the outsiders book report questions

The Outsiders

By s. e. hinton, the outsiders essay questions.

Compare the characters of Bob and Dally.

On the surface, Bob and Dally couldn't be more different. However, the two boys are linked together by the phrase, "Next time you want a broad, pick up your own kind." Right before the Socs attack Ponyboy and Johnny, in the fight that results in Johnny killing Bob, Bob states the reasoning for the attack. He wants the Greasers to know their place in society, and to stay away from Soc girls. Later, in Chapter 6, Dally echoes Bob's words when he explains that Cherry is acting as a spy for the Greasers, adding: "Man, next time I want a broad I'll pick up my own kind." Ponyboy remembers Bob saying this not even a week before. Both boys are victims of the violence between the Socs and the Greasers, and die before the story is over. They both have violent tendencies, look for fights, and end up losing their lives because of it; more important, both draw ideological lines in the sand.

Discuss the relationship between Johnny and Dally.

Johnny feels hero-worship toward Dally, and thinks of him as the most gallant of all the gang. Dally wants to protect Johnny and keep him from turning out the way he himself has. As they drive back to the church in Chapter 5, he explains, "You get hardened in jail. I don't want that to happen to you. Like it happened to me..." After Johnny dies, Dally reacts with uncharacteristic emotion. Ponyboy realizes that "Johnny was the only thing Dally loved. And now Johnny was gone."

Discuss the relationship between Ponyboy and Darry, and how it changes over the course of the novel.

At the beginning of the novel, Ponyboy resents Darry for being too strict and always bothering him for not using his head. He recognizes the sacrifices that Darry has made to raise his two little brothers, but still thinks Darry just doesn't care for him at all.

But in Chapter 5, when Soda and Darry come to the hospital, Ponyboy has a revelation. He sees his oldest brother cry for the first time in years - he didn't even cry at their parents' funeral - and realizes that "Darry did care about me, maybe as much as he cared about Soda, and because he cared he was trying too hard to make something of me." He understands that Darry is terrified of losing another person he loves, and wonders "how I could ever have thought him hard and unfeeling."

In Chapter 10, when Ponyboy wakes up momentarily, he asks Soda if Darry is sorry he's sick. He also worries throughout the chapter that maybe he didn't ask for Darry while he was delirious, but Soda finally confirms that he did. This concern for Darry's feelings is a huge change from the way Ponyboy regarded his oldest brother in the beginning of the novel. Now he is worried that, because deep down he feels he can relate better to Soda, he might have left Darry out in his unconscious babbling.

How do Ponyboy's feelings toward Randy reflect the conflict between the Socs and the Greasers?

At first, Ponyboy sees Randy as a violent Soc to be avoided; he is Marcia's boyfriend, and is involved in jumping the Greasers. But in Chapter 7, they have a conversation in Randy's car, and Randy explains why he is leaving town instead of attending the rumble. He says, "You can't win, even if you whip us. You'll still be where you were before - at the bottom. And we'll still be the lucky ones with all the breaks. So it doesn't do any good, the fighting and the killing. It doesn't prove a thing. We'll forget it if you win, or if you don't. Greasers will still be greasers and Socs will still be Socs." Ponyboy begins to see Randy as someone who can appreciate sunsets, and feels a connection to him regardless of their different social statuses.

However, in Chapter 11 when Randy comes to visit Ponyboy at home, Ponyboy's denial about Johnny's death and the events leading up to it cause a rift between the two boys again. Ponyboy decides, "He was just like all the rest of the Socs. Cold-blooded and mean."

What do Johnny's last words mean?

Johnny's last words echo in Chapter 12 when Ponyboy breaks a bottle to defend himself against the Socs. Two-Bit says, "Ponyboy, listen, don't get tough. You're not like the rest of us and don't try to be..." Ponyboy is confused by what Two-Bit means, since he felt nothing when the Socs approached him. But he proves that he is still "gold" by bending down to pick up the pieces of broken glass from the ground without even thinking about it.

How does Gone with the Wind represent an ideal for Johnny?

Johnny puts his last note to Ponyboy inside his copy of Gone with the Wind . The gallantry of the Southern gentlemen in the book, who rode to their certain deaths bravely, inspires Johnny and reminds him of Dally. This allows Ponyboy to see Dally in that light, too, and to consider that his death might have been gallant. Johnny dies as a result of rescuing children from the fire in the church, so in that way he lives up to the ideal in Gone with the Wind .

What is the difference between Ponyboy the narrator and Ponyboy the character?

It is always clear that Ponyboy is narrating The Outsiders from a point in the future, after the events of the story have taken place. However, this rift between narrator and character becomes definite in Chapter 11, when Ponyboy's pretending makes him an unreliable narrator for the first time in the story. When Randy comes to visit, Ponyboy says that he was the one who killed Bob, and that Johnny is not dead. He repeats it aloud to convince himself of it. But as narrator, he says, "Johnny didn't have anything to do with Bob's getting killed." The reader has depended upon Ponyboy's narration to dictate the events of the story, and now the frame of reference is thrown off, since we know he has moved into an alternate reality.

Discuss Ponyboy's "dreaming", particularly in regard to Johnny's death.

Ponyboy's reaction to Johnny's death has been foreshadowed by Ponyboy's tendency to create alternate realities for himself throughout the story, but the difference is that "this time my dreaming worked. I convinced myself that he wasn't dead." Throughout the story, Ponyboy creates these alternate realities in order to cope with situations he feels are unbearable. For instance, in Chapter 3 he dreams of a life in the country, with his parents still alive and Darry kind and caring again. What is important to note is that he concedes that his dreams are only dreams, and that he admits to use them as a mode of escape.

Describe how eyes are used as a characterization technique.

Ponyboy's view of other characters is often reflected by his interpretation of their eyes. For example, he says that "Darry's eyes are his own. He's got eyes that are like two pieces of pale blue-green ice. They've got a determined set to them, like the rest of him... he would be real handsome if his eyes weren't so cold." Darry's eyes reflect Ponyboy's view of his oldest brother as "hardly human." In contrast, Sodapop's eyes are "dark brown - lively, dancing, recklessly laughing eyes that can be gentle and sympathetic one moment and blazing with anger the next." Johnny is defined by his emotive eyes; the difference between his mother and him is clear to Ponyboy because of their eyes: "Johnnycake's eyes were fearful and sensitive; hers were cheap and hard."

In what way is The Outsiders a call to action?

The Outsiders ends with its own opening sentence, as Ponyboy begins to write his assignment for English class, and it becomes clear that the story the reader has just finished is the assignment itself. It is inspired by Johnny's letter to Ponyboy, in which he explains what he meant by his last words: "Stay gold." There is no reason for lives to be cut short because of senseless violence between the Greasers and the Socs. Ponyboy feels called to action by Johnny's note, and wants to save the lives of other hoods who might end up like Dally. In Chapter 12, this goal is underlined:

"There should be some help, someone should tell them before it was too late. Someone should tell their side of the story, and maybe people would understand then and wouldn't be so quick to judge a boy by the amount of hair oil he wore."

The Outsiders Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Outsiders is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

why do you think johhny wasn't scared, depsite the obvious danger?

Johnny is a sensitive boy. He cares for others, especially those that are helpless like the children. This is perhaps because he has felt so helpless in his own childhood. It is also probable their cigarettes started the fire.

How did the Greasers react to the beatings Johnny received from his father? What evidence is there in paragraphs 1-5 that the Greasers were more deeply affected by Johnny’s beating at the hands of the Socs? Why do you think this was the case? Cite specifi

From the text:

I remembered Johnny--- his face all cut up and bruised, and I remembered how he had cried when we found him, half-conscious, in the comer lot. Johnny had it awful rough at home--- it took a lot to make him cry.

the outsiders

The Greasers have an extended family. The Curtis family have taken characters like Johnny and Two-Bit under their wing. The Socks may have money but they do not have brotherhood. Dally is doing his best to be a good father figure but their family...

Study Guide for The Outsiders

The Outsiders study guide contains a biography of author S. E. Hinton, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Outsiders
• The Outsiders Summary
• The Outsiders Video
• Character List

Essays for The Outsiders

The Outsiders essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Outsiders written by S. E. Hinton.

• Analysis of the American Reality, Possibility, and Dream found in "Nickel and Dimed" and "The Outsiders"
• Stay Gold, Ponyboy: Historical Models of Childhood in S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders
• The Socioeconomic Triggers of Juvenile Delinquency: Analysis of "The Outsiders"
• Greater Meanings in The Outsiders: A Theater, a Sunset, and a Novel

Lesson Plan for The Outsiders

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Outsiders
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Outsiders Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Outsiders

• Introduction
• Major characters
• Controversy
• Critical reception

The Outsiders

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Chapters 1-3

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The Outsiders

S. e. hinton, everything you need for every book you read..

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Outsiders: Introduction

The outsiders: plot summary, the outsiders: detailed summary & analysis, the outsiders: themes, the outsiders: quotes, the outsiders: characters, the outsiders: symbols, the outsiders: theme wheel, brief biography of s. e. hinton.

Historical Context of The Outsiders

Other books related to the outsiders.

• Full Title: The Outsiders
• When Written: 1964-5
• Where Written: Tulsa, Oklahoma
• When Published: 1967
• Literary Period: Modern American
• Genre: Young adult fiction
• Setting: Tulsa, Oklahoma
• Climax: The deaths of Johnny and Dally
• Point of View: First person

Extra Credit for The Outsiders

Could a girl write this? The Outsiders was published under the pen name S. E. Hinton because publishers didn't think readers would believe this story could be written by a woman. After she had established herself as a writer, Hinton continued to use the pen name in order to protect her privacy.

Rocky path to success: S. E. Hinton's extraordinary success as a young adult writer was not always a sure thing. Hinton's mother once threw her manuscripts into a trash burner, from which Hinton barely rescued them. After The Outsiders was published, the book was so popular that Hinton felt tremendous pressure to produce another one. This pressure led to a three-year writer's block that ended when she met her husband during her college years and he encouraged her to begin writing again. She did, and she produced some of her most admired works as a result.

• My Preferences
• My Reading List
• The Outsiders

S.E. Hinton

• Literature Notes
• Themes in The Outsiders
• Book Summary
• About The Outsiders
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Character Analysis
• Ponyboy Curtis
• Darry and Sodapop Curtis
• Johnny Cade
• Dallas (Dally) Winston
• Sherri (Cherry) Valance
• Bob Sheldon
• Randy Adderson
• Character Map
• S.E. Hinton Biography
• Critical Essays
• The Movie versus the Book
• Has Society Changed?
• Full Glossary for The Outsiders
• Essay Questions
• Practice Projects
• Cite this Literature Note

Critical Essays Themes in The Outsiders

As the title suggests, The Outsiders is a theme in itself. Looking at life as an outsider and feeling as though one is being treated as an outsider is a matter of perspective or point of view. Someone who always feels like an outsider may conclude that life is unfair.

Adolescence is a time when teenagers may consider themselves to be adults, but in reality teens are still under the control of others. Parents, teachers, and other authority figures are always telling them how to live their lives. This loss of control inevitably leads to the feeling that life isn't fair. For example, Ponyboy knows that he is not safe walking the streets in his own neighborhood. He could be attacked solely because of the way he is dressed; he feels like an outsider in his own town. His feelings of powerlessness and vulnerability lead him to conclude that life is not fair.

Ponyboy sees injustice on a daily basis. His parents are dead, Darry is forced to work two jobs to support the brothers, Soda has dropped out of school, and the greasers are looked upon as "white trash." He explains that the gang warfare is actually warfare between the economic classes. Because he is from the poor, East Side of town, his place in life is unfairly predetermined.

The evolution of the family relationships is a recurrent theme in the novel. Family relationships are strained during the teen years, but in the Curtis family, the right to stay together as a family is a constant struggle. Since the death of their parents, Darry has assumed the responsibility of guardianship for Pony and Soda, and under that pressure he has aged beyond his years. He no longer views the two boys as siblings, but rather as a responsibility. Darry recognizes Ponyboy's potential and has high expectations for him. Ponyboy complains that Darry is a stricter disciplinarian than his father, but by the end of the book he understands Darry's role: "Darry is a good guardian; he makes me study and knows where I am and who I'm with all the time. . . . My father didn't yell at me as much as he does."

Pony struggles with his expectations for Soda. He is self-conscious about the fact that Soda has dropped out of school, and he wants him to finish his education. Soda did not do well in school, did not like school, and is perfectly content to work in a gas station — a job he loves. Soda also believes that he is doing the right thing by helping to support his family. Pony doesn't care about any of those facts; he just wants Soda to go back to school. Gang relationships are included in the theme of family love. Ponyboy's gang members need the support and security that they find in the gang. The home life situations that these boys find themselves in are often abusive. They have turned to the gang for the love and support that should have come from parents.

Johnny is painfully aware of the difference between the gang and a family and through him Pony begins to understand how lucky he is to have caring family members: "I don't know what it was about Johnny — maybe that lost-puppy look and those big scared eyes were what made everyone his big brother. . . . I thought about it for a minute — Darry and Sodapop were my brothers and I loved both of them . . . they were my real brothers, not just sort of adopted ones." Pony's eventual ability to appreciate his family shows his growth.

The third major theme that runs through The Outsiders is the use of colors in a black and white world. Adolescents have a tendency to embrace people and events as absolutes. For example, someone or something is either right or wrong; there can be no middle ground. The characters in The Outsiders are either Socs or greasers. People are either rich or poor, good or bad. Hinton descriptively uses color throughout the book to define and add depth to the characters in their environments.

Early in the book, she associates warm colors with the Socs and cool colors with the greasers. Warmth usually is equated with inside and cool is associated with outside, and the colors reflect the characters' positions in society: The greasers view the Socs as insiders and themselves as outsiders.

Using many descriptive colors, Hinton paints the greasers as outsiders. In her original descriptions of Ponyboy's gang, she uses cool colors: Ponyboy's eyes are greenish-gray, Darry's eyes "are like two pieces of pale blue-green ice," Dally's eyes are "blue, blazing ice, cold with a hatred," and Two-Bit Mathews has gray eyes.

Dally is the exception to the rule, "His hair was almost white it was so blond." White contains all of the visible rays of the color spectrum. It is a crossover color that cannot be affiliated with anyone or anything, so it is interesting that Dally, who was "tougher than the rest of us — tougher, colder, meaner," was the one with white/blond hair.

White is also used many times throughout the novel to describe fright, "white as a ghost." The color white symbolizes the internalization that there are no absolutes in the world. To realize that people and events may not be purely right or wrong, good or bad, can be frightening. Dally's white hair exemplifies this concept. Dally appears to be the stereotypical hood: cold, hard, and mean. But he is not that extreme persona. Just like the color white contains all the colors of the spectrum, Dally's character covers a broad spectrum. In addition to his cold, mean image, he is Johnny's hero, he is the one who literally gave Pony the coat off his back, he helped to save the children from the fire, and he was a scared boy who reached out to the Curtis brothers when he most needed help at the end of his life.

Throughout the book, Pony matures and grows in his ability to see the full spectrum, to stop dividing the world into black and white, good and bad, insiders and outsiders, greasers and Socs. Pony's fascination with sunsets at the beginning of the book and, later, his appreciation of the countryside around the church hideout ("I loved to look at the colors of the fields and the soft shadings of the horizon") symbolize this development of his character. A sub-theme within this story is the power of three. Three is a cardinal number that is common in American literature and folklore, and to find it as a pivotal theme in this story is not surprising. Americans have grown up with stories such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Little Pigs . The Holy Trinity is a major doctrine of the Christian faith.

The three Curtis brothers working together have the power to save their family. Three greasers working together save the lives of children trapped by fire. And the three rings on the fist of a Soc change Johnny's life forever, and ultimately lead to three deaths: Bob's, Johnny's, and Dally's.

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About the Book

The Outsiders

By s. e. hinton.

'The Outsiders' is a great book that resonates with any teenager and youth around the world because it touches on their feelings and emotions.

Written by Juliet Ugo

Former Lecturer. Author of multiple books. Degree from University Of Nigeria, Nsukka.

With its honesty and grit, S. E. Hinton’s innovative story harmoniously related to teenagers immediately; it was first published in 1967, and fifty years later, this powerful story is still as fresh and realistic to teens as ever. ‘ The Outsiders ‘ is a moving presentation of Ponyboy, an Oklahoman teen who finds himself on the outside of society and at odds with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kids who have fun beating up Greasers like Ponyboy.

The story has an enduring appeal because it always feels like adults around them don’t understand what they are going through. So many teens see themselves through the characters in the novel , and so it is very relatable to them. They feel like adults have no idea what’s really going on and so desire people of like minds that they can share stuff with. Again, even in today’s world, the concept of gangs, groups, ‘in crowd’ and the ‘out crowd’ is still prevalent and universal. The names may have changed, but these children still see their own lives in what happens to Ponyboy and his friends. 

Teenage Entertainment and Culture

The city depicted in ‘ The Outsiders ‘ is dirty, noisy, crowded, and full of danger. The city’s art museums, concert halls, and theatres are traditionally off-limits, so the only sources of entertainment and culture available to the poor boys, or greasers, are the rodeo and the movies. Most greasers dream of freedom and serenity of the country, where people are not judged and discriminated against because of their appearance. 

As the story progresses, Ponyboy finds himself in the country with Johnny Cade, who is wanted for the murder of Bob. The two boys had a total transformation, both physical and emotional while hiding out in an old church building for five days. For people used to the fast pace of city life, the isolation and solitude of this new setting seem continuous.

The setting of the book starts with Ponyboy, who is the narrator. He is an Outsider or greaser, and they live on the East side of town. They have a strong rivalry against the Socs or Socials, who are rich boys who live on the West side of town. Ponyboy is walking home from the theatre one day when a group of Socs jumps him into the lot. But his brothers and a couple of friends come and defend him. 

As the story progresses, we learn about the death of Ponyboy’s parents recently in a car crash. Their support system is their friends; they all stick together and help each other out whenever they need it. The next day, Ponyboy and Johnny go to the drive-in to watch a movie and meet two social girls there. They left their boyfriends because they were drinking and did not want to be in that type of environment. The boys stay with the girls, Cherry and Marcia because they asked them to stay. Soon, one of their friends, Two-Bit, arrives and befriends Marcia. They look interested in each other. After the movie, the group walks to Two-Bit’s house to pick up a car and give the girls a ride, but their boyfriends show up and take the girls with them.

After that, Ponyboy goes to a lot with his friend and falls asleep. In the morning, they wake up and go home. Ponyboy’s brother, Darry, was so angry that he hit him, which made Ponyboy run away from home. He meets up with Johnny, and they can walk to the park together, where they meet a group of Socs that attack them. Ponyboy almost gets drowned by Bob, and Johnny freaks out and kills him.  Without meaning to, he stabbed him to death.

Afterwards, the two boys run away and find shelter in an abandoned church. They find money and go buy food. On their return, they discover that the church is on fire. The boys ran in and saved some children that were playing inside but were trapped by the flames. Timber falls and knocks out Johnny. Ponyboy is caught by some flames. Johnny later dies from the injury, and Dallas makes the police shoot in anguish over Johnny’s death. A sad ending to a beautiful teen story. 

Most students in middle school in the US and even all over the world have undoubtedly read ‘ The Outsiders ‘. The classic book by S. E. Hinton has been turned into a film and was interpreted as a play by the Coterie Theatre. This novel centres on Ponyboy Curtis and his gang of friends (greasers) and their constant struggle against the Socs. This confrontation leads to our protagonist finding himself and learning about the value of family. The events in the story took place in the 1960s, and the book ‘The Outsiders’ , is a story that many students have identified with despite the time difference.

This emotional story is great for people of all ages and perfect to illustrate both sides of bullying. However, the one scene that has the most feeling and honesty is Johnny’s final scene with Ponyboy and Dallas. Without giving away too much, if you don’t tear up during this scene, then you are not a human being. Plain and simple. The book brings back the memories of their teenage years, the sadness, the laughs, and the social commentary of life growing up. 

This book raises a lot of discussion about life in rural villages and other issues that affect teens’ lives. The book is adequately crafted for a young adult. The book is written in a way that grabs the reader’s attention and builds suspense as the reader gets deeper into the book. ‘ The Outsiders ‘ is a great book for everyone, not just students, to read. This book raises many themes for exploration by anyone. These include family honour, violence, society and class, a divided community, education, love, individuality, loyalty, isolation, self-sacrifice, appearance, and choices. 

This book may leave you with any questions that you can answer with events in your own life. This book helps teenagers understand themselves and the society that they live in. This book is a good way to introduce the topic of discrimination to young students. This book can help students practice their critical thinking skills by doing self-analysis and the groups to which the student does not belong. This book shows how cliques, gangs, groups, and peer pressure affect young people. This book brings up awareness of the things that youths go through in public education systems.

What does Two-bit offer for Cherry and Marcia?

At the beginning of Chapter 3 of ‘ The Outsiders ‘, Two-Bit, Matthew offers to walk Cherry and Marcia home when they finish at the movies. But because they live on the west side of town, which is twenty miles away, he also offers to drive them home in his car.

Why do the two Soc girls leave their boyfriends when they are at the movies?

In the book, the two socs girls, Cherry and Marcia, left their dates because they brought alcohol. They knew that once the socs boys get drunk, they turn violent, so the girls left them and went away as they do not approve of their boyfriends’ methods. 

Who does Cherry confess she could fall in love with?

Cherry Valance, a soc girl, confessed that she could fall in love with Dallas Winston, a greaser guy. Cherry is attracted to him despite the fact that Cherry is from an affluent family and Dally is from the poor side of the city. This is because her boyfriend and Dallas share similar qualities like being reckless, a thrill-seeker, and enjoying partying and fighting.

Why did Sodapop run out of the house?

Sodapop runs out of the house to avoid witnessing another one of Darry and Pony’s arguments. He is already upset about Sandy, a girl he loves who got pregnant with another man and went away to marry him. He has already quit his hobby of riding rodeos, and now the fighting between his brothers pushes him over the edge.

Why does Darry hate Paul?

Darry hates Paul Holden, his former friend from high school because Paul was given a chance to play football and attend college, while he didn’t get it. This makes him jealous of Paul, as Ponyboy mentioned in the boy. Darry was also ashamed to be representing the Greasers as he is now a working man who struggles each day to make ends meet. 

The Outsiders Review: Hinton's Greatest Storyline

• Writing Style
• Lasting effect on reader

The Outsiders Review: Hinton's Greatest Storyline

The Outsiders is S.E. Hinton’s first and best-known novel. It follows the story of P onyboy who lives in a rural city where gang and class conflicts are rife. He learns through the events in the story that all the youths are despite their gang affiliations. He also learns all the teenagers have the same problems in life as well as seeing the same sunset. 

• Incredibly great storyline 
• Awesome dialogue
• Memorable characters
• A bit violent 
• Tragic ending

About Juliet Ugo

Juliet Ugo is an experienced content writer and a literature expert with a passion for the written word with over a decade of experience. She is particularly interested in analyzing books, and her insightful interpretations of various genres have made her a well-known authority in the field.

Cite This Page

Ugo, Juliet " The Outsiders Review ⭐ " Book Analysis , https://bookanalysis.com/s-e-hinton/the-outsiders/review/ . Accessed 23 March 2024.

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'The Outsiders' Quiz

• M.A., Classics, Catholic University of Milan
• M.A., Journalism, New York University.
• B.A., Classics, Catholic University of Milan
• Johnny is citing “Nothing gold can stay” by Robert Frost
• It refers to never letting go of feelings of summer
• Johnny is encouraging Ponyboy to rock his bleached hair
• It’s about a lucky hand at some gambling game

Johnny and Ponyboy read the poem “Nothing gold can stay” while they were hiding together in the church, and its meaning stuck with both of them.

• Ponyboy manages to put his brother in his place
• Darry kicks Ponyboy out for unruly behavior
• Darry has to surrender Ponyboy to a group home
• They eventually come to a mutual understanding of where they come from

They eventually make up, as Ponyboy understands that Darry has a huge sense of responsibility, while Darry sees how he’s been too hard on his kid brother.

• They set the final rumble in motion
• Their illicit union is the town’s scandal and a cautionary tale for other youths
• Even though they belong to the Socs, they show humanity and compassion beyond their social group
• They make a good case for keeping the social divide and the rumbles going

They show humanity and depth: Cherry explains to Ponyboy that even Socs have it hard, while Randy refuses to participate in the final rumble because he sees the pointlessness of it.

• It represents the drudgery of schoolwork, which the characters neglect
• It helps Ponyboy make sense of the world
• It is a way for Ponyboy to impose his superiority in knowledge among his physically imposing peers
• It represents elitism, which excludes the greasers

Ponyboy makes sense of the world thanks to literature: he sees himself as Pip, and finds solace in the poem “Nothing gold can stay.”

• The mention of Paul Newman
• It indicates Ponyboy’s penchant for escapism by mentioning his fondness for movie theatres
• It is also the last sentence of the book
• It hints at the book’s homoerotic undertones

“WHEN I STEPPED OUT into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home” is the way Ponyboy begins his make-up assignment to avoid failing his English class. He decides to recount the events that led to the final rumble and Johnny’s death.

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Book report: the outsiders.

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This is a sample book report from Ultius on the novel The Outsiders , which tells the story of two youth gangs with a serious rivalry. It is also a novel that represents the coming of age of a young boy who struggles against being labelled low class or undesirable because of his upbringing. The novel continues to illustrate how such bias can be overcome and that balance can be found, but only after an understanding of one's self is achieved. This would likely be found on a book review blog or as an essay writing assignment .

Context of the novel

S.E. Hinton’s novel, The Outsiders , tells the story of two rival youth gangs. The events of the novel are told through the eyes of Ponyboy Curtis, a 14-year-old member of the Greasers, the gang of boys, considered to be criminals and belonging to a lower socio-economic class than their rivals, the Socs, or Socials. The setting of the story in a city in Oklahoma, but could happen anywhere. The setting and the boundaries of the territory “owned” by the two gangs, the Greasers and the Socials, is based primarily on the social and economic differences in areas of town. As the novel progresses, we begin to see these boundaries blur as the differences between the Greasers and the Socials is not so clear as they start to overlap in their interests. 

Interested in books turned into movies? Check out our comparative essay on The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway .

Dramatic escalation

A series of violent encounters between the two gangs brings about devastating effects for these young boys, particularly the Greasers who lose two of their members due to violent and/or criminal activity to which they are driven by the view of their social status . The novel begins with Ponyboy being attacked by members of the Socials and rescued by his fellow Greasers:

• Soda Pop Curtis - the middle Curtis brother
• Darrel Curtis - the oldest Curtis brother who has assumed custody over Ponyboy and Soda Pop since the death of their parents
• Johnny Cade - son of an alcoholic and abusive mother and father
• Two-bit Matthews - kleptomaniac and comedian
• Dallas Winston - the tough guy and true criminal

The next night, Ponyboy, Johnny, Dallas and Two-bit attend a movie and hit it off with a couple of Soc girls who end up abandoning the boys for their Soc boyfriends. After a fight at home with his brother Darrel, Ponyboy goes to the park with his friend Johnny. The Soc gang attacks the two boys and Ponyboy wakes up after nearly being drowned to learn that Johnny had killed a member of the Socs to save him from the attack.

Fugitives from the law

Murder in Oklahoma is a crime punishable by the death penalty , so naturally the boys are frantic. On the advice of Dallas, the two become fugitives from the law and take refuge in an old church in the country. A cigarette ash sets the church on fire, which catches while the two are in town buying supplies. The two boys return to find the church afire try to save a group of children who had wandered into the abandoned building prior to the blaze. The roof collapses on them in their attempt to free the children and Johnny is trapped, breaking his back and badly burned. 

Back at home, tensions between the gangs escalate over the death of Bob--the Soc member killed by Johnny in the park. It becomes clear that some key members of the respective gangs are tired of the violence which has left their friends either dead or badly injured. The two gangs meet in a huge fight, with the Greasers defeating the Socs. When Ponyboy makes it back to the hospital with his brothers to see Johnny, they realize he is dying. Dallas loses control at Johnny's death and returns to his criminal ways, which ends in a shoot out with the police who fatally shoot him when he raises a gun to them. After a period of depression and grief, Ponyboy resolves his issues with his brother Darrel and we learn he has returned to school, telling this story as a part of an assignment. 

Not so different 

While the novel is about the rival of two gangs, it also shows that they are not as different from one another as once they thought. Ponyboy’s narration highlights the bias of perspective in the telling of the plot of this story, and mirrors his development as a coming of age tale throughout the novel. 

Hope for the future

Literature and storytelling affect both the point of view and the characterization of the narrative told by  the main character, Ponyboy. The fact that he is able to tell his story from his own point of view is the real reconciliation of the novel, as clearly he has returned to functioning and attending school. The novel concerns itself with the development of Ponyboy's character who is at times unreliable and, although his narration is biased towards the Greasers, it is suggested by the end that Ponyboy realizes that his hatred of the Soc’s was weak in grounding. By novel's end, he has found a more permanent identity in his story-telling abilities. 

The maturation of Ponyboy

The tone of the novel told through Ponyboy’s voice becomes almost ironic by the end since we know he is telling this story retrospectively and that he realizes things now that his character in the story had not yet learned. This creates an interesting effect since we are clearly aligned with Ponyboy and the Greasers throughout the story, even if at times we see through his bias. However, by the end of The Outsiders , the clear lesson is that storytelling is a process and that Ponyboy is actively overcoming the challenges of identity that being in the gang had created for him. Through the events of the novel and his own form of personal reflection , he becomes his own person. 

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Works Cited

Hinton, S.E. The Outsiders. New York: Penguin, 1967. Print.

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Garrett M. Graff

The 4 Big Questions the Pentagon’s New UFO Report Fails to Answer

After a year of eyebrow-raising headlines about government whistleblowers alleging that the military was running secret programs focused on alien spaceships and a months-long study and dogged investigative work through the shadows of classified Pentagon programs, the United States Defense Department announced Friday that it found no evidence that the government is covering up contact with extraterrestrials.

The first sentence of the 63-page report on the government’s involvement with unidentified anomalous phenomenon—a report mandated and driven by Congress—seemingly left no wiggle room: The study “found no evidence that any USG [US government] investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review panel has confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology. All investigative efforts, at all levels of classification, concluded that most sightings were ordinary objects and phenomena and the result of misidentification.”

The report was issued by the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), the unit created and tasked in recent years with studying UAP sightings and untangling the truth of the government’s knowledge and understanding of generations of UFO reports. It follows media interviews and a blockbuster congressional hearing last summer where whistleblower David Grusch testified that the government was engaged in a decades-long cover-up of crashed alien spacecraft and in possession even of “ non-human biologics ,” e.g., alien bodies. Grusch and other witnesses and whistleblowers came forward to congressional committees and Pentagon investigators and hinted at astounding possibilities, including that the government was running secret UFO crash-retrieval programs, and defense contractors were running covert programs, hidden even from budget appropriators, to reverse-engineer captured alien technology.

There were many reasons to doubt the full expanse of the testimony by Grusch and others. Much of it was second-hand, and after spending two years writing a book on the government, UFOs, and the search for extraterrestrial life, I said last summer that many of the claims seemed more like an “intergalactic game of telephone,” where people with limited visibility into secret Pentagon and intelligence programs were misidentifying or misinterpreting more mundane program. But that’s not to say that the new AARO report is the end of the story nor that its conclusion should be the end of public interest in UFOs, UAPs, and the secret frontiers of government science.

In fact, while the report’s conclusion surprised almost no one except the most ardent of believers—people who might not be all that inclined to believe the Pentagon’s disavowal anyway—the report in its own way raises as many new questions as it answers, questions that could, with time, prove revolutionary to technology and science.

AARO investigators, for instance, dug through the claims of witnesses and whistleblowers and successfully traced back the underlying research projects, Special Access Programs (SAPs), and classified compartments. As the report says, “AARO investigated numerous named, and described, but unnamed programs alleged to involve UAP exploitation conveyed to AARO through official interviews,” and ultimately, “conclude[d] many of these programs represent authentic, current and former sensitive, national security programs, but none of these programs have been involved with capturing, recovering, or reverse-engineering off-world technology or material.”

Andy Greenberg

Steven Levy

Matt Reynolds

Jeremy White

But what, then, were those programs? Herein lies the most intriguing—and potentially ground-breaking—question that the Pentagon study leaves us wondering: What exactly are the secret compartmentalized programs that the whistleblowers and government witnesses misidentified as being related to UAP technology? What, exactly, are the Pentagon, intelligence community, or defense contractors working on that, from a concentric circle or two away inside the shadowy world of SAPs, looks and sounds like reverse-engineering out-of-this-world technology or even studying so-called “non-human biologics”?

There are at least four clear possibilities.

First, what exotic technological possibilities have been recovered from unknown terrestrial sources? For example, if the government is working on reverse-engineering technologies, those technologies are likely from advanced adversary nation-states like China, Russia, and Iran, and perhaps even quasi-allies like Israel that may be more limited in their technology-sharing with the US. What have other countries mastered that we haven’t?

Second, what technologies has the US mastered that the public doesn’t know about? One of the common threads of UFO sightings across decades have been secret military aircraft and spacecraft in development or not yet publicly acknowledged. For example, the CIA estimated that the U-2 spy plane in the 1950s accounted for as much as half of reported UFO sightings. And the AARO report spends a half-dozen pages documenting how confusion over subsequent generations of secret US government aircraft appear to have also contributed to the great intergalactic game of telephone of UFO programs inside the government, including modern Predator, Reaper, and Global Hawk drones. AARO investigated one claim where a witness reported hearing a former US military service member had touched an extraterrestrial spacecraft, but when they tracked down the service member, he said that the conversation was likely a garbled version of the time he touched an F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter at a secret facility.

There are surely other secret craft still in testing and development now, including the B-21 stealth bomber, which had its first test flight in November and is now in testing at Edwards Air Force Base in California, as well as others we don’t know about. The government can still surprise us with unknown craft—like the until-then-unknown modified stealthy helicopter left behind on the Pakistan raid to kill Osama bin Laden. And some of these still-classified efforts are likely causing UFO confusion too: AARO untangled one witness’s claim of spotting a UAP with “peculiar characteristics” at a specific time and place and were able to determine, “at the time the interviewee said he observed the event, the DOD was conducting tests of a platform protected by a SAP. The seemingly strange characteristics reported by the interviewee match closely with the platform’s characteristics, which was being tested at a military facility in the time frame the interviewee was there.” So what was that craft—and what were its “peculiar characteristics?”

Relatedly, the US military has a classified spaceship, the X-37B, that has regularly orbited around the Earth since its first mission in 2010—it just blasted off on its seventh and most recent mission in December—and its previous, sixth, mission lasted a record-breaking 908 days in orbit . The Pentagon has said remarkably little about what it does up there for years at a time. What secret space-related or aviation-related programs is the government running that outsiders confuse as alien spacecraft?

The third likely area of tech development that might appear to outsiders to be UFO-related is more speculative basic research and development: What propulsion systems or material-science breakthroughs are defense contractors at work on right now that could transform our collective future? Again, AARO found such confusion taking place: After one witness reported hearing that “aliens” had observed one secret government test, AARO traced the allegation back to find “the conversation likely referenced a test and evaluation unit that had a nickname with ‘alien’ connotations at the specific installation mentioned. The nature of the test described by the interviewee closely matched the description of a specific materials test conveyed to AARO investigators.” So what materials were being tested there?

There are some puzzling materials-science breadcrumbs wrapped throughout the AARO report. It found one instance where “a private sector organization claimed to have in its possession material from an extraterrestrial craft recovered from a crash at an unknown location from the 1940s or 1950s. The organization claimed that the material had the potential to act as a THz frequency waveguide, and therefore, could exhibit ‘anti-gravity’ and ‘mass reduction’ properties under the appropriate conditions.” Ultimately, though, the new report concluded, “AARO and a leading science laboratory concluded that the material is a metallic alloy, terrestrial in nature, and possibly of USAF [US Air Force] origin, based on its materials characterization.”

Fourth and lastly is the category of the truly weird: Scientists at the forefront of physics point out that we should be humble about how little of the universe we truly understand; as Harvard astronomy chair Avi Loeb explains, effectively all that we’ve learned about relativity and quantum physics has unfolded in the span of a single human lifespan, and astounding new discoveries continue to amaze scientists. Just last summer, scientists announced they’d detected for the first time gravitational waves criss-crossing the universe that rippled through space-time, and astrophysicists continue to suspect that the universe is far weirder than we think. (Italian astrophysicist Carlo Rovelli last year posited the existence of “ white holes ” that would be related to black holes, which, he pointed out, were still a mystery just 25 years ago when he was starting his career.)

Answers here could be almost unfathomably weird—think parallel dimensions or the ability to travel at a fraction of the speed of light. And one of the most intriguing questions left by the UAP “game of telephone” is whether there are truly astounding advances in physics that government scientists, defense contractors, or research laboratories or centers could be feeling around that could also appear from the outside to be UFO-related.

Indeed, the AARO report references that at least some chunk of the “alien confusion” inside government may have grown out of a now well-known but then-secret effort in the late 2000s and early 2010s by Nevada entrepreneur Robert Bigelow’s aerospace company to study UAPs and paranormal activity by the Defense Intelligence Agency, through $22 million in funding secured by then-Senate majority leader Harry Reid. That effort, known as the Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Application Program (AAWSAP), included digging—without official authorization—into paranormal activity at a ranch out west, among other activities. Not much came out of that effort—and the AARO report dismissively notes that AAWSAP’s “scientific papers were never thoroughly peer-reviewed.” But people in and around the world of “ufology” have long noted that one of those papers intriguingly studied “Warp Drive, Dark Energy, and the Manipulation of Extra Dimensions.” Did the Pentagon know more about the outer boundaries of physics than it let on?

While other physicists who have reviewed that speculative 34-page AAWSAP report have said it had little real-world utility, it hints at how our modern understanding of the world around us may still be transformed by the unknown and future discoveries.

After reading thousands of pages of government studies, extraterrestrial research, and scientific papers related to the possibility of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, I’ve come to believe that in some ways aliens might be the least interesting answer to the questions around UAPs and UFOs. Similarly, the AARO report may one day be seen as closing the door on alien spacecraft while opening the door to something even more fantastical.

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The Very Rich G.O.P. Senate Candidates Bidding for Working-Class Votes

With Democrats at a fund-raising advantage, the G.O.P. has backed candidates who can self-fund. But their wealth is likely to factor in the fight for Senate control.

By Jonathan Weisman

Since his rise to the presidency, Donald J. Trump has claimed enormous wealth as proof that he is an anti-establishment ally of the working class, not beholden to corporate donors or special interests.

The Republican Party, eyeing control of the Senate next year, is trying to mimic his success with a cohort of candidates who in the past might have been attacked as a bunch of rich men but this year will be sold as successful outsiders in the Trump mold.

The decision by Ohio voters on Tuesday to nominate Bernie Moreno to take on Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, is the capstone of a year that has crowned nominees — or anointed clear front-runners — with remarkable wealth in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Montana and now Ohio.

That might match the party’s presumptive nominee, Mr. Trump, but with backgrounds in banking and hedge funds, properties in Connecticut and Laguna Beach, Calif., and education credentials from Princeton and the Naval Academy, some in the 2024 class feel more like the days of Mitt Romney, worth around $174 million , and John McCain, a Naval Academy graduate who married into a beer-distributing empire, than the current moment when blue-collar credibility is the currency of the realm.

The intentional decision by Republicans in Washington, D.C., to get behind candidates with enormous personal fortunes will most likely give the party a boost as it struggles for campaign cash against the Democrats’ formidable grass-roots fund-raising operations. But the sheer affluence of the candidates — and how they made their money — is sure to be a factor in the fight for Senate control.

“That’s who they are,” Mr. Brown, who is worth about $263,000, said in an interview on Wednesday, commenting on the lineup of millionaire Republicans arrayed against Democratic incumbents. “I guess I’m not surprised by that.”

Republicans say their candidates will make the case that they are successful political outsiders, running against career politicians who used their years in Washington to raise their net worth and enrich their families.

“We’ve recruited a roster of candidates with impressive backgrounds in business and, in many cases, military service,” said Mike Berg, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “Democrats have a roster of career politicians with questionable ethics. We’ll take that contrast any day of the week.”

But if a clash over net worth comes down to numbers in bank accounts, the Republicans will have the bigger figures to answer for.

To call Mr. Moreno a former auto dealer, for instance, is to miss the scale of his business and investment fortune. In 2023, Mr. Moreno, a Colombian-born businessman, filed financial disclosure forms that revealed assets valued from $25.5 million to $105.7 million and an annual income nearing $6 million. Those assets include a $2.3 million Aston Martin Vulcan , one of only 24 ever made, a house listed in Ocean Reef, Fla., worth as much as $25 million, land in Zapotal, Costa Rica, condominiums in New York, Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio, and a home in Avon, Ohio, valued at up to $5 million.

But like Mr. Trump, whose endorsement helped deliver his victory, Mr. Moreno is confident he can speak to the blue-collar voters who have been the backbone of Mr. Brown’s support since the Democrat was elected in 2006.

“We are not the party of the elites in big business,” Mr. Moreno told reporters on Tuesday. “We’re the party of the working class.”

An unusually wealthy crop of candidates

Affluence has been a hallmark of the Senate perhaps since its inception, in both parties. The richest senator, Rick Scott, Republican of Florida, is running for re-election this fall, and has shown a ready willingness to tap his fortune to ensure electoral success. The second-richest is a Democrat, Mark Warner of Virginia.

But the Republican Party, wary of the Democrats’ fund-raising prowess in recent cycles, has recruited candidates from a significantly higher economic echelon than the working-class voters it is trying to woo in swing states. With Democrats holding 51 seats, Republican control is a hairbreadth away.

The retirement of Senator Joe Manchin III, a conservative Democrat in West Virginia, virtually assures the loss of one seat to that state’s governor, Jim Justice, whose days as a billionaire coal baron may have passed, according to Forbes, but who is still worth hundreds of millions.

In Pennsylvania, David McCormick, the former chief executive of Bridgewater Associates, one of the largest hedge funds in the world, is challenging Senator Bob Casey. Mr. McCormick and his wife, Dina Powell McCormick, a Trump administration official and former partner at Goldman Sachs, reported assets in 2022 worth $116 million to $290 million.

In another key swing state, Wisconsin, Republicans are banking on Eric Hovde, the chairman and chief executive of Sunwest Bank , a $2.8 billion commercial lender, to challenge Senator Tammy Baldwin.

Sunwest, based in Sandy, Utah, has operations in the West and in Florida. He considers his home to be Madison, Wis., but has been listed as a mover and shaker in Orange County, Calif. , business circles. Democrats have repeatedly hit him over his $7 million home in Laguna Beach, Calif.

In Montana, Senator Jon Tester, a Democrat, faces a re-election battle in a state that gave Mr. Trump 57 percent of its vote in 2020 , and his opponent, Tim Sheehy, is leaning on his background as a decorated former Navy SEAL and a firefighting pilot. But there is another piece of his résumé: Bridger Aerospace, an aerial firefighting company he founded, went public in 2022, valued at $869 million .

So far, the candidates are leaning into their success. Mr. Hovde released an advertisement on Friday saying he has “worked hard, been fortunate” and does not need special-interest money. He vowed to donate his Senate salary to a Wisconsin charity.

On Wednesday, in a new advertisement airing statewide in Montana, Mr. Sheehy interspersed images of his combat duties with a promise to tap his own wealth: “I don’t need the money from lobbyists,” he said. “I can do the right thing in office because it’s the right thing for America.”

Democrats see openings for attack

For Democrats, their opponents’ backgrounds offer them a choice: tie them to Mr. Trump and his brand of what they call extremism, or fall back on a tried-and-true strategy to portray them as out-of-touch elitists, with histories of harming employees and customers alike.

“The roster of Republican Senate recruits come with enough baggage to fill a bank vault,” said David Bergstein, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “Their finances demonstrate a wealth of vulnerabilities against them, from conflicts of interest to outsourcing to questionable financial practices.”

In Ohio, Mr. Moreno’s Republican opponents, especially the Republican establishment’s choice, State Senator Matt Dolan, repeatedly went after him for a lawsuit filed by an employee of one of his car dealerships, who sued him in 2017 for failure to pay overtime. The judge in the case determined that Mr. Moreno “either did not retain or shredded” monthly reports on overtime hours. The Moreno campaign has countered repeatedly that the suit stemmed from a change in Massachusetts overtime law, not the actions of Mr. Moreno’s management. But Mr. Moreno did lose the suit and was ordered to pay $416,160 to his employees.

Democrats have hinted that they have many more potentially damaging stories to tell about Mr. Moreno, one reason their leadership-aligned super PAC, the Senate Majority PAC, spent big in the last days of the Ohio primary to boost the businessman’s chances against Mr. Dolan.

Republicans will counter with Mr. Brown’s failure for years to disclose his wife’s pension assets, worth $250,001 to $500,000. Last year, he amended several years’ worth of disclosure forms to account for the pension.

Mr. McCormick, Mr. Hovde and Mr. Sheehy will all face questions about their commitments to the states they seek to represent in the Senate. Mr. McCormick’s home in Connecticut was the main point of attack in 2022 when he lost the Republican primary to Mehmet Oz for a vacant Senate seat in Pennsylvania.

Mr. Hovde was raised in Wisconsin, attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and counts Madison as his home. But his ties to California will be central to the Democratic case against him.

Mr. Sheehy appears to be a dream candidate for Montana, but in facing Mr. Tester, a flat-topped farmer from Big Sandy, Mont., his recent arrival in the state could prove to be an issue. He grew up in Shoreview, Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis, in a multimillion-dollar lake house, went to private preparatory school, and then to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., before being discharged from the military with a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. He moved to Bozeman, Mont., in 2014 and founded Bridger Aerospace and Ascent Vision Technologies, the latter of which he sold for $350 million in 2020.

Republicans involved in the general-election campaigns say they have plenty of issues to counter those charges with, at least to muddy the waters: a $1.3 million condominium in Washington, D.C., that Ms. Baldwin bought with her partner, Maria Brisbane, in 2021; the rising net worth of Mr. Tester; and family lobbying ties connected to Mr. Casey.

As for their standard-bearer, Mr. Trump, his scramble to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming days to meet the judgment against him for business fraud is raising questions not over how he made his money, but whether he can keep it.

His campaign, facing myriad financial pressures amid mounting legal bills stemming from the criminal cases against him, is scrambling to raise cash .

Jonathan Weisman is a politics writer, covering campaigns with an emphasis on economic and labor policy. He is based in Chicago. More about Jonathan Weisman