Symbols In The Outsiders

In the novel the outsiders, S.E. Hinton does a great job bringing more readers to the young adult fiction genre. It was the reason she captured the reader that keeps it popular among middle schoolers everywhere. Her revealing acts is why it is a staple for schools and readers throughout the decades. S.E. Hinton does a great job showing revealing acts through the church fire. Johnny, Ponyboy, and Dallas all risk their lives to save people, that alone shows that those three are very courageous and caring, despite being greasers. “I jerked loose and ran on. All I could think was: We started it. We started it. We started it!” (91). That thought shows that Ponyboy didn’t care about the fact that he could get killed, he just wanted to save the children.

When Darry really cares about Ponyboy because he was worried when he didn’t know where he was late at night. Johnny killing Bob shows that he really cares about Ponyboy because he killed Bob when him and his friends were threatening to kill Ponyboy. “‘Yeah.” His voice quavered slightly. “I had to. They were drowning you, Pony. They might have killed you.And they had a blade… they were gonna beat me up…’”(59). That proves just how much Ponyboy means to Johnny, he killed someone to make sure Ponyboy could live. “‘So I guess you got into some trouble, huh? Darry and me nearly went nuts when you ran out like that. Darry is awfully sorry he hit you. You know he didn mean it.’”(81). That note proves that Darry cares about Ponyboy, and even though he might do something he shouldn’t, at the end of the day he loves, and cares about him. Just those two examples alone show how well Hinton is able to reveal a part of the characters the readers didn’t know

Randy pulled Ponyboy aside to just have a talk about why he chose to save the children, Cherry talks to Ponyboy about visiting Johnny in the hospital. “‘I’m sick of it because it doesn’t do any good. You can’t win, you know that, don’t you?’”(117). That alone shows that Randy doesn’t think that fighting will do any good, he seems like the person who hates Greasers, but he actually just wants to be a normal person. “‘I wasn’t trying to give you charity, Ponyboy. I only wanted to help. I liked you from the start… the way you talked.’”(129). Cherry saying that she only wanted to help shows that she truly likes Ponyboy and Johnny, despite what happened in the park. Ponyboy has another revealing act that night when he say “I would. I’d help her and Randy both, if I could.”(129). That proves that just because all Greasers act like they hate all Socs, they can actually like them. “You can see good it from the East Side, too.” That helps show that both groups, Socs and Greasers, have a lot more in common than they think. Those all show that Socs and Greasers aren’t all that different, in the way that they both have feelings, and Socs aren’t just rich kids and Greasers aren’t just poor, tough