The Outsiders

           The Outsiders is written by S.E. Hinton and is based on a gang in Tulsa, Oklahoma as a fiction story. The book is published by Viking Press, Dell Publishing on April 24, 1967 and comes in hardcover, paperback and audiobook. The book is followed up by That Was Then, This Is Now, which the main character of this book shows up in a couple times.

            The plot of this book is based on two gangs. The Greasers and the Socs. The Socs go around looking for Greasers and when they do find them they jump out and mug them. Then they hop back in the blue mustangs and leave. Throughout the story they progress it more and more and by keeping the pace the same, build the setting to make it exciting, progress the plot and progressing the character and add more and more difficulties and aspects to the characters. The Socs are the rich people in Tulsa and the Greasers are the poor people.

            The setting of this book is based in 1965 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The story starts off with the main character Ponyboy walking out of the theater downtown. After he comes out he walks down the street to his house. On the way four Socs jumped out and beat him, but his brothers Soda, and Darry Curtis and his Greaser friends Dally, Two-Bit, and Steve came to help and scared away the Socs. Also down the street is Johnny’s house, which is Ponyboy’s best friend and he is part of the Greaser gang. But he is never at his own house he is always at Ponyboy’s house cause his dad abuses him.

            Throughout the story they add more settings to bring the stories along.  They add a park around the corner where they hang out late at night and play tackle football; the fountain where Johnny, which is Ponyboy’s best friend, kills a Soc because they are drowning Ponyboy in the fountain; the gas station where pony boy’s brother Soda works and how all the girls always come around the gas station because they think Soda is so handsome. They also show Ponyboy and Johnny going to the drive-in-theater and meeting some Socs girls and the girls starting to like them and that’s when the socs boy get mad and try to drown Ponyboy. They tell how the Socs live in the rich nice part of the town and how the Greasers’ life in the crappy run down and ragged part of town.

            If I had to rate this book it would get an 8 out of 10. I like how they show his struggles after Johnny dies and Dally is in the jail. His grades start dropping and he starts not caring about school and just starts hating school where in the beginning he loved school. I don’t like how in the end the pace slows down and how they make it boring with Ponyboy practically not caring about life and not even doing anything anymore and the whole plot gets boring and kind of dumb.   I like the plot of this book and how the setting ties perfectly with it. I like the pace of the story until it gets to the end then it slows down and it loses interest. I like how the characters develop throughout the story and I would suggest this book to anyone who likes action. It was a good book.