The Outsiders Theme Analysis

S.E.Hinton’s The Outsiders takes place in a somewhat usual town where everything seems normal, except for the kids and their issues. There are two types of social roles. There’s the Socs, who are the smart, always getting what they want kids, and the Greasers, the beat-down kids who live with each other and have sacrificed a lot just to barely get through life. Ponyboy, the main Greaser, is caught up in a lot of trouble throughout the story. He is and lives with Greasers, most of which are his brothers, but they are also friends with other hood gangs, like the Shepards. The Socs and “hood” gangs, like the Greasers, have never gotten along. This ignites the flame that is the main conflict and contributes to the theme later in the story. Sometimes, …show more content…
It was Darry”(Hinton 6). This line helps develop the story by showing the background between the Greasers and the Socs using details and description.. More importantly though, it shows the labels that go around the town using the background information. This jump-starts the theme because they don’t realise how serious this is and that they’re not that different.
Another scene that contributes to the theme is the scene where both Ponyboy and Johnny, a fellow Greaser, get jumped by Randy and Bob, along with a few other Socs. The Socs outnumber Johnny and Ponyboy, allowing them to have the advantage. They go for Ponyboy first. “ ‘You know what a Greaser is?’ Bob asked. ‘White trash with long hair.’ ”(Hinton 55) This line shows how the Socs see the Greasers because of the label that they’ve been given. These labels cause people to do unusual things such as, “Then I saw Johnny.
He was sitting next to me, one elbow on his knee, and staring straight ahead. He was a strange greenish-white, and his eyes were huger than I’d ever seen them. ‘I killed him,’ he said slowly. ‘I killed that boy.’ ”(Hinton …show more content…
Here, Randy said, “ ‘I’m sick of all this. Sick and tired. Bob was a good guy. He was the best buddy a guy ever had. I mean, he was a good fighter and tuff and everything, but he was a real person too. You dig?’ ” (Hinton 116) This quote shows that because of the tragic events of Bob’s death and Johnny’s soon-to-be death, Randy, a Soc, has had reality hit him like a truck. It shows that he cares, and he realises that nobody’s different, anyone can get hurt or die no matter the label they're associated with and that the fighting doesn’t do anything good for anyone. Later, Johnny sadly passes away and Dally soon follows. Ponyboy passes out from exhaustion and illness, but once he wakes up, he finds a yearbook with Bob in it and sees the normal, not-so-Soc Bob. He remembers Johnny and Dally and now Bob and realises that they all had lives and purpose to their lives. He sees that the labels can get to the worst of people and that nobody’s really different. This had all happened because of the labels that society saw them as and everyone seemed to wake up; get a dose of reality, but sadly, it took some tragic

Show More