What Is The Conflict In The Outsiders

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Is everything as it seems? In the book The Outsiders, written by S.E Hinton, there were more conflicts with the characters that people could not see at first glance. Although The Outsiders characters were all friendly, they had many conflicts. There were not only major conflicts in The Outsiders but also many subtle ones. Character versus Society was huge in the book The Outsiders. Society had high expectations for the Socs, but as for the greasers, they couldn’t care less. Ponyboy and the rest of the greasers would stay out of harm's way until the Soc got drunk. “A cool bluff could sometimes shake them off, but not if they outnumber you five to two and were drunk” (Hinton 54). The Socs and greasers would usually keep to themselves, but when …show more content…

In the book The Outsiders it showed Ponyboy, as a greaser on the outside but a thinker on the inside. He loved to read and he always admired sunsets. He went back and forth with himself about discissions, friends and family. He was the smart one of the group, not easily fooled, but was very easy to please. This was probably because of where he came from and his past life experiences. Ponyboy knew what he had to do even if he told himself otherwise. Even though Ponyboy was labeled as a greaser he made a point to try to make everybody equal. Ponyboy and Darry may have been brothers but they were also rivals for most of the book. If you were an onlooker, this conflict might have passed you right up. At one point Darry hit Ponyboy which resulted in him running away. “Darry wheeled around and slapped me so hard it knocked me against the door” ( Hinton 50). Nobody, in the entire Curtis family and friends, has ever hit Ponyboy before so when Darry hit him, all three of the brothers were in shock. As you can see, there are many conflicts that helped hold the reader's attention. Society has its expectations for everybody and that can lead conflicts. There was not a single character in the book The Outsiders who was not facing a problem. You are going to go through conflicts in life, whether it’s against yourself, your best friend, or society, it’s rough all over. All in all, both the subtle and the obvious conflicts help the reader

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