Who Is S. E. Hinton Helpful In The Outsiders?

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The Outsiders is a book and a movie that strikes deeply close to home. The author, S.E. Hinton, shows that there is a great deal we can learn from the characters of her book. S.E. Hinton speaks through a numerous amount of characters that teach the reader an awful lot about life. These characters struggled to find who they are, however, those struggles taught them how they need to appreciate people and life for what it is. There is no doubt that S.E. Hinton spoke through her characters to paint the life lesson of appreciating the lives around you before it’s too late. One of the many main characters, Ponyboy Curtis, went through the cataclysmic death of his parents, and his involuntary involvement in the gang violence of greasers vs. Socs while still a student in high school. Despite such havoc, Ponyboy lived with his two caring moreover …show more content…

The eldest brother, Darry, took on the responsibility of having custody over his two younger brothers. Ponyboy saw Darry as, “getting old before his time trying to run a family and hold on to two jobs and never having any fun...” (Hinton 43). In spite of Darry’s good intentions of providing for his family, he became more of an overwhelming “parent” than a nurturing brother. An example of this is when Ponyboy was assailed by a group of Socs yet Darry chastised him, “You don't ever think,…not at home or anywhere when it counts. You must think at school, with all those good grades you bring home, and you’ve always got your nose in a book, but do you ever use common sense? No sirree...” (Hinton 13). Darry was never pleased with Ponyboy and that caused resentment in in his heart proving the lack of appreciation they had for each other, “I burst out bitterly: ‘He’s not like Sodapop at all and he sure ain’t like me. He’s hard as a rock and about as human. He’s got eyes exactly like frozen ice. He thinks I’m a pain in the neck. He likes Soda -

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