Violence In The Outsiders By S. E. Hinton

The rule that animals follow in wild life is to beat others and avoid the enemies who are stronger than them, which makes violence happen everywhere. The same situation took place in S.E Hinton “The Outsiders” too, the condition that greasers face in their life makes them use fighting to solve their problems. The theme of violence in the story impacts Johnny the most. Due to Johnny is the one who experiences the most violence, all of his friends are from a gang, he became quiet and timid, and he died. The existence of violence in “The Outsiders” totally limits Johnny’s social circle into only greasers. There is a quote in Hinton P.12, which introduces how Johnny suffered from violence. “His father was always beating him up, and his mother ignored him, except...... He would have run away million times if we hadn’t been for the gang, Johnny would never have know what love and affection are.” There is no one to care about Johnny except for greasers, and that is caused by the violence in family, also long term fighting resulted in Johnny being introverted. The violence in the society led Johnny to meet the people who are also always involving in fighting. Therefore, we can see the theme of violence impacts the social circle of Johnny, and it confines his friends in a gang.

There is a quote from Hinton P.12 which talks about Ponyboy’s impression of Johnny. “He had a nervous, suspicious look in his eyes.” A man who looks nervous is actually scared of man things, which shows Johnny’s timidness. Furthermore, in chapter 2, when Johnny and Ponyboy meet 2 soc girls. “He looked around for Dally , then managed a shy ‘Hi’ to the girls......nervous around strangers.” Here conveys his nervous feeling when he tries to communicate with people, which exactly tells he is not talkative. Thus, we can see the consequence that Johnny experienced much violence is Johnny being timid and