Commentary on The Outsiders Essay

The Outsiders

Whenever I read S.E. Hintons The Outsiders, I compare how intertwined this novel is with the real world, regardless of being written in the 1960s. It beautifully represents the reality of what every society in the world today must confront, which is gangs. Choose any area in the world and you will always find one universal attribute that gangs will possess, and that is blind and meaningless conflict. The way society looks down upon the lower class results in the formation of gangs and their struggle for power and opportunity. Even from all the pressure of being in a gang, there always seems to be a small percentage of individuals who see through the violence and recognize that the fighting and morals of a gang are wrong.

The Outsiders contains two social groups that are constantly fighting each other. The first group, the Socials (Socs), are typical rich kids who believe they are better than everyone else and make fun of the lower class. The Greasers are low class, tough kids who are barely getting by that think they can handle anything that is thrown at them. The only real factor that separates these two groups is the gap between the rich and the poor. The reason for their barbaric behavior is due to the way the Socs treat the Greasers. Whenever a group of Socs sees a Greaser, they seem to always have the need to deprive them of their humanity and as a result, they jump the Greaser. This causes the Greasers to create their code of standing up for each other in the face of enemies, which is a typical characteristic of modern gangs. The constant cycle of actions that is caused by this code results in a senseless hatred towards one another.

I believe the way Hinton portrays the gangs in this novel truly resembles the gangs of present day society. The way the Socs and Greasers recognized each other is closely similar of the way gangs do it in modern day, usually by clothing and symbols. Most of the gangs of today do not even know why they are fighting. They are simply told to stand up for one another and to jump or kill rival gang members. This is exactly what Hinton displayed between the Socs and the Greasers. The never ending cycle of the we got each others back code leads to the tension between the two groups. Whenever a Soc or a Greaser saw a member of the opposing group, they instantly resorted to physically harming him. Gangs today do that as well. If a group of Crips see a Blood all by himself, most likeley they are going to go confront him. Hinton wanted to portray how people in gangs dont hate each other, but in reality they just dont know each other. They simply just follow the implied morals and rules of their respective gangs to avoid rejection. Hinton proves this when Ponyboy, a Greaser, and Cherry, a Soc, become very interested in each other and find out they have a lot in common. This sense of understanding for one another led them to disregard the fact that they were in opposing gangs.

The differences between the gangs in this novel and the ones of modern day are very apparent. In the novel, it was all about the fist fights and knives. In present day, it is all about the guns and how much firepower you have. The opposing groups of the novel were from the upper and lower class. Nowadays its strictly between the unfortunate. The main difference between the gangs of The Outsiders and the gangs of today are how close the Greasers and Socs were to their particular groups. Most gangs of today are under the same name, but set in a loose confederation.

With every gang, you will always have individuals who know all the immoralities of being in a gang, the fighting, drug dealing, and just being involved. These usually tend to be the younger members of the gang who are not yet fully influenced by their caretakers. Since they have already been sucked into the life of a gangster, they feel obliged to cooperate and support their gang. As this progresses, they forget about their morals and eventually become what they first saw to be wrong. Ponyboy was the perfect example of this. He understands that the fighting is wrong and that the Socs are people with problems just like the Greasers. They are just stuck in a ridiculous feud that the leaders have not yet recognized to be senseless.

As you can see, the Socs and the Greasers are not much different from the gangs of today. They recognize each other through symbols and clothing, provoke and attack on sight, and do not really know why they fight. The only factors that do differentiate them are who the gangs are fighting against, how closely knitted they are, and how violence is conducted. I believe The Outsiders underlying theme is that every gang member at first knows the true difference between right and wrong, but they conform to avoid rejection which inevitably results in their complete loss of morality. Hinton wanted to portray Ponyboy as the way out and idol for all gang members of the past and the present. He displays how following your heart and your innocence will keep you on the right path. Stay gold Ponyboy, stay gold.