The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton which is about these kids from Oklahoma city who are a part of the greasers gang. In their city there are 2 sides. The East side greasers and West side Soc. The greasers are the poor kids who get in to trouble, wear jeans and leather jackets. They smoke cigarettes at young ages, and are proud of their criminal record. The socs are the rich kids who like to get drunk and beat up young Greasers. They frequently jump little greasers like Johnny Cade and seriously hurt them, and mentally scar them for life. The main conflict of the book is the gang conflict between the 2 gangs, greasers and the Socs. The main theme of the book is equality. Equality for everyone regardless of social status or the amount of money they have or their home. Or the side of town they live on.
Throughout the entire story this theme develops. Like how at the beginning of the story Ponyboy talks about the Socs like they’re and entirely different species. He thinks that all socs are just drunks who enjoy beating up little poor kids. He thinks they are all like Bob the Soc that gets drunk with his friend Randy and leaves their girlfriends at the movie house all alone. He thinks they’re all bad kids who are privileged and just have fun by beating someone up, or going to big parties and drinking so many beers they can barely walk. And he’s scared of all of them same as Johnny they both are so scared they are constantly looking over their shoulder.
Then towards the middle of the story the theme continues to evolve. Ponyboy starts to hate the Socs even more after the time at the fountain when the Socs tried to kill him and Johnny. While they’re at the old church in Windroxville they are forced to hide and leave their homes and the people that they love because they’re scared of the socs. They’re scared of what they’ll do to them when they get caught. I think that this fear is what makes their hatred even worse. I think that they resent them so much because their money gives them more authority and power, and this fear turns into hate.
Then at the end of the middle part there is the fire at the church. Ponyboy Johnny and Dally rush into the fire. They risked their lives to go save the people inside the church. Even though they were young socs they went inside and saved them. I think this shows that this event shows a change in character for the 3 kids who used to despise all Socs, but now they are even willing to give up their lives to save these little kids. Despite the fact that they are Socs. When Ponyboy is in the ambulance with the kids teacher Jerry he says that the 3 are heroes, he said that they’re the bravest kids he’s ever seen. Then Ponyboy reveals to Jerry that the 3 of them are greasers. Then he says “Greasers or not you kids are heroes.” I think that this could be another turning point because now he sees that not all Socs aren’t the same.
Towards the end of the story Ponyboy starts to see more and more that everyone is equal. Like when Randy asks to talk to him while him and Two Bit are walking to visit Johnny and Dally at the hospital. After he gets out of the car Two Bit asks him “What did that Soc want ?” and Pony boy said, “He’s not a Soc he’s just a guy who wanted to talk.” Then before the rumble when he meets up with Cherry to talk about rules he asks her a question. He says ” Can you see the sunset from the west side?” she replies with, “Yeah real good.” Then he said, ” You can see it from the east too.” this is a metaphor about equality. The sunset represents both struggles and prosperity. And when he says that they can both see it it’s saying they both have their fair share of good and bad times.
Some might argue that equality for all regardless of money wouldn’t be a good theme for this book for a few reasons. One reason might be that Ponyboy hates the Socs for a long portion of the story. Another reason might be that he still participates in the rumble which is a large fight between the 2 gangs Greasers and Socs.
But I say it doesn’t matter what he used to think about them as long as he changed his opinion by the end of the story which he did. Also it shows he has a change of feelings towards them because it starts as people like Cherry, and Randy trying to tell him that things are rough all over and that they have problems too. Now Ponyboy is trying to tell others like Two Bit that they just aren’t Socs they’re people just the same as the Greasers.
Also just because he fought in the rumble doesn’t mean he doesn’t believe in equality. He fought to protect himself and his family. Just because he thinks Greasers and Socs are equal doesn’t mean he’s going to stop being a Greaser and fight for his friends against those people who want to hurt them.
In conclusion the theme of The Outsiders is equality for all regardless of social class, or the amount of money someone has. This is true for many reasons like how Ponyboy is still friends with Randy and Cherry. Ponyboy doesn’t hate them at the end of the book. He also begins to see that everyone has problems and that they all also have their good times.