Book Report: Hinton, S.E. The Outsiders

Summary of the Novel:

Hinton’s novel, The Outsiders, tells the story of two youth gangs in a rivalry. The events of the novel are told through the eyes of Ponyboy, a 14-year-old member of the Greasers, the gang of boys belonging to a lower socio-economic class than their rivals, the Socs, or Socials. A series of violent encounters between the two gangs brings about devastating effects for these young boys, particularly the Greasers who lose two of their members due to violent and/or criminal activity. The novel begins with Ponyboy getting jumped by a couple of Soc boys and rescued by his fellow Greasers, Soda Pop, Darry, and Johnny. The next a couple of the Greasers attend a movie and hit it off with a couple of Soc girls who end up abandoning the boys for their Soc boyfriends. After a fight at home with his brother Darry, who has assumed custody over Ponyboy and Soda Pop, Ponyboy goes to the Park with Johnny, another young member of the gang. The Soc gang attacks the two boys and Ponyboy wakes up after passing out to realize that Johnny had killed a member of the Socs to protect himself and Ponyboy, who the Socs were torturing by pouring cold water over his head. The boys run to Dally, the noted criminal of the gang who hides the boys out in an old church. When the church is set on fire, presumably by the Socs, Johnny and Ponyboy enter the burning building to rescue a bunch of children. Johnny is badly injured when the roof caves in and once again Ponyboy passes out. As tensions between the gangs escalate over the death of Bob--the Soc member killed in the fight in the park--it becomes clear that some key members of the respective gangs are tired of the violence which has left their friends either dead or badly injured. The big rumble between the gangs happens anyway, with the Greasers defeating the Socs. When Ponyboy makes it back to the hospital with his brothers to see Johnny, they realize he is dying. Dally loses it when he sees this and returns to his criminal ways, which ends in a shoot out with the cops who kill Dally when he raises a gun to them. After a period of depression and grief, Ponyboy resolves his issues with his brother Darry and we learn he has returned to school, telling this story as a part of an assignment.

Opinion/ Critique:

While the novel is on the surface level about the rival of two gangs, it also serves to show the holes in the rivalries of these groups who think they are so different from one another. Ponyboy’s narration highlights the bias of perspective in the telling of the plot of this story, and mirrors his development as a coming of age tale throughout the novel, which we learn was an assignment for his English class.

The fact that Ponyboy is able to tell his story from his own point of view is the real reconciliation of the novel as clearly he has returned to functioning and attending school. The novel is very much about the development of this character who is at times unreliable. Additionally, although the voice of the narrator is biased towards the Greasers, it is suggested by the end that Ponyboy realizes that his hatred of the Soc’s was weak in grounding and he has found a more permanent identity in his story-telling abilities. Literature and storytelling affect both the point of view and the characterization of the narrator and main character, Ponyboy.

The setting of the story in a city in Oklahoma, but this could really happen anywhere. The setting and the boundaries of the territory “owned” by the two gangs, the Greasers and the Socials, is based primarily on the premise of social stratification - social and economic differences in areas of town. As the novel progresses, we begin to see these boundaries blur as we also see the differences between the Greasers and the Socials is not so clear either; in fact, they start to appear similar or overlap in their interests.

The tone of the novel told through Ponyboy’s voice becomes almost ironic by the end since we know he is telling this story retrospectively as part of a school assignment and that he realizes things now that the boy he portrays himself as had not yet learned. This creates an interesting effect since we are clearly aligned with Ponyboy and the Greasers throughout the story, even if at times we see through his bias. However, by the end of The Outsiders, it is clear that we have all learned that story-telling is a process and that by telling his story, Ponyboy is actively overcoming the challenges of identity that being in the gang had created for him. In the novel and through the novel he becomes his own person.

Work Cited

Hinton, S.E. The Outsiders. New York: Penguin, 1967. Print.