Index IntroductionSetting up The Outsiders by SE HintonUnraveling the story in The OutsidersJohnny's crime in The OutsidersConclusionWorks CitedIntroductionThe Outsiders was written by SE Hinton. She is an American writer who grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma and was best known for her novel The Outsiders. This was one of his most successful books and he wrote it during high school. When I came across this book, I did my research on the author and saw that he wrote books for young adults and that he wrote it when he was in high school. This caught my interest because I'm in high school and I thought this book would have high school situations in the story, but no, it's so much more than that. Now I'm going to give you an overview of the book, my thoughts on it, and give you some spoilers about it. The outsiders. Is Johnny guilty of Bob's death? Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssaySetting of The Outsiders by SE HintonThe setting of The Outsiders is mid-1960s Tulsa, Oklahoma. The story is told from Ponyboy's first-person point of view. The story delves into the rivalry between the Socs and the Greasers gang. The Socs were the middle class gang and the Greasers were the lower class gang. The main characters of this story are Ponyboy Curtis and Johnny Cade. Ponyboy is 14 years old and Johnny is 16 years old, they are both in the Greaser gang. When I first heard that one of the main characters' names was Ponyboy, I thought: is that a made-up name? Do you want to follow this? Was he forced to have this name by a bully? I thought it was something other than it being his real name. Well, that's actually his real name and then I thought to myself what is a guy with this name and his age doing in a gang. Johnny's name seemed normal and cool, but what was a sixteen-year-old doing in a gang and where the hell were his parents? Unraveling the Story in The Outsiders The story begins with Ponyboy walking home from the movies alone, then he sees a red car following him and gets nervous because he suspects it's the Socs. The Socs get out of the car and jump on Ponyboy, he was trying to stay calm. In my opinion, he should have gone home with one of his friends from the cinema or asked him for a ride. Instead, he wasn't thinking, and went home, and then was attacked by the Socs. One of the Socs pulled out a switchblade and put it to his neck and started screaming for help. My first thought was why when you outnumber a 14 year old you pull out a switchblade and threaten to kill. Socs are just ignorant, stupid and mean. His brothers and friends come and chase the Socs away. In chapters 1 and 2, Ponyboy describes his lifestyle, his friends, his brothers, and the rivalry with the Socs. He also tells us that his parents were in a car accident when he was younger. In chapter 3 everyone except Darrel goes to the movies because he has to work. Ponyboy and Johnny met these two Soc girls called Cherry and Maria, Ponyboy was surprised because they were so nice. They talked the whole time they were at the movies and he thought she was amazing and hoped they could become friends. Seriously, I would have been surprised too if I had heard the stories and seen with my own eyes how the Socs behave towards the Greasers. From what I know, Socs are just mean and merciless to Greasers, but these two Socs girls are just nice to a Greaser they just met. Afterwards, her boyfriend Bob was driving down the street and told her to come with him and get away from the Greasers. He did it, so there would be no arguments.The Greasers returned home. I would have been relieved because the way Ponyboy described Bob is much bigger than the average sized fourteen year old that he is. I know he was happy to go home to his brothers. Johnny's crime in TheOutsiders Later, around chapter 4, Ponyboy gets into a fight with Darrell, his older brother, and runs away to the park and Johnny follows him. They start talking and then a blue mustang pulls up and it was the Socs. It was Bob, Cherry's boyfriend, and the group of Socs getting out of the car drunk. At this point I run away as soon as I see the blue mustang, but no Ponyboy and Johnny are literally waiting there until they come out and now I'm in trouble! Bob tries to drown Ponyboy and he nearly kills him, but Johnny fought off the Socs holding him and then pulled out a switchblade and stabbed Bob. He died and everyone ran away. Ponyboy and Johnny went straight to Dally, also known as Dallas Winston, a member of the Greater gang because they knew he had been in a situation like this before returning to New York. Johnny just killed someone and he's my age. I would be very scared right now, but I would also think it was self defense, meaning I wouldn't get in trouble. At this point, when I realized I killed someone and I absolutely don't know what to do, I would just go home to my dad and tell him what happened. In Ponyboy and Johnny's situation, I would have just told the group and let them deal with it. Instead of running away from Dally, I know they would have given me the logical thing to do. Dally told Ponyboy and Johnny to go to Windrixville and hide there. He gave them some money and said he would visit them when things calmed down. I feel like they were wrong to ask him for help because he isn't a good influence and isn't very smart with his decisions. You could have asked an adult or just gone to the police and told them what happened. Now they look like fugitives trying to get away with murder. They made the situation worse, what were you thinking!? In chapter 6, they were hidden in a church in Windrixville for 5 days. Dally visits Johnny and Ponyboy and takes them to Dairy Queen. Johnny says he wants to go home and confess, and Dally tried to dissuade him, but he wouldn't change his mind. He decided to take them both home, but on the way back they saw the church building on fire and went to check it out. I don't understand them because who goes to the burning church instead of going home and fix this problem so we can go back to our normal life, maybe. Their situation is getting worse and worse, guys, please stop making bad decisions. They saw some children not too far from the building but then heard some inside the building, so they went to help the children out. The building was starting to collapse. He was about to collapse onto Ponyboy, but Johnny pushed him away and landed on top of him. The fireman and ambulance arrived and Ponyboy woke up and was in the ambulance. He was transported to hospital where he met his brothers. Look what happens when you don't mind your own business, I understand they tried to save the kids but now you're injured in a hospital bed. The situation has now gotten even worse. In chapter 10, Ponyboy and Dally have recovered from their injuries, but Johnny is in critical condition with severe burns. There's also a fight between the Socs and Greasers tonight. Ponyboy and Dally must be there, so they left Johnny and promised they would return. You had two chances to not end up in a hospital bed, you could have gone home and told the gang what happened with the Socs instead of running off to listen to Dally who made things worse. Then you could have left the, 1967.