The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Title: The Outsiders

Author: S.E. Hinton

--> Book Summary: Ponyboy can count on his brothers. And on his friends. But not on much else besides trouble with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kids whose idea of a good time is beating up "greasers" like Ponyboy. At least he knows what to expect --- until the night someone takes things too far.

--> My Book Summary: Ponyboy lives on the wrong side of town. He and his brothers are orphans and live together in a financially unstable home that is kept up between the 3 jobs his 2 older brothers have. So what? He's happy, doing good in school, intelligent, and a track star, and as long as he stays away from the West side rich kids who beat up "greasers" like himself, he'll be fine. So he thought...'till one night turns his life upside down.

--> Summary: The outsiders is a story set in Oklahoma about Ponyboy, a "greaser", or hood, who is very different compared to his surroundings. He grew up in a rough neighborhood and was orphaned at a young age. H lives with his older brothers Darry (20) and Sodapop (16) and they survive with the money earned from Darry's 2 jobs and Soda's job at a gas station. Basically, Ponyboy and his friend Johnny (16) went to the movies one night and met 2 socs (west side rich kids) and made friends with the girls. Socas and greasers don't mix, and the girls' boyfriends got mad, and drunk, and later found them in a park and jumped them. One of them attempted and almost succeeded to drown Ponyboy and Johnnu, who carried a switchblade, knifed Bob Sheldon, the group leader, and he died instantly. In panic, the two boys ran for help from Dally, a 17 year old hood with mile long criminal records at the police station, and he gave them a gun, money, and hideout. The boys escape to Windrixville and stay in an old church while the police search for them. A week later, Dally comes and finds them and take them out to eat, and when the trio return to the church, it's on fire and kids on a picnic in the church are trapped in there. Johnny and Ponyboy jump in the burning church to save them, and Dally went after them. The whole incident resulted in injuries for Ponyboy and Dally, though the kids were safe. Johnny, on the other hand, was left in critical condition, paralyzed, burnt, and on the brink of death.

    Back with the Socs, they were very angry with the murder of Bob and challenged the greasers to a rumble, which took place after Ponyboy got out of the hospital and he took part of the fight, and Dally appears halfway through and fights with them.  The greasers win, and Dally drags Ponyboy to the hospital to visit Johnny, and during the visit Johnny dies. Torn apart, Dally goes rob a grocery store, pulls out a unloaded gun, and commits suicide by having cops shoot him. Ponyboy and the rest of the gang are devasted by the death of their 2 friends, and life goes on.

In the end, Ponyboy starts falling apart, but starts to patch things up again and writes an English essay which turns out to be the novel The Outsiders.

SONG CHOICE: the reason I chose "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" for the background music is because the song is basically about someone who walks alone on their own road where no one else is, and that reminded me of Ponyboy, who was so different and unique from all the others that he ended up alone.