Urban Geography 3rd ESO The Outsiders, Susan E.

Hinton
1. Author: Susan E. Hinton is an American writer that was born in Tulsa (Oklahoma) in 1948.
She started writing books when she was a teenager, and at the age of 17, she reached great
success with the novel The Outsiders, which was inspired by two rival gangs at her school.
Other novels such as Tex or Rumble Fish gained fame as well. Nowadays she is married and
has a son.
2. Genre: drama novel.
3. Narrator: Ponyboy, the leading role.
4. Time: When is the story set? The story is set around 1965-1966. How do you know it?
I know it because of the lack of technology (cars, cinema), the music and also because of the
clothes the characters wore and their hairstyles.
5. Space: Where does the story take place? It takes place in Oklahoma. How do you
know it? I know it because the author of the book was born and raised there and she bases
the story in her
6. Characters:

In the book there are two different gangs: the greasers and the socs. Make a
list and write down their features: clothes style, physical appearance,
behavior, life conditions, etc.
The Greasers
Cool, jeans and
leather jackets.
Greasy hair (so their
name), strong physical
appearance.
Rude, sometimes
illegal. There are
exceptions.
To be the bad boys of
the city.

The Socs

Clothes style

Physical
appearance

Behavior

Life conditions

Economic
situation

Normally poor.

Very rich.

Familiar
atmosphere

Most of them have

conflictive families or
none.

The parents of most of them are the

owners of companies (wealthy
people).

Expensive clothing.
Refined hairstyles and clean
appearance.
Supposed to act in a correct and
polite way; not always is like this.
To be the rich kids that have
everything they want.

Choose the character you prefer or you identify with and describe his/her
personality (values, defects, worries, relationship with others...):
Dally His values seem to dont have a solid base for creating goals, and I think
that is his main defect. He worries about the boys in his gang, even though it
doesnt seem like that, especially he worries a lot about Johnny. The time he
spent in jail transformed his personality negatively because he looks very
affected by the people he met there. Also, the relationship with his parents is
none.
Ponyboy has an odd relation with his two brothers. This is due to many
reasons like their life circumstances. Can you explain it?

The main reason why their relationship is odd is because they lost their parents
and they really dont kwon how to live without them, because they dont like to
be ruled by the older brother as its their brother and not their father or mother.

7. Language:

The greasers language is full of slang. Say some of them and match with
their standard language. ( e.g.: copper/pig, for police)
The cooler jail; Weed cigarette; the fuzz the police.
Ponyboy uses a correct language. Why?
Ponyboy uses a correct language because he is the only one among his brother
that still go to school and has good marks and possibilities to go to university.
Also because he is not as violent as the ones in his gang and he doesnt feel that
revenge feeling at the Socs.

8. Critical thought:

Read the following extract from the book. Cherry says:

Have you ever heard about having more than you want to? So, you cannot
wish anything and you start to look for something different to wish... I
believe that we are always looking for something that makes us happy, but
we never find it
In your opinion, do you think that this is happening to our youth as well?
Yes, in my opinion this has happened to me sometimes.
Can you say any example?
For example, when you are angry or upset and you really dont know why you feel like
that but you need to stop feeling so and you get even more upset looking for methods
to improve your mood.
Johnny is a very important character. Do you think that he is really guilty? Did
he have another option? Imagine that you are a member of a jury in Johnnys
trial, would you condemn him or would you declare him innocent?
In some moments the socs and the greasers mix and even they start a
friendship: that is the example between Ponyboy and Cherry, or the
conversation between Ponyboy and Randy in the chapter 7. What motivates
these relations if they are rivals?
What motivates the relationship between rivals is that they dont want to be
rivals anymore because they dont feel comfortable not being able to talk to
someone because its not of their gang.
In chapter 10 there is a great fight between the socs and the greasers. Later,
the characters talk about their impression, about what happened and the
consequences. What is their opinion? They feel kind of empty, but they were proud
of winning the fight to their eternal rivals; they were more worried about Johnnys
health. Did the fight worth it? In my opinion it didnt, but it was very important for
both gangs to determinate which one is best.
Whats the meaning of Johnnys letter to Ponyboy before he died?
The meaning of Johnnys letter to Ponyboy before he died is a like an advice to
Ponyboy. Johnny and him were really good friends and Johnny knew that Ponyboy
is very intelligent and he could keep on studying giving up the gang to dont get
into trouble. This is why he kept on saying: stay gold to Ponyboy, because he
knew he was able to get out of the hood life and start a new gold life.
At the end of the book we realize that the story told by Ponyboy is writing for
the high school. Why do you think that he wants to tell the story? Because the

teacher tells him that to pass him with a C he needs to write a really good redaction,
and Ponyboy thinks what happened to him was a story worth writing.

In chapter 7 Ponyboy find out a news in the newspaper related to them that
says: CROOK TENS BECOME HEROES
Imagine you are a journalist and write the news including:
Headline
Opening paragraph
Body of the news
GREASERS SAVE LIVES

Three teenagers that belong to the

Greasers gang saved a group of kids
that were inside a church on fire, risking
their lives.

Their names are: Ponyboy Curtis, Johnny Cade

and Dallas Winston. The people were really
surprised because of the fact that they were
Greasers, but everyone stated them as heroes.

9. What is the part of the book/film you liked the most? Explain your answer.

The part I liked the most was when Ponyboy, Johnny and Dally go and save those
children from the church that was on fire, even though they were risking their lives. I
appreciate very much people like this.

10. If you had to recommend this book/film to a friend, what would you say?

I would start saying that I personally recommend it, because it fully defines the society
of the 60 in Southern US. Also I would recommend it because the movie was done with
the purpose of launching the careers of some of the young actors that appear on it, and
its curious to see how some of the most famous actor today started.
Ana Pricope 3F.