The Outsiders: For Yesterday and Today

"When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home" (Hinton 1). This one line, written by S.E. Hinton in 1967, began the entire genre of Young Adolescent Literature. Prior to this time YA Lit books were very simple and dealt with minuscule problems that were always solved by the conclusion of the novel. The Outsiders, however, shocked readers with its graphic and mature content, it was much different than anything anyone had ever seen. For the first time a YA book dealt with teens that came from broken homes, alcohol and drug abuse, underage smoking, and violence.

The Outsiders follows the life of a young teen from Tulsa, OK during the 1960s, Ponyboy Curtis. In Tulsa at the time there were two different gangs, formed off of the socioeconomic status of the members, the Socs and the Greasers. The Socs are from wealthier families where the Greasers are mainly from poor and broken homes. In the novel, there is constant animosity and rumbles between the two rival gangs. The Outsiders depicts the life of Ponyboy's Greaser friends, Sodapop Curtis, Ponyboy's brother who dropped out of high school, Darry Curtis, Ponyboy's oldest brother who assumed responsibility of his two younger brothers when his parents died in a car accident, Johnny, an immature sensitive teen who is Ponyboy's closest friend, Dally, a teen who has become hardened from his street life, and Two-Bit, the clown of the gang.

When Ponyboy and Johnny meet and flirt with members of the Socs' girlfriends at the drive-in one night trouble breaks out. The two boys were later approached by members of the Socs gangs and they began to beat Ponyboy up, Johnny responds by killing one of the Socs to protect his friends. The two boys ask Dally for advice about what they should do and he advises them to run away. The boys spend the week in an empty abandoned church reading Gone With Wind and poetry and discussing the meaning of life. Unlike every YA lit book written up until this point The Outsiders does not have a happy ending, rather one that makes you think about what is really important in life.

I think that all teens should read this book because it offers a lot to them. Even though the book was written in the 1960s and the context may seem out of date, many of the same themes apply. The Socs and Greasers fought each other because one group was privileged and the other group was poor. Even though this extreme may not exactly happen today there is definitely a difference between the rich and the poor students in school. The privileged teens have nice clothes and drive nice cars and in most cases are usually more popular compared to the underprivileged kids. In The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton stresses the importance of bridging the gap between the rich and the poor. Popularity should not be based off of this unimportant factor.

The Outsiders broke down barriers at the time that it was published for YA literature. However, today it's messages to teens are just as important.