The Outsiders

The Outsiders

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton takes place in a small town in the southwestern part of the United States and it's about two groups of kids called the Socs (socials) who are the rich kids and the Greasers, who are the poor kids. The Socs live on the west side and the Greasers live on the east side of town. The difference between these two groups is the Greasers have long greasy hair and they steal things. The Socs have more money than the Greasers, they drive nicer cars and they have a clean cut style. They jump the Greasers and wreck houses because they think they're better than the Greasers.

This story is mostly about Ponyboy, Johnny, Sodapop, Dally, Cherry, Darry and Two-bit. Ponyboy is the youngest one out of the group. He's only 14 years old. Everyone, except Cherry,Dally and Two-Bit live together and Darry is the oldest of the boys. Ponyboy and his brother Sodapop have been living with their brother Darry since their parents were killed in a car accident. The only way they could stay together as a family is if they all stayed out of trouble.

The Greasers think the Socs are made kids with good cars. The Socs think the Greasers are no good and dirty. Throughout the story the Socs and the Greasers have been waiting for the big rumble. A rumble is a big fight between the Socs and the Greasers. The fight will say who's the better gang. The big difference between these two groups is the Greasers are family and best friends and the Socs are just a gang.

There's a fight that takes place early on in the book and Johnny, who has a switchblade, ends up stabbing and killing one of the Socs because they were trying to drown Ponyboy. Johnny and Ponyboy are scared and they decide to leave town. They end up staying in a church which catches on fire and they save some little kids by helping them out the window of the church. Johnny and Ponyboy end up being heros. Johnny ends up getting hurt really bad when he's helping the kids out of the church. He got hit in the back by a flaming piece of wood that made him crippled. Johnny ends up staying in the hospital while Ponyboy and Dally go home to tell everyone what's happened.

Finally the big rumble takes place between the Greasers and the Socs. Darry told Ponyboy before the rumble that he shouldn't be in the rumble because he looks sick, but Ponyboy refuses to listen to him and goes to the rumble anyway. Darry meets up with an old football friend whose name is Paul Holden. Darry and Paul were staring at each other under a spotlight when Paul hits Darry in the face, then the rumble begins. Darry was worried about Ponyboy because he was the youngest and he was sick so he said to Ponyboy, "stay close to me." The rumble goes on and the Socs retreat and the Greasers win.

After the rumble Ponyboy and Dally go back