. There, they meet two socs girls, Cherry and Marcia. They accompany them home, but, on their way, they encounter their boyfriends, Bob and Randy, so they have to leave with them in order to prevent a fight. They didn’t prevent it at all, because then, they find each other at the park, where Bob is killed by Johnny. Ponyboy and Johnny escape town in order to save their lives, but things at home didn’t get easier, tensions were scaling between the gangs. After a week of hiding, they go back home with Dally. Johnny is in critical condition, he got himself hurt while saving some kids from a fire on the church they were hiding in. Ponyboy and Darry make amends. In the newspaper it is said that both Johnny and Ponyboy will go to juvenile court due to Bob’s death. There is a rumble between the gangs, in which the greasers win. Johnny dies at the hospital. Dally robbed a grocery store and now the police are looking for him. Finally, the police gunned him down. The court declared that Ponyboy was acquitted of Bob’s death’s responsibility. Sodapop tells Ponyboy that he wanted for he and Darry to stop fighting. A time later, Ponuboy notices that he can remember Dally’s and Johnny’s death without denial or pain, so he decided to start to write a term paper for English class, which turns out to be the novel itself.
Characters
Ponyboy
SodaPop
Jhonny
Darry
Marcia
Cherry
Randy
Bob
Dally
Touripop
My favorite character: My favorite character is Johnny because he got a noble heartdespite being from a gang, he sacrificed himself in order to save children from a burning church, but tragically he got a spinal injury and some burns, time later he dies as a hero.
The worst character: The character I disliked the most is Bob, he's a drunk guy who was only looking for a fight with the greasers in order to "defend" his girlfriend, time later he gets killed by Johnny.
Conclusion:
In my opinion, the conclusion is that despite Johnny's death and all the tragic events, it had a happy ending with most of Ponyboy's problems solved such as dealing with death, with the death of his friends. Although it marked him, it was necessary to make him grow as a mature young guy.
Would we recommend this book?
I would not recommend this book, because I don’t enjoy the kind of story that is filled with fights, murders, deaths, etc., and that is what the story basically is. I believe it is filled with darkness and emptiness. I did not enjoy reading it.
By María Mónica Cerpa &
Kevin Consuegra, 11 Blue
