The Outsiders

The Outsiders

by S.E. Hinton

Published 1967

Published by: Puffin Books

Genre: fiction

The book The Outsiders is the realistic story about this between two very different groups in a town in the United States: the poor Greasers from the east side, and the Socs, whitch is what the greasers call the socials, the richer boys from the other side of the town. Ponyboy Curtis is the narrator of the story, a 14-year-old boy who lives with his two older brothers, Darry and Soda. He is a pretty good athlete and student, but is not treated the same as the richer students at his school. Ponyboy uses to have long hair that he greases back, a symbol of being in the outsider gang. He is unhappy with his situation, because Darry is too protective of him and he always has to be afraid of Socs attacking him.

One night Pony and his best friend Johnny are attacked by a group of drunken Socs. When one of the Socs tries to drown Pony, he goes unconscious and when he wakes up, he sees that Johnny has killed one of the Socs. The two boys decide to go to their friend Dally; he gives them money and directions to a church in the country. There they hide out for a long week, and after it Dally comes to find them. After eating, they return to the church and see that it has caught fire. A group of children are stuck in the burning building. Pony and Johnny do not hesitate and jump in to save the children, Pony gets out ok but Johnny is hit with a piece of falling wood and serious burnt. The boys appear in the news as heroes, even though they are still wanted for murdering the Soc. Pony is fine, but Johnny is badly hurt. After a while, there is a big fight between the Greasers and the Socs. The Greasers win, but when Dally and Pony go to tell Johnny that they won, he