The Outsiders Review | Teen Ink

The Outsiders Review

May 20, 2021
By Anonymous

I think the book The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton was a very good book to read. The novel The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton was published in New York on April 24, 1967, by Viking Press. I think that S.E. Hinton is a great author. I have read the book The Outsiders Many times. Every time I read the book I still never want to quit reading it. I also think the movie is good. I find it very impressive that Hidden started writing the book when she was 15 and even though she wasn't doing well in her creative writing class she continued to write the book and then even got it published. Some more facts about hitting is that she was born July 22nd, 1948 in Tulsa,  Oklahoma. This was the setting of the book which I think is needed. She wrote about Tulsa, Oklahoma and she grew up there. She also wrote another book called rumble fish which from what I've heard it's a pretty good book as well.

I believe that the book The Outsiders was intended for a more mature teen or young adult. The story focused on a teenager's life and gave descriptions of his life through his eyes. Hidden did a great job at adding things that were common with teenagers. I just feel like she understood teens and young adults and that's why I believe that this book would be for teenagers or young adults.

The book was about Ponyboy's life and what he went through as a greaser. The setting was in Tulsa Oklahoma. The story talked about the Rivalry that the greasers and the socials had. The socials are known to be people that had more money and we're a higher class that lived in a better neighborhood oh, wow the greasers we're known as a lower class that lived on the bad side of town. Ponyboy had two older brothers, one's name was Dairy and the brother's name was Soda Pop. The other grease members included Johnny Cade, Dallas "Dally" Winston, Keith "Two-Bit" Matthews, and Steve Randle. The greasers were a very tight group of people. Honestly, we're all like brothers to each other.  As a reader, I got to read about what it was like to be a greaser and what it was like in Pony Boy's shoes. I truly think that the boys had a great bond with each other and that even though they didn't have a lot of money they still had good times and enjoyed each other's company.

One theme that I found in the book that I would like to point out is the theme of rich and poor. Hinton told a story of two groups of teenagers who didn't get along and had many differences. The Greasers were known as the gang that had little money. Then the Socials were a gang that had money and showed it off. The differences in social class did not necessarily make natural enemies of the two groups, but it was a factor of the hatred they had. Another thing that I found in the book is loyalty. Hinton used the two gangs to show loyalty to their members through protection, family, and friendship. The Greasers and the Socials face times of horrible pain in the book,  their bonds of friendship pull them together and make them stronger than they ever have been. 

After reading The Outsiders I did research on more books that Hinton had written. One book that stood out that was kind of like The Outsiders was the book Rumble Fish. The book Rumble Fish was about a boy named Rusty James who was a gang member. Rusty just wanted a better life for himself. This is also what Ponyboy wanted in The Outsiders. The books were also both written in the first-person point of view. These were just a couple of comparisons that I found between the two books. 

All together if I had to write this book a 1 to 10. One being terrible and 10 being excellent, I would definitely give this book a 10 because I found it very interesting. I found that the Rivalry between the two gangs was interesting and what Ponyboy had to go through was also something that made me want to read more while reading the book.


The author's comments:

This piece was a very interesting novel and I enjoyed reading it and watching the movie to the novel as well. 


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