The Outsiders

You're an outsider. You're on the outside, the fringe, the wasteland, looking on as the others, the privileged ones, have the fancy clothes, all the latest gadgets, the parties, the cars, the money, and the cool friends. What have you got? Nothing. Worse than nothing. Except - except you've got a few real true-blue friends.

A contemporary classic
S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders continues to resonate with its powerful portrait of the bonds and boundaries of friendship. Based on S.E. Hinton’s classic award-winning novel, winner of:
• New York Herald Tribune Best Teenage Books List, 1967
• Chicago Tribune Book World Spring Book Festival Honor Book, 1967
• Media and Methods Maxi Award, 1975
• ALA Best Young Adult Books, 1975
• Massachusetts Children’s Book Award, 1979

Explores themes of socio-economic status, overcoming hardship and differences, empowerment, loyalty and acceptance, and the bonds of true friendship.

Loved by generations of adolescents.

In S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders, there are Greasers and there are Socs. The Socials got it all, and the Greasers got each other. That's just the way it is in Ponyboy's world.

The Greasers are a close-knit group of street rats, growing up as best they can despite their drunken, neglectful, abusive parents. Not surprisingly, they are tough, unforgiving, angry, and many get in trouble with the law. Ponyboy and his brothers, Sodapop and Darry, try to keep their noses clean. If the police ever have occasion to look closely at the Curtis family, they will discover a family of boys without parents, and split them up.

Dallas, however, is one tough, mean Greaser, who is often in trouble with the law and has spent time in jail. Indeed, he enjoys looking for illegal things to do. Two-Bit, another part of the crew, has a big mouth and a ready fist. He likes to joke around, but is fiercely loyal to his Greaser family.

The Socs, unappreciative of their blessings, drive fancy cars, enjoy drunken bush parties, and swarm greasers just for fun. Just before the play opens, Johnny, one of the most vulnerable Greasers and Ponyboy's best friend, was very badly beaten. He now carries a knife for protection.

One night, Ponyboy, Johnny and Dallas go to a drive-in movie, and end up talking with two good-looking Socs, Cherry Valence and her friend Marcia. Cherry and Marcia have ditched their drunken boyfriends, Bob and Randy, and give the crude Dallas the boot too. Cherry and Pony get along quite nicely after that. Later, as the girls and Pony and Johnny chat after the show, Bob and Randy, turn up. They are not pleased. Johnny realizes that Bob is the one who beat him so viciously, and he is anxious to put distance between them.

Later that same night, the boys learn just how angry Bob is. When he and a carload of his Soc friends spot Pony and Johnny alone in the park in the early hours of the morning, they swarm them. Bob is well on his way to drowning Pony in the fountain, when Johnny breaks free of his assailant and kills Bob with his knife.

Dallas happens on the scene after the Socs have fled, and helps the two boys get away to an abandoned church outside of town where they can hide out. They spend most of a week there reading, talking, and relaxing in the country.

When Dallas comes to visit, he brings news of an all-out rumble between the Socs and the Greasers slated for the next night. He also confides that they have an inside informant in the person of Cherry Valence. Cherry is also willing to testify on Johnny's behalf against Bob.

With this news, the boys decide to turn themselves in, but before they leave, the church catches fire, trapping several small children inside. Impulsively, Johnny and Pony dash into the building to rescue them. Fearful for Johnny's safety, Dallas grudgingly helps. The children are saved, but Johnny is badly injured.

When the local media get hold of the story, the boys become front-page heroes, as well as discovered delinquents. Johnny's condition worsens as Pony and Dallas sneak out of hospital to join the rumble.

When the Greasers win decisively, they rush back to tell Johnny. They are just in time to tell their news and watch him die. Dallas is so upset that Johnny should die under these circumstances, that he rushes out of the hospital, brandishing a gun and yelling. The security guards shoot him, unaware the gun is not loaded. Pony recognizes Dallas’ action as a death wish.

At the court hearing, Cherry and Randy testify on Pony's behalf, and he is acquitted. In tribute to his fallen friends, Pony writes their story for a school composition on what is important in life.

In the end, Pony is still a Greaser and Cherry is still a Soc, and maybe they still can't say hi in the halls at school, but now they both know that the sunsets are just as beautiful on each side of town, and we are all, to some extent, outsiders.