Chris M recommends The Outsiders

 The Outsiders

Christopher McLaughlin                                                                                                                   10/22/13

Mrs.Ortiz                                                                                                                                            Peroid 4

The book I read was the Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. I got this book from my dad because I tried four other books and hated all of them, so he gave me this one thinking I would enjoy it.

I started reading the book, and on the inside cover read “Need a haircut greaser?” I said “ok?” Then read  “The medium-sized blonde pulled a knife out of his pocket and flipped the blade open.” I was thinking; ‘’That is great!’’ what next? “I fought to get loose, and almost did for a second; then they tightened up on me and slugged me a couple times.’’ I thought, that was very different than the the other books I read and it made me want to keep reading to find out what happens next.

 I found it interesting that the main characters name was Ponyboy.  Ponyboy is a Greaser which is used to stereotype all boys from the East Side. Greasers are the poorer group, especially more than the Socs, who are the middle class. The socs jump (fight) the Greasers a lot.

This book is mostly about the Greasers and the Socs differences and getting into rumbles. This book took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The theme of this story is; to think before you act. I say this because one night after Ponyboy and his friend Johnny  were hanging out with two girl socs. This made the male socs  mad and when Ponyboy and Johnny  dropped the girls home they decided to go to the playground and just hang out there and relax., Later they noticed the socs gang was walking right towards them and they knew they couldn't run and they couldn't fight all of them, so they just waited there acting tough and knew bad stuff was going to happen. When the Socs got to them they took Ponyboy and shoved his head under some water and started drowning him, Ponyboy thought he was going to die. Suddenly the Soc let him go and Ponyboy dropped to the ground gasping for air. He immediately looked for Johnny and noticed , out of the corner of his eyes the socs running away, then Ponyboy asked Johnny,  what happened? Johnny responded saying “I killed him”.  Ponyboy was confused at first then  looked straight down and saw a dead body and pocket’ knife in his hand. This is one good example why you should think before you act.

My opinion is that I really enjoyed this book because it has a lot of action and teenage fighting. Even though people are getting jumped, the story is about teenagers around our age and a little bit older learning how to deal with different types of people and situations and it gets very intense. I connected with some of the characters because they are close to my age and I can understand wanting to help your friends. This book is told from the first person point of view by Ponyboy.  

About The Author:

S.E. Hintons’ career as an author began while she was a student at Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. There were two gangs in her high school ,the greasers and the socs. Hinton wrote Outsiders, an honest, shocking novel told from the point of view of a 14 year old boy named Ponyboy Curtis. If you would like to check out her website, click here.