Characters, Loyalty, and Violence in Hinton’s The Outsiders

1496 Words3 Pages

The Outsiders is a book based on a gang of friends and family known as the “greasers”. It’s safe to say that there are many valuable lessons to learn from the happenings in the story. Ponyboy Curtis is one of the many important and brave characters that make the novel what it is. He learns throughout the story things that had to be figured out the hard way. Many teenagers find it easy to relate to Hinton’s words in the book and with the characters because they well express what the reader is feeling inside.
The characters in the book The Outsiders, are one of the most important part of the story. Each character has his own different thoughts and actions. They all stick together and have each other’s backs. Most books that kids liked to read that were fiction mostly dealt with the popular clicks and groups. But Hinton’s novels related to the outcasts of society (Harris).
Ponyboy Curtis, is the storyteller and narrator, but he is not the star in the novel (Hinton 1). According to Harris, “The Outsiders is the story of Ponyboy Curtis, his brothers Darrell and Sodapop, and the gang with which they associate. The book was among the first to focus on the kids from the other side of the tracks (the "outsiders"), rather than the popular kids” (Harris). There are so many key characters that are fragile to the story, that it would be virtually impossible to choose a certain person as the main character. Ponyboy has to write a paper for English, but he uses his story to help write the paper. And it ends up becoming the book itself (VanderStaay).
Johnny Cade is the quiet one out of the gang. His mother and father fight constantly, and he hardly ever stays at home because his parents seem to always be hitting or yelling at him. According to V...

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...9. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
Solomon, Charles. "Review of The Outsiders." The Los Angeles Times Book Review (12 Aug. 1990): 10. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter and Deborah A. Schmitt. Vol. 111. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
Sutherland, Zena. "The Teen-Ager Speaks." The Saturday Review (27 Jan. 1968): 34. Rpt. In Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter and Deborah A. Schmitt. Vol. 111. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
VanderStaay, Steven L. "Doing Theory: Words about Words about The Outsiders." English Journal 81.7 (Nov. 1992): 57-61. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter and Deborah A. Schmitt. Vol. 111. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.

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