Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Suzie

"The four boys my brothers and I grew up with, we consider family" thought Ponyboy, the main character in The Outsiders. The greasers grew up together in a small town called Windrixville. They are like one big family. The Greasers have been through a lot, from experiencing child abuse to parents' death, to committing murder. Every greaser except Johnny and Ponyboy is a juvenile delinquent. The greasers are the poor, harmful, fearless teenagers. The greasers all look alike; its just their image, long greased hair, tough looks, and baggy clothes. They are all in the sixteen-twenty one age range except for Johnny and Ponyboy who are fourteen. The Socs are another gang; they're the rich, stuck up, and tough. A gang war between Socs and greasers has been going on since forever.
The book The Outsiders is realistic fiction. The plot in this book is realistic, although not many people are aware that these things happen in the world. However, a lot of people can relate to what is happening in the plot. The book is very dramatic, but also funny. When I started reading this book I thought it was going to be sort of more a boys book, very violent and sad. The Outsiders title made it a little scarier to. The books narration is in first person which I really loved about The Outsiders, because not many books are narrated in first person, which is my favorite type of narration.
Johnny is really scared of one group of Socs since one sad incident, when Johnny was walking home one day a blue mustang drove up and four guys came out. The only thing he remembered were the three rings on a Socs hand. They beat him up pretty badly and if it wasnt for Steve and Two-Bit he would die there. The two greasers found him lying in a blood puddle on a soccer field. Since then Johnny was really nervous around the Socs. About a month after that, Dally, Two-Bit, Johnny, and Ponyboy went to the movies and they met two girls Marcia and Cherry, Dally started hitting on them, but it wasnt working, he only scared them. Johnny didnt like how Dally was treating the girls, so for the first time he stood up to Dally and told him to lay off. Dallas left the group and after the movie the greasers walked the girls home. During the walk a blue Mustang drove up and Johnny noticed the rings. The girls had to leave with their boyfriends although they didnt want to. That day Johnny and Ponyboy got held back somewhere and came home past their curfew. Dally was really mad at Ponyboy and did something to him. Ponyboy ran away with Johnny and since then their luck starts getting worse and worse, they get tangled into a murder and have to run away.
This is a book everyone must read. I would definitely recommend it to middle school students, it is a book everyone can connect to in some way, and it is also very exciting and surprising; kind of unpredictable. The author, S.E. Hinton, definitely wrote it in a way that makes you want to read on and find out what happens next. The main themes in The Outsiders are violence, stereo-typing, and child abuse. The story was easy to understand because everything was very clearly described and the events were all organized, the plot wasnt all over the place. I also liked the authors style of writing because she keeps everything in the story believable because of all the life-like happenings and incidents. The book is also very straight forward.
After finishing the book The Outsiders I can say that this is the only book with such a plot that I liked, it was believable and I could imagine everything in the story. I could also connect to it in many ways. This book has somewhat humor in the dialogs. The book doesnt contain any miracles, the author tries to keep it as possible as it can get. All the violence in the book was also very realistic.