Biologia

The Outsiders
full title  ·  The Outsiders
author  · S. E. Hinton
type of work  · Novel
genre  · Coming-of-age; class struggle
language  · English
time and place written  ·  1960s, Tulsa, Oklahoma
date of first publication  ·  1967
publisher  · The Viking Press
narrator  · Ponyboy Curtis
point of view  · Ponyboy gives a first-person, subjective account of events, explaining how weshould interpret events and people in the story.
tone  · Youthful; melodramatic; slangy; simplistic
tense  · Past
setting (time)  · Mid-1960s
setting (place)  · Tulsa, Oklahoma
protagonist · Ponyboy
major conflict  · Against the background of the clash between the poor greasers and the rich Socs, the greaser Ponyboy struggles to mature.
rising action  · Johnny kills a Soc; Johnny and Ponyboyflee; tension mounts between the greasers and Socs.
climax  · Johnny’s death, in Chapter 9.
falling action  · The greasers win the rumble; Dally dies; Ponyboy recovers from his emotional and physical trauma.
themes  · Bridging the gap between rich and poor; honor among the lawless; the treacherousness of male-female interactions
motifs  · Literature; eye shape and color; Ponyboy’s losses ofconsciousness
symbols  · Two-Bit’s switchblade; cars; Bob’s rings; greaser hair
foreshadowing  · The Socs jump Ponyboy while he walks home alone, previewing their later attack on him and Johnny; Johnny threatens to kill anybody who jumps him again, foreshadowing his murder of Bob.

Plot Overview
P onyboy Curtis belongs to a lower-class group of Oklahoma youths who call themselves greasers becauseof their greasy long hair. Walking home from a movie, Ponyboy is attacked by a group of Socs, the greasers’ rivals, who are upper-class youths from the West Side of town. The Socs, short for Socials, gang up on Ponyboy and threaten to slit his throat. A group of greasers comes and chases the bullies away, saving Ponyboy. Ponyboy’s rescuers include his brother Sodapop, a charming, handsomehigh-school dropout, and Darry, Ponyboy’s oldest brother (Darry assumed responsibility for his brothers when their parents were killed in a car crash). The rest of the greasers who come to Ponyboy’s rescue are Johnny, a sensitive sixteen-year-old; Dally, a hardened street hood with a long criminal record; Steve, Sodapop’s best friend; and Two-Bit, the oldest and funniest group member.
[pic][pic][pic]The next night, Ponyboy and Johnny go to a movie with Dally. They sit behind a pair of attractive Soc girls. Dally flirts with the girls obnoxiously. After Johnny tells Dally to stop harassing the Soc girls, Dally walks away. Johnny and Ponyboy sit with the girls, who are named Cherry and Marcia, and Ponyboy and Cherry discover that they have a lot in common. Two-Bit arrives, and the three greasersbegin to walk the Soc girls to Two-Bit’s house so he can drive them home. On the way to Two-Bit’s house, they run into Bob and Randy, the girls’ drunken boyfriends. The girls must leave with their boyfriends in order to prevent a fight between the Socs and the greasers.
Ponyboy is late getting home, and his brother Darry is furious with him. Sick of Darry’s constant scrutiny and criticism,Ponyboy yells at Darry. The brothers begin to fight, and Darry slaps Ponyboy across the face. Ponyboy flees, determined to run away. He finds Johnny, and the two boys heads for the park. There they encounter Bob and Randy with a group of Soc boys. The Socs attack Johnny and Ponyboy, and one of them holds Ponyboy’s head under the frigid water of a fountain until Ponyboy blacks out. Ponyboy regainsconsciousness to find himself lying on the ground. He is next to Johnny—and next to Bob’s corpse. Johnny tells Ponyboy that he (Johnny) killed Bob because the Socs were going to drown Ponyboy and beat up Johnny.
Desperate and terrified, Ponyboy and Johnny hurry to find Dally Winston, the one person they think might be able to help them. Dally gives them a gun and some money and sends them to an...