Outcasts In The Outsiders, By S. E. Hinton

Sometimes we find ourselves walking down the street, staring at the homeless begging for money or watching unique people ‘embarrassing’ themselves when all they're doing is having fun. The diversity in the world is so vast, and we find ourselves pondering whether people are different or just outcasts. In many books as well, a character ends up being an outcast or a unique, different person as a whole. When are we outcasts and when are we just ‘different’ from the rest of the world? S.E. Hinton’s book The Outsiders represents this interesting situation where some people belong in the path of the status quo while others seem to stand out more than they fit in. Throughout the book, characters are shunned for being outcasts, honored for being unique, or even both. Frequently the Greasers get shunned from society, making outcasts out of people who fit in with an unlikely group. “Greasers can’t walk alone too much
“‘Nothing gold can stay.’ I was remembering a poem that I'd read once. ‘What?’ ‘Nature’s first green is gold,/Her hardest hue to hold./Her early leaf’s a flower;/Then leaf subsides to leaf./ So Eden sank down to grief,/ So dawn goes down to day./Nothing gold can stay.’ Johnny was staring at me. ‘Where’d you learn that? That was what I meant’”(77). Although Johnny isn't the same as Ponyboy, he understands a small part of the poem, showing Ponyboy that since he is different from the rest of the greasers, only part of him absolutely shows itself to individual people. “Sent from heaven? Had he gotten a good look at Dallas?’No, we’re just greasers,’ I said. I was too worried and scared to appreciate the fact that he was trying to be funny”(95). Being different doesn't happen intentionally, it happens absent-mindedly, Ponyboy is a great example of this because he said he was a greaser and was proud of it. However, people can be both an outcast and a unique