The Outsiders is about two weeks in the life of a 14-year-old boy. The novel tells the story of Ponyboy Curtis and his struggles with right and wrong in a society in which he believes that he is an outsider. According to Ponyboy, there are two kinds of people in the world: greasers and socs. A soc (short for "social") has money, can get away with just about anything, and has an attitude longer than a limousine. A greaser, on the other hand, always lives on the outside and needs to watch his back. Ponyboy is a greaser, and he's always been proud of it, even willing to rumble against a gang of socs for the sake of his fellow greasers--until one terrible night when his friend Johnny kills a soc. The murder gets under Ponyboy's skin, causing his separated world to crumble and teaching him that pain feels the same whether a soc or a greaser.
This classic novel by S.E.Hinton tells the story of Ponyboy Curtis and his struggles with right and wrong in a society in which he believes that he is an outsider.
The 1960s
The 1960s in the United States
Gangs
Oklahoma
The setting is based on Hinton's hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she was living when she wrote the story as a high school student
The book reflects the social divisions experienced by Americans during the 1960s. Young people were attempting to find their voices and express their own political opinions. The Civil Rights movement was drawing attention towards the racial discrimination of African Americans. This period of historically significant history has influenced the author, S.E.Hinton.
The author - Susan Eloise Hinton
How the novel worked it's way into the mainstream
The five YA novels, her first books published, are all are set in Oklahoma.
S.E. Hinton wrote The Outsiders when she was only 16 years old, and it revolutionized young adult fiction with its hard-hitting look at the social politics of being a teenager in mid-twentieth century America. It began a trend in the genre of taking a more serious look at the struggles of growing up.
The book drew a wide audience, especially among teenage boys who were reluctant readers. It was criticized at first for its, at the time, graphic depictions of violence, but it remains a classic work of young adult fiction that explores the universal struggles of growing up.
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Source: BookDepository
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By Robert Frost
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
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