Book Report On The Outsiders

Words: 656
Pages: 3

Different Times and Places Society has always categorized and stereotyped people without even knowing it. S.E Hinton, author of The Outsiders, splits Oklahoma into two polar opposite gangs. The setting in The Outsiders is a suburban town in late 1960’s Oklahoma. There are two sections of town. The East-Side is where the lower income, less-privileged Greasers live. Ponyboy is the main Greaser. The rest of the Greasers are Dally, Darry, Steve, Johnny, Sodapop, and Two-Bit. The West-Side is where the rich Socs (short for Socials) live. Some of the Socs are Cherry, Marcia, and Bob. The setting affects the character development and storyline in numerous ways. Ponyboy (narrator and main character) is affected strongly by the setting in what …show more content…
To begin, S.E Hinton writes, “ We went to the row of seats in front of the concession stand to sit down” pg20. In this scene, the Greasers are sitting in the front at the drive-in movie theater. In the past this was a popular hangout. A lot of times a person would sit in seats near the front without a car. In present day, a drive-in theater is not as common and a person can only go if they are in a car. As can be seen from this example, the activities that happen in the story are affected by the setting. Moving along, Ponyboy narrates on page 12 , “Everyone sat down to have a smoke and relax.” The characters are smoking cigarettes that they bought themselves, even though, they are only teenagers. In that generation, they didn’t know health effects smoking had on people as all of society does now. Knowing people smoke helps everyone identify this book happened in the past. Another example is, “Greasers are almost like hoods” pg 3. Ponyboy is explaining about how society sees them as almost rebellious kids. Being seen as a bad kid makes life a little harder for characters. The setting affects how characters are seen, which develops their problems. In the end, the setting affects the storyline by altering life, other’s opinions, and the