The outsiders by S.E.

Hinton- review

The outsiders is an emotional juvenile novel that has revolutionized those adolescents who

were once discriminated due to their social status and not having an adequate lifestyle. This

book allows you to get an idea of what life is like for those adolescents who grew up in an

environment surrounded by drugs, crime and aggression. It shows how they are rejected

and attacked by others who have a lifestyle full of luxury, where money is no concern for

them. it allows us to understand how life usually is so difficult for others and how

exhausting it is for a teenager to have to bear the misfortunes that life sometimes brings you

at an early age. Despite the fact that this book was written in 1967, it perfectly reflects the

reality currently experienced by youth living in marginalized areas who are constantly

judged by their appearance and way of living.

This novel is narrated by a fourteen-year-old boy whose name is Ponyboy, he lives in a

neighborhood located in the East Side area where those who live there are called by the

nickname "greaser". This boy lives with his two brothers Darry and Sodapop. Ponyboy is a

quiet boy and does not show much of his feelings, but nevertheless, he loves his brothers

and friends, especially Johnny, his best friend. This character shows a great passion for

reading and movies and is also an outstanding student at school, but his brothers often tell

him that he is very intelligent but sometimes he does not use his head to think.

The life of Ponyboy and his friends is somewhat complicated because they often get into

trouble with the "socs", which are those teenagers who live in the luxurious area of the

West Side. The greasers and the socs live in a constant rivalry due to their social

differences that lead them to fight to death. Each of the friends of Ponyboy has a different

personality that characterizes them and they carry with themselves a difficult past.
One day a strong fight between Ponyboy and his brother Darry causes him to run away

from home with his best friend Johnny. These two went to the park, where a group of socs

confronted them and tried to hit them until they were unconscious, but Johnny as a form of

protection stabbed one of the other groups, killing him. This fact made the life of Johnny

and Ponyboy completely change and they had to run away from home. Bringing all these,

countless problems that would change everyone's life.

This novel by S.E. Hinton focuses a lot on what the Ponyboy character feels and thinks. I

think she must have also focused on expressing how the other characters felt as each event

happened. Another negative factor of the book is that at the end of this book not many

details were addressed about what would happen to the future of others, it is not known

what would happen to Darry and Sodapop or what grade Ponyboy would get in his English

class work. With reference to the description of the environment where the actions of the

story took place, the author of the book did not provide a description that allowed the

reader to be inside the story or to have an image in their mind of what that environment was

like where the events occurred.

Among the positive aspects that we can highlight of the book is that the author uses a clear

and sample language that is easy to understand, allowing the reader to have a good

understanding of the story. On the other hand, a great strength that the book has, is in the

way it describes the thoughts and feelings of Ponyboy, due to the fact that they are showed

in such an explicit and emotional way that that it gives you a clear idea about the suffering

that the character is going through at that moment.

The style that the author used in this novel was simple and emotional because I was able to

understand what she wanted her readers to take with them from this sad story. She wanted

her readers to be able to understand the way of life of those adolescents who lived behind

the shadow of social injustice. I think that the author managed to create the perfect mirage

of that marginalized youth with Ponyboy story, because I could feel myself in the place of

that 14-year-old boy, every time he cried for the problems he lived through day by day. As

I was reading this novel I felt really sad and at the same time outraged because there were

so many actions that were unfair to a child like Ponyboy and I think that was one of the

strengths of this book, the ability to tell the facts of a sensitive way that you understood the

pain of the characters. Anyone who has had a childhood as tough as Ponyboy and his

siblings should read this book so they can see that their pain is seen by others and that they

are not alone.

In conclusion, this novel perfectly reflects how adolescents who were raised in poor

conditions and with few resources are discriminated day after day, by others who have a

higher standard of living than their own. Despite the fact that times have changed and there

have been many advances, these types of conflicts are still being lived today where people

are divided by their social status. Without a doubt this book is worth reading so that people

can understand what the way of life of those who have had a difficult childhood surrounded

by crime and drugs is like. Finally, thanks ponyboy for letting me know your story.