Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

The Outsiders
By S.E. Hinton
Published on November 1st, 1997
Published by Speak
4 Stars

*Slight spoilers*


In Ponyboy's world there are two types of people. There are the Socs, the rich society kids who get away with anything. Then there are the greasers, like Ponyboy, who aren't so lucky. Ponyboy has a few things he can count on: his older brothers, his friends, and trouble with the Socs, whose idea of a good time is beating up greasers. At least he knows what to expect-until the night things go too far.

Opening Thoughts

To be honest I read this book for school. I have a very low opinion on school books. It is either that I can’t relate, the characters are to plain, or they are just stupid. This book though was amazing. We openly discussed it in class and everyone was fangirling. (The guys were not fangirling, but there are only six of them in this class, so.) Everyone would be obsessing and I just stared basking in the glory. It felt wonderful to experience a whole class of people becoming fangirls. I sat there and was like, this is my life! This book brought the life of fandom on to many people.

Characters

The characters are what made this book. I would have not loved this book if it wasn't for the characters. First off I never got how you go from naming your child Darrel to Sodapop and Ponyboy. What kind of drugs are you on? Let’s start off with Ponyboy. He is so cute and sweet and adorable! Even though he is a greaser I want to hug him like a teddy bear! He was smart too. I can see why Darry wanted to keep him on track. Darry is my favorite. If I had to date anyone in this book I would date Darry. I could always see why he did things when Pony didn't. Amber always tells me how over-protective I can get with my little brother and his friends. Sodapop was a lot more sensitive than I thought. He came off to me in the beginning as reckless and a people person.  I think Hinton did a really good job on character depth with him. Lots of girls in my class were swooning over him.  I don’t know how I feel about Dallas. He never really impacted me. I knew he was a big part in the story but, he never impacted me emotionally. I was never attached to Johnny either. I know some people in my class that were head-over-heels for him but, he never stuck with me. Now one problem I had was with Two-Bit and Steve. You really did not get to know much about them. It seemed like they were just there. She gave us a personality but nothing deep really happened between them. It would have been nice to read more about their lives. Then there was Bob. We had to write a paragraph every chapter about something in the story. On one paragraph I wrote it entirely about why Bob should not be named Bob. Bob was just too much of a comical name today that I never took him really seriously. It sounds really stupid but that is the name me and my brother us to descried a random object. I know it is more of a personal argument but, because of his name I never took him seriously. Then there was also Cherry. She never had an ending. She vanished off the face of the earth. She said she could fall in love with Dallas Winston but, that was the last we ever her and Dally. She was there to help Ponyboy know the similarities between Socs and Greasers but, to me she could have been a more important character and would be nice if her story could have an ending. I loved all the characters in the book. I wish they could have been real people.

Plot

To be honest I did not find the plot as interesting as it could have been. I mentioned in the characters paragraph, I would not have loved the book if the characters were different. This is because I found the plot line very bland and dry. Everything seemed to go to fast and was grazed over. It never really stuck with me. Now that I am looking back at it I see and understand everything but, I read it with no interest in the plot. For me, the plot line did not fit the characters. I felt that killing Bob came way too early in the story. I fell that it is a good idea to start off with something big but, I don’t think death is the way to go. Then running away for me came too soon. Also the burning church seemed too random.  The only back story it had was they were smoking. I feel as if she could have come up with a better disaster for them to be caught in. The ending hit me as long and bland. It could have been a little more intense for my taste. The plot came off dry to me but, my classmates found it interesting.

I can guarantee that you will fall in love with the characters in this book. For the plot, results may vary. I would say this changed my opinion on school books but, this was one in a million. This book will stay gold.

Hope you keep reading and stay gold

Grace