"It seemed funny to me that the sunset she saw from her patio and the one I saw from the back steps was the same one. Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren't so different. We saw the same sunset."
- Chapter 3
In The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton draws the reader into the life of 14-year-old Ponyboy Curtis - a member of a lower-class gang known as the greasers. He and his fellow East side friends are constantly at odds with the Socials (or Socs) from the West side. Ponyboy lives with his older brothers, Sodapop and Darry, since his parents died in a car crash. Other greasers include Dally (a toughened criminal), Steve (Sodapop’s best friend), Two-Bit (the jokester), and Johnny (Ponyboy's close friend who is still scarred from being jumped by the Socs).
When Ponyboy and Johnny get attacked by a group of Socs for spending time with the "wrong" girls, Johnny kills a Soc in self-defense. The two boys hide out in an abandoned church in a nearby town until Dally comes to retrieve them. They learn that the violence between the greasers and Socs has escalated and that one of the girls, Cherry, is acting as a spy for the greasers.
On their way home, they see that the church has become engulfed in flames. While helping save a group of schoolchildren from the burning building, Johnny is struck by a piece of timber. Ponyboy has a sense of calm as they head home, though the reader is left feeling dread for the upcoming battle.
A Different Time
Since this book was published over 50 years ago, students may have trouble understanding the setting and cultural references. I would use a variety of music, videos, and photographs to illuminate the references to Paul Newman, the Beatles, Elvis Presley, corvettes, mustangs, and the different clothing styles of 1960's teens.
Character Analysis
The variety of characters presents another challenge in reading this novel. To help students keep track of the main characters, they can create a character guide for reference. As they learn new details about key characters, they can add them to their guide. This might be done as a jigsaw activity in which groups of students analyze different characters and create a poster to show their character's name, nicknames, physical characteristics, personality traits, relationship to other characters, and any other relevant information.
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| A sample character poster from a 7th grade language arts class. |
Still Relevant
It's incredible that the themes throughout this story are still relevant for teens today. Almost everyone goes through a struggle to find their place, throughout which they are shaped by the people around them. Hinton was only 15 when she began writing the novel, which is evident through how she conveys the teenage experience. The greasers and Socs are trapped in a cycle of violence that, unfortunately, continues to be prevalent in many communities. Furthermore, Ponyboy explicitly states that this violence is born from the differences in their social classes.I look forward to reading the end of the novel to find out what happens to this ragtag family!
Sources
Croy, S. (2018, May 17). The outsiders character autopsy project! [Twitter post]. Retrieved October 16, 2019, from https://twitter.com/mrs_croy/status/997114841335820288.
Eby, M. (2017, April 26). Why 'the outsiders' still matters 50 years later. Retrieved October 16, 2019, from https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/why-the-outsiders-still-matters-50-years-later-194014/.
Hinton, S. E. (1967). The outsiders. New York, NY: Penguin Books.
Melissa,
ReplyDeleteI like your idea on character analysis, I think a graphic organizer could even be used to identify key traits of each character as the story is told. I found it difficult to organize the characters in the book until Ponyboy was identified as the main character and I could make relationships back to him.