Outsiders Growing Up

Growing up is a current issue nowadays with children and teenagers seeming to enter the adult world at an earlier age thus having to take on the responsibilities of adults. When does a child become an adult? For many the right answer is that it has nothing to do with age, it is determined by the behavior. In this essay I will not go into the issue of when a child turns into an adult but rather think about how the issue is treated in ?The

Outsiders?, and ?That Was Then, This Is Now? by S.E Hinton, and ?Lord of the

Flies? by William Golding. From the point of view of growing up, the first two novels are quite similar. In ?The Outsiders? growing up is an issue throughout the novel and it is largely focused on the

As I read ?The Outsiders? the behavior of the boys have are not shown in a regular teen aged boy. For example the group of boys enjoy fighting and causing violence because that is how they were raised. The author let the readers have an idea of what it is like to have no discipline and authority.

Hinton came up with ideas that nearly got the readers to grasp what was going on in her novel, she showed the readers that a life without authority only results with bad behavior. Ponyboy a character from ?The Outsiders? and his older brothers including the rest of the boys all did what they wanted. Because the boys grew up without any parents or idols they didn?t feel that they needed to listen or follow any rules. In the result of their behavior and choices they have to deal with bad consequences that they have to grow up with. In the novel ?That Was Then, This Is Now? I noticed that the characters almost have the same traits of the teens in the book ?The Outsiders? because the two main character Mark, and Bryon grew up without any parents. These boys also enjoyed fighting and partying all the time because they never

Although one of the brothers (Bryon) takes the initiative to get through school and make peace with some people he wouldn?t have before. Hinton wanted her readers to grasp the reality of what happens to people all over the world who struggle growing up. She didn?t write these novels to have happy endings or have all the people in her novel to get along but rather for them to surpass struggles and endure a life without proper help. She wrote these novels to express what the world can really be like. I found myself fascinated with these two superb novels because I could imagine a life like that. I have not experienced a life like the ones told in her novels but the way she wrote the book left me emotional and have feelings for the characters in her books. To whom ever reads these novels, S.E Hinton explains what its like to grow up without proper manner. Hinton wrote her books to let her feelings out and to explain what it is like growing up without rules or parents. The result of growing up with violence around them only makes the