Comparing Poems 'The Outsiders Poverty And Wealth'

“When all is over and done, now which of these men was the richer one?” This line from the poem “Poverty and Wealth” states how no matter how much money you own, the person who is happy with themselves is truly rich. The novel “The Outsiders” is a great example of this theme. The poor man in this poem represents the greasers, the rich man represents the socs, and the final line of the poem represents how the socs have more privileges and money but the greasers enjoy themselves much more.

In the poem “Poverty and Wealth” the poor man and the greasers are very similar. The poor man works on a farm and lives in poverty. While the greasers don’t work on farms, they certainly don’t make a lot of money. A lot of greasers make their money by gambling, or jumping people. The greasers live in a town where everyone is very poor, doesn’t get treated very nicely, and where everyone smokes because of propaganda. Everyone in their neighborhood has to carry around a weapon in fear of being jumped. The greasers like it where they live, they have their gangs and friends and are contempt. Both the poor man and the greasers live in poverty and are poor, but they are both ok with where and how they live.

Both the socs and the rich man are wealthy. As it says in the poem “And proud with the pride of a millionair.” The socs clearly have a lot of money with their nice clothes, their fancy cars, and even the way they act. Another similarity is that the rich man is very aloof, sure he traveled the world and bought friends and possessions, but he was very lonely. This is like the socs who have everything in their advantage and are still looking for happiness. As Cherry says in the novel “The Outsiders”, “You greasers have a different set of values. You’re more emotional.” This is how the rich man and the socs are