The Outsiders

by S.E. Hinton

The dynamics of gangs have not changed in the more than 40 years since The Outsiders was first published. Written when S.E. Hinton was still just a teen, the book’s chills-down-your-spine action reflects the experiences of someone who has witnessed first-hand the bullying of a gang who’s taken scare tactics too far. Narrator Ponyboy Curtis, at 14, is the youngest of three brothers, after 20-year-old Darrel or “Darry,” who works all the time, and nearly 17-year-old Soda, whom Ponyboy loves “more than [he’s] ever loved anyone, even Mom or Dad,” who were both killed in a car accident eight months ago. Soda belongs to the greasers, and they’ve accepted Pony because he’s Soda’s kid brother. After Pony gets jumped by the Socs on the way home from the movie theater, he surprises even himself when Pony and his friend Johnny start a conversation at a drive-in movie theater with Cherry Valence, a cheerleader and one of the Socs, and her girlfriend. Johnny believes “There’s gotta be someplace without greasers or Socs, with just people. Plain ordinary people.” And after two Socs come after Pony and Johnny for “picking up” their girls at the drive-in, things go tragically awry.  Yes, this is part cautionary tale, but it never comes off as didactic because Hinton’s characters and their emotions are so genuine. The plot drives the story, but the characters also grow up, shaped forever by the events around them and their desire to figure out just what about their circumstances they do and do not have the power to change.