S.E. Hinton
“No rival gangs, only Socs. And you can't win against them no matter how hard you try, because they've got all the breaks and even whipping them isn't going to change that fact.” The Outsiders a novel that was first published in 1967 by the author S.E Hinton is not only a novel about gang mentality and gang rivalry but is also about how a person could feel like ‘an outsider’ based on where they live or how much money they have. In Pony Boy’s case it was his grades that made him feel like an outsider within his own family.
Pony Boy’s a great example of what happens when you are involved with gangs, violence etc. You can become an outsider quite quickly just based on rumours and what people assume that gangs are like. S.E Hinton was 16 when she wrote this novel and so i'm assuming that she was surrounded by the same thing the character Pony Boy was brought up in. "Greaser… greaser… greaser… Oh victim of environment, underprivileged, rotten no-count hood." is just some of the things that people used to describe the ‘greasers’, nowadays names like that are still used to describe the underprivileged people that may not be as well off as the upper or middle classed people. I feel like these names are not only hurtful but also incredibly degrading; no one should be called a ‘rotten no-count hood’, no matter the circumstance. Pony Boy’s social status also lead to him being rather isolated during his schooling, this in itself is enough to force anyone to start to give up on what they’re doing. Pony Boy did a very admirable thing by choosing to ignore these names and continue to strive to the best of his abilities; this, in my opinion, is an exceedingly commendable quality to possess.
“Suddenly it was deathly quiet. We had all frozen. Nobody in my family had ever hit me. Nobody” When Darry hit Pony Boy a lot of feelings would have been rushing through his head, a big one would have been Dally doesn’t love me, nobody does. This particular