The Outsiders
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 world to crumble and teaching him that pain feels the same whether a soc or a greaser.
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What you might want to know about The Outsiders
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Fourteen-year-old Ponyboy Curtis is being raised by his older brothers Darry and Sodapop in a 1960s Tulsa neighborhood split between greasers and the wealthy Socs. After a fight in a park ends with a Soc dead, Ponyboy and his friend Johnny hide in a country church and decide what to do.
Yes. The Outsiders has been challenged in many American school districts since its 1967 publication, primarily for violence, gang content, underage drinking and smoking, and references to broken homes. It remains a staple of middle and high school literature classes.
The Outsiders is fictional but draws on real conflicts S.E. Hinton observed at her high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She wrote the novel as a teenager and based the greaser-Soc divide on actual social tensions of the era.
Yes. Francis Ford Coppola directed a 1983 film adaptation starring a young ensemble cast including C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, and Tom Cruise. The film is widely admired and follows the book closely.
The Outsiders is typically taught in grades 7 through 9 and is appropriate for readers 12 and up. The themes include violence and class conflict, but the language and content remain accessible to middle school students.
The Outsiders was written by S.E. Hinton, published in 1967 by Dtv.
The Outsiders is 192 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Outsiders takes most readers 3 to 4 hours to finish.
The Outsiders is a standalone novel by S.E. Hinton, not part of a series.
The Outsiders is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
