The Outsiders
Author’s biography
Susan Eloise Hinton was born in Oklahoma on July 22, 1950. She is often considered the most successful novelist for the junior high and high school audience, S. E. Hinton is credited with creating realistic young adult literature. Her career began with the publication of her first book, The Outsiders (1967), at the age of seventeen.
Summary
Ponyboy and his two older brothers, Darry and Sodapop, recently lost their parents in a car accident. They live in a lower class neighborhood and are classified as outcasted “greasers”, which is directly linked to the excessive amount of grease they use in their hair. There is a rivalry between high class people that own fancy cars and expensive stuff, the “socs”, and the aforementioned “greasers”.
On a movie night in town, Ponyboy and his greaser friends Johnny and Dally sat with a pair of soc girls. Dally, the problematic friend, started harassing them, but eventually Johnny told him to stop, which caused Dally to go away. Then Two Bit arrives and the three greasers and the two socs start walking towards Two Bit’s house. However, the girls’ boyfriends, Bob and Randy, arrive looking for a fight, but the girls go with them to prevent it.
After that, Ponyboy mistakenly falls asleep in a lot with Johnny, so Pony got home late and fought with Darry, which hit him and caused Ponyboy to run away with Johnny who was still sleeping in the lot. Bob and Randy then found the two greasers in a park, so Bob caught Ponyboy and started drowning him at the park’s fountain. Scared of what could happen to his friends in front of his eyes, Johnny stabbed Bob using his pocket knife. The socs instantly ran away and let Bob, their leader, bleed out until he died. The greasers went straight to look for Dally, who gave Ponyboy a jacket and dollars and told them to run away to a church near the city. When they got there, Ponyboy bleached his hair and Johnny cut his hair.
After one week, Dally went to check up on them, and took them to a restaurant since they hadn’t eaten well. When they were getting back to the church, they saw a group of little kids with their teachers outside the church that was now burning down. Although Dally told them not to get off the car, Ponyboy and Johnny went to help. They got the 4 kids out, and Ponyboy got out almost fine, but he passed.
Later, Ponyboy finds out Johnny is in a critical condition as he broke his back getting out of the church, and Dally had burnt his arm. At the hospital Ponyboy meets again with his brothers, and later gets sent home. The group of greasers then prepare for the rumble, except for Dally who although was excited, was still at the hospital.
The greases finally defeat the socs at the rumble. However, they later find out their friend Johnny is dying. Dally decided to go rob a store, but got killed after pointing a gun to a policeman. The group was devastated as their dear friends died so young.
Pony wakes up after 7 days in “coma”, as he passed out because of a concussion caused in the rumble. The situation at his home gets out of hand, and he fights a lot with Barry. Finally, Sodapop begs them to talk things out, and everything gets better.
Pony decides to write a term paper at school that ends up being the story itself.
Favorite character
Our favorite character is Johnny, as we like the development of his character. He started off as a shy boy who didn’t stand up for himself. However, as the story progresses, the mix of situations that he goes through leads him to die.
Disliked character
For us, Dally got too violent at times, and was a very problematic character throughout all the story.
Conclusion/recommendation
We would recommend this book thanks to the originality and depth the storyline has. It feels at some point very intimate, and the fact that everything leads to Ponyboy actually writing the story honestly shocked us in a good way at the end. We consider the development of the story to be sad, however it really thrills you to read until the end.
By Valentina Quintero, María Reyes
and David Estrada, Step 11
