Portal:Oklahoma/Selected article/7

The Outsiders is a novel by S. E. Hinton, first published in 1967 by Viking Press. Hinton was 15 when she began writing the novel and 18 when it was published. The Outsiders is an account of a traumatic time in the life of fourteen-year-old Ponyboy Curtis. Hinton explores the themes of class conflict, brotherly love, friendship, and coming of age by following two rival gangs, the Greasers and the Socs(pronounced "soashes"short for "Socials"), who are separated by social-economic status and political beliefs.

The main characters in The Outsiders are Ponyboy Curtis, Johnny Cade, Dallas "Dally" Winston, Darrel "Darry" Curtis, Sodapop Curtis, Keith "Two-Bit" Mathews, and Steve Randle, a gang of Greasers in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The story is narrated by Ponyboy, younger brother of both Sodapop and Darrel, or Darry. The three boys are orphaned after a car accident that kills their parents. Darry assumes the parental role to keep them from getting sent to different homes. Darry feels overly burdened and cannot provide all of the things they need. Although he is smart, he didn't pursue college so he could get a job and provide food for the other two boys, Sodapop and Ponyboy. Sodapop dropped out of high school in favor of employment. (Read more . . . )