The Outsiders

Introduction

The Outsiders was written by Susan Eloise Hinton and published by Viking Press on April 24th, 1967. Be prepared to see this one pop up in my “Top 10 of 2024” post because this book is one of my favorites of all time. The themes and storytelling bring me to tears no matter how many times I’ve read it. I have also seen the movie several times - complete with its impressive cast - and have recently had the opportunity to see the new Broadway stage adaptation, and to say that I fell in love with it would be an understatement. It did such a phenomenal job bringing this story from page to stage that I was astounded. This is a short young-adult fiction that I would absolutely recommend to everyone and anyone. However, I will give a trigger warning for the topics of domestic abuse, violence, and suicide, as all come up in this book. I care a lot about this book and the story it tells, so I would love to have a conversation in the comments or DMs of this post. As always, the Spoiler-Free Thoughts section will be safe for those who haven’t read this book yet and are looking for a general overview of the themes it presents. The Thoughts section will delve deeper into my opinions on this book for those who have read it or who don’t care about having the plot spoiled for them.

Plot

In 1967 Tulsa, Oklahoma, it’s the rich versus the poor, socs versus greasers. When a misunderstanding turns into an altercation that ends in bloodshed, young greasers Ponyboy and Johnny Cade find themselves on the run from the law.

Spoiler-Free Thoughts

This book is incredibly short, I believe it’s the shortest I’ve reviewed so far, so the plot comes at you fast and early. The main cast of characters and even the underlying issue that brings about the main conflict are introduced within the first few pages. It’s also told in a reflective way. Instead of the events occurring in real time, like a lot of the fiction I usually read, it is told as if Ponyboy is looking back on these events after it was all said and done, which makes sense in conjunction with the ending of the book. Hindsight does nothing to change the past, so even rereading this story a thousand times and knowing how it ends makes it no less tragic.

It feels like this was written by a young but intelligent teenager, like I really am being told a story by Ponyboy Curtis, and that feels especially evident when it comes to how he handles conflict. He finds it difficult to see things in a multidimensional manner, and his circumstances don’t necessarily make that easy for him either. The core conflict of this book stems from a class issue. The rich, the socs, run around town doing whatever they please and appear to feel numb to their privilege. The poor, the greasers, are angry. They’re rightfully upset about the hand life has dealt them, and they act out because of it or in defense of themselves against the socs. This begs the question of which is better: to feel too much or nothing at all? The recurring idea that everyone has crap that they deal with humanizes all of the characters, on both sides of town.

Forgiveness is another huge theme in this book. Of oneself and of others for any harm they’ve caused. Reading this, it still feels like an abstract idea, forgiving what Ponyboy found it in his heart to, but that’s the point. It isn’t easy, and I don’t think it should be, but it is important. It can mean a fresh start for everybody. The ending of this book hits me hard, and I feel like I spend the last forty to fifty pages periodically crying, despite the fact I’ve been reading it annually since middle school. The final words in particular bring me to tears with their full circle style of storytelling. This book can still reach modern audiences, and I find myself emotionally connecting with it in a way that I find other books have trouble replicating. It is hands down one of my favorite books of all time, and for all of these reasons, I give it a 10/10.

Thoughts

I mentioned above that Ponyboy had trouble seeing things from multiple viewpoints, and that is shown primarily in his conversations with Darry and Cherry. When arguing with Darry, he feels that he’s being yelled at for no reason and picked apart for every mistake, as if he was held to a higher standard than Sodapop. Looking at it later on, it becomes clear that Darry was just worried about Pony and wanted the best for him. He wanted Pony to have the opportunities that he lost when their parents died. Looking at Cherry and the other socs, it seems that their lives are all buttoned up for them, and that they are afforded every opportunity with little to no consequences for any wrongdoing. But she was right in reminding him that things are rough all over. I was intrigued by the idea that it’s the people in the middle who have it the best.

The idea of family, specifically chosen family, cannot be overstated in the context of this book, especially among the greasers. For all of their money and titles, the socs do not stand with one another when it gets real. When Bob died, they ran. When they lost the rumble - despite having the advantage - they ran. Meanwhile, the greasers are always by one another’s sides, backing each other up no matter the stakes. Take how Dally helped Johnny and Ponyboy without hesitation. How they fought side by side and back to back in the rumble for Johnny’s sake. They may not have had money, but they had each other. And for so many reasons, that was better.

Branching off of that train of thought, I want to talk about the ending, and a few characters in particular. It’s emphasized throughout the entire book how cold and uncaring Dallas Winston is. He cares for nothing and nobody but himself, but just looking at how he treats Johnny, we know that can’t possibly be true. It reminds me of Darry in a way, saying one thing or acting one way and meaning something else entirely. And when it came down to it, he decided that he couldn’t live in this world without Johnny in it too. Because how is it fair that someone like Darry, who with his talent, mind, and ambition should have gone as far as any soc in life, be stuck in Tulsa taking care of two younger brothers simply because he doesn’t have the money to go farther? How is it fair that Johnny, simply born into a crappy home situation, never had the opportunity to advance in life, despite his good heart? Fate doesn’t seem to care, and frankly, neither does death. It took the hoodlum and the hero without discrimination when both were too young to die.

However, that can’t be the mindset we live in or the lessons we learn. Their deaths are tragic, yes, Bob’s is too. He was a young boy who made bad decisions for attention, and it cost him his life. But life goes on. And if we let tragedy and sorrow dictate how we spend the remaining time we have, then we have already wasted it. In Johnny’s words, we need to stay gold.