The Outsiders Theme Analysis

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In S.E. Hinton’s novel, The Outsiders, a theme is that not every person is who you think they are. When Ponyboy, Johnny, and Dally went to the drive in movie, they met Cherry Valance, a soc, who talked to Ponyboy. Ponyboy was telling her about when Johnny was jumped by a group of socs, and Cherry said, “‘All socs aren’t like that’, she said. ‘You have to believe me, Ponyboy. Not all of us are like that’”(34). When Cherry says that “not all of us are like that”, she is saying that not every soc is the same. The greasers only really know of the socs that like to jump people, but Cherry is saying that not every is like that. She says that Ponyboy shouldn’t believe that every soc acts like the socs who beat up Johnny. This shows that not …show more content…

This connects with a theme that not everyone is who you think they are because the greasers thought that all socs were the same, but Cherry said that they are all different. After Johnny died, and Dally robbed the grocery store, he ran to the park and then was shot and killed by the police. After he had died, Ponyboy thought, “Two friends of mine died that night: one a hero, the other a hoodlum” (154). When Ponyboy said “one a hero, the other a hoodlum”, he was referencing that Dally died a hoodlum, because he had been chased and killed by the police, and that Johnny was a hero, because he had died because he had gotten injured when he saved the kids from the church fire. Both Dally and Johnny were greasers, even though they were very different. Johnny had gone into the flaming church to save the kids, even though he didn’t have to, and got burned severely in the process, which caused him to die, but Dally had died because he had robbed a

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