Book Analysis: The Greasers And The Socials

Why do we need to grow up? Why does it affect our future? Most people start to mature when they are 19 or 20 years old. However, two different gangs in a book called, The Outsiders wrote by S.E. Hinton, called the Greasers and the Socials (Socs) struggle to mature. Both gangs have been rivals because of their class levels. One being, the Socs, a high-class group of teenagers and young adults and the other, Greasers, being a low-class group of hoods. The Socs were always looking for a fight and they would normally jump on the Greasers. One time a riot caused the death of Bob Sheldon, which changed the lives of three main characters. This change allowed Randy Adderson, Ponyboy Curtis, and Johnny Cade to realize there is more in the future for

Being a wild card and jumping(mugging) people for fun, he was like all the other West-side rich kids. He was all in for it when Bob and the gang went looking for Johnny and Ponyboy for hanging out with their girlfriends. In spite of the turn of events, Randy states, “ ‘I'm sick of all of this. Sick and tired…. People get hurt in rumbles, maybe killed. I’m sick of it because it doesn’t do any good ‘ ”(Hinton 116-117). At this point of time, Randy apprehends that fighting doesn’t solve anything and it is unethical to beat people for entertainment. Everybody has an equal, Randy looks into the real world and starts acting right in the world. Randy took a step out of the path of evil and had a change of heart. His dad also helped him achieve this. When he told Randy that nobody could get hurt if he would tell the truth. On the other hand, he let his father down because he was confused and disorganized. Randy said, “ ‘.... I feel lousy about the old man. And it’s the first time I’ve felt anything in a long time’ ” (Hinton 164). As a result, Randy starts to knock down the wall of aloofness. Bob’s passing caused Randy to start breaking down and feel his emotions. This causes Randy to start growing and start to see the world beyond his

Before the shift in his life, Ponyboy, Johnny, and Two-Bit were walking Cherry Valance and Marcia to Two-Bit’s house from the drive in so that they could drive the girls home. On the way there, Ponyboy and Cherry started talking about each other’s lives like Pony’s brothers, the Greaser and Soc quarrel, and Soda’s horse, Mickey Mouse. They also talked about sunsets when Ponyboy thought, “It seemed funny to me that the sunset she saw from her patio and the one I saw from the back steps was the same one. Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren’t so different. We saw the same sunset” (Hinton 40-41). He starts to realize that there is no difference between people because they were all human on the inside. All of them should be able to live together and should be helping each other out, but instead fight over nothing like children. By this point, Ponyboy is starting to expand and grow from his own little realm and feud between the Greasers and Socs. However, this feud caused a series of events to lead to the death of Johnny, Dally, and Bob. Bob’s death causes Johnny and Pony to run away, but the church they were staying at caught on fire from a cigarette. There were a group of children in there because they were having a school picnic and were playing inside. They were there at the wrong moment, although Johnny and Ponyboy were there to save the kids. In the heat of