The Outsiders Comparative Essay

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“Those who have a strong sense of love and belonging have the courage to be imperfect.” The West Side Story and The Outsiders are two novels with the same approach about two gangs that are parted through the road of disasters. Both novels develop the same thematic topic of belonging in similar and different ways. First, both novels have two opposing gangs. In West Side Story, the Puerto Ricans make up the Sharks, and the Americans make up the Jets. In The Outsiders, the wealthy teenagers make up the Socs, and lower class youths make up the Greasers. Both gangs are rivals, constantly fighting to try to prove themselves superior to one another. One gang from each novel, the Greasers, and the Sharks are typically the ones that are looked down upon by others. On the other side, the Socs, and the Jets are the superior gangs. In the excerpt from the novel, “The …show more content…

In the excerpt from The Outsiders, Ponyboy states how his gang is made up of different people. He further goes on to say, “....there are just small bunches of friends who stick together.” This can be compared to the Jets Song from West Side Story that states “You're home with your own.” These examples signify each person is a part of his gang, which gradually becomes his family. Thus, both author's use a similar solemn tone. The tone gradually goes on and develops the theme of belonging where each person belongs to his gang and establishes trust and brotherhood throughout all the members. Hence, this proves both authors are using similar techniques like sharing the same tone on a similar scenario. But, both author's may not always have the same writing style in a specific scenario or situation. So sometimes, even though the scenario would be the same, the writing style and the techniques may differ resulting in the same

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