The Outsider

The Outsiders The Outsiders was written by S.E. Hinton and takes place in an unnamed town in the United States. The whole story takes place over a few days and describes the life from the view point of Ponyboy Curtis who is the main character of the story as this is his story from an outsider, a Greaser. A Greaser is someone that comes from the East side of town, which is the poor side of town and has long hair and puts grease in it to make it look shiny and slick. The three main characters of this story are Ponyboy Curtis who is the youngest of three brothers and narrator of this story and he goes through many different stories and he describes all these stories to give his view of what he feels life is all about. The other main character is Johnny Cade who is Ponyboy’s best friend. He is a very scared and troubled kid who’s parents do not love him and do not care about him and he has been beating up really bad by the Soc’s. He is also the Greaser who in the story who stabs and kills a Socs in self defense. The final main character of the story is Dallas “Dally” Winston. He is the meanest and scariest of the Greasers and spent time in jail already but he is the one that Johnny and Ponyboy go to for help after Johnny kills the Socs. He is also the one that really loves Johnny and takes care of him and they have a special bond. This bond is what carries along through the story and allows everything to happen. There are many other characters in the book and many of them play important roles such Daryl and Sodapop Curtis who are Ponyboy’s brothers who are raising Ponyboy and are dealing with the loss of their parents and raising each other so Sodapop and Ponyboy do not have to go into a group home. Sherri “Cherry” Valance who is a Socs but make friends with the Johnny and Ponyboy and helps them along the story to help avoid violence and really explain the life of a Socs. A Socs are the rich kids that live on the West side of town. The Socs and Greasers