The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine.
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine.
Ponyboy Curtis has seen a lot in his 14 years. His parents are dead, and now he lives with his older brothers, Soda and Darry. They’re all “greasers,” underprivileged kids who are known for fighting and for wearing their hair slicked back. They fight with the wealthy “socs” who seem to have it all. When Ponyboy’s friend Johnny accidentally kills a soc named Bob, the murder sets off a chain of troubling and violent events for the greasers. But through the turmoil, Ponyboy has heart-to-heart talks with some of Bob’s soc friends, and he realizes that the greasers and socs aren’t as different as he once thought.
Johnny and Ponyboy hide out in an abandoned church. While there, Ponyboy recalls how he and Johnny used to go to church regularly until some of the gang joined them one Sunday and made a scene. They never went back.
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Twenty-year-old Darry has sacrificed his dream of college to serve as the sole parent for his younger teenage brothers. He works long hours to support them and would do anything to protect them. He insists Ponyboy keep his curfew and maintain good grades, but he also permits the boys to smoke, fight and engage in a number of other questionable and unsafe behaviors. The boys’ deceased parents are remembered as loving individuals. Jerry Wood and Mr. Syme, both teachers, are the adult characters in the story, and both demonstrate their belief that Ponyboy is something more than a worthless thug.
Although the author implies frequent profanity, she stops short of actually using it. The greasers and the socs regularly fight one another, often beating each other. They draw blood, inflict deep wounds and concussions and even kill.
Ponyboy says he knows what goes on in bedrooms during parties. Darry insinuates that Soda’s girlfriend left town because she was pregnant and Soda was hurt to learn it wasn’t his child.
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Many underage characters in the book use alcohol and drugs, shoplift, fight (sometimes with weapons), cheat, lie and have criminal records. Most smoke habitually. Ponyboy says it’s calming, and he and others display behaviors when they can’t smoke that reveal their nicotine addictions. Dally Winston, a tough greaser who loves Johnny like a brother, purposely threatens police with an empty gun so they will fire on him. His desperate death is essentially a suicide.
In 1988 the author won the Margaret Alexander Edwards Award for her contribution to books for young adults.
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