Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Frida

"When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I only had two things in my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home," is the way Ponyboy starts his story about friendship and death, in S. E. Hintons world famous book, The Outsiders.
Even though this is a very interesting way to start the book, I didn't think I would like it at first. Well, I never knew how wrong I would be. The Outsiders turned out to be both an interesting and exciting realistic fiction novel. It is set in the 1950's in a town called Windrixville by the East Coast. The story is about the fight between two gangs, the only real difference between them is money. The greasers, the poor kids on the East Side with the greasy hair and the leather jackets, and the Socs short for socials. The Socs live on the West side of town and drive fancy cars and jump greasers, just for fun. The book is about how hard and miserable life can be, but also how to make it better, how to find the good things in the bad things. Together the characters help each other to get through life.
The narrator and main character of the book is a 14 year old guy called Ponyboy. He lives with his two older brothers, Darry and Sodapop, since their parents died in a car accident a few years earlier. Darry, the oldest of the three brothers, is the one who decides everything in the house. He is very serious, and acts much older than his 21 years. He usually bosses Ponyboy around, acting like a father. He very often screams and argues with him, partly because he believes that Ponyboy has the intelligence to move on and actually succeed in life. Ponyboy doesnt seem to understand how much Darry has sacrificed to give Pony a chance to go to school. When he was younger, Darry received a football scholarship for college, but instead of accepting it, he started working to help support the family.

Soda on the other hand never gets angry with Ponyboy. Sodapop is handsome, described as a guy with movie-star looks and full of understanding and trust, he can make anyone laugh. When Darry is too harsh on Ponyboy, Soda acts like a mediator and draws the attention from him. Soda can do anything without getting in trouble with Darry, because everyone loves him. Sodapop is the middle man in the family, he is 16 going 17 and he has dropped out of high school to work at a gas station. He could never sit still for so long to enjoy school anyway. All the three brothers are members of the greaser gang.

This family has gone through a lot of things; the death of their parents, death of friends, fights, murder, and they have to behave to make sure that Soda and Ponyboy wont be sent off to a boys home. The boys have to work hard long hours to get food on the table, and even though they have these conflicts, they manage to get a long pretty well.

However, one day Darry gets very mad and worried when Ponyboy looses track of time and comes home a few hours late, so angry that he hits him. Ponyboy is very upset about this, because nobody in his family has ever hit him before, so he decides to run away. Darry apologizes and tries to stop him, but Ponyboy has already made up his mind. While they are on the run, Ponyboy and his friend Johnny Cade get involved in a murder and they must leave town.

Johnny Cade is Ponyboys best friend. He is a 16 year-old boy, although he looks 14, and he is Two-Bit's little "pet". Johnny has a bad family that abuses him, so he stays with his gang. They are the only people whom he can trust. Johnny is very sensitive and "digs sunsets," which is unique for being a greaser. He shows a lot of courage in the book, including saving children from a fire. Johnny is in fact the reason why this book was written, which you will understand better once youve read the book.
To me, this is a book that you have to keep on reading, and not stop all the time. The author made the characters so realistic that you wanted to know what would happen next, and I got very annoyed when I had to stop all the time in class. Each character has many unique characteristics, which makes you feel sympathy and understanding for them. With all the details in the book, the author has made me hate or love all of them. She made a precise description of all the characters, and she even got me thinking like a greaser, and many times I found myself laughing out loud at things they did or said in the book. S.E. Hinton brings you into her world with Gang fights and murder, so after I finished the book I felt like I had been there, and I had known all the characters my whole life.

I really recommend this book to people from age 11 and up. The reading was quite easy, but it might be hard to understand the plot if you are too young. Some of the vocabulary is slang and old words, which may be a little hard to understand too, but I think that was an extra detail that made the book even more real. So, even though this may not have been a book I would have picked out myself, I really enjoyed reading it and I recommend that others read it too.