The Outsiders Essays - Literature, Fiction, Culture, Films

The Outsiders Essays - Literature, Fiction, Culture, Films The Outsiders The Outsiders In this book analysis, about the book The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton I will discuss character and plot development, as well as the setting, the authors style and my opinions about the book. In this part of the analysis I will give some information about the subjects of the book, and about the author. The author wrote the story when she was just 16 years old, in the 1950s. The book was successful, and it was sold, and still being sold, in many copies as a young adults novel. There was a movie made about it, and today there are still many schools that use this book in junior high and high schools for English classes. There were plays made about the book too. The Outsiders is about a gang. They live in a city in Oklahoma. Ponyboy Curtis, a 14 year old greaser, tells the story. Other characters include Sodapop and Darry, Ponyboy's brothers, Johnny, Dallas, and Two- Bit, that were also gang members and Ponyboy's friends. This story deals with two forms of social classes: the socs, the rich kids, and the greasers, the poor kids. The socs go around looking for trouble and greasers to beat up, and then the greasers are blamed for it, because they are poor and cannot affect the authorities. I hope you would enjoy and learn something about the book from reading this analysis. Plot Development The plot development in the book, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, was easy to follow. In this part of the book analysis I will give some more details about the plot development. There were no hooks or hurdles in the beginning of the book, the first sentence starts right away with the plotwithout any forewords. This is the beginning of the first sentence: When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house... (page 9). As you can see, it goes straight to the point without any prologues or any kind of introduction. The plot development in the middle of the story was sensible and easy to understand. It was clear and simple, and the events have occurred in a reasonable order. The ending of the story was a bit expected. I anticipated the death of Johnny because a broken neck usually means death. The death of Dally was not as predictable as Johnnys death because it was said that: He was tougher than the rest of ustougher, colder, meaner. (page 19). I did not think that such a tough person would get himself killed because of a death of a friend, although it was said a short time before the death of Dally that: Johnny was the only thing Dally loved. (page 160). The climaxes at the end of the story were the deaths of Johnny and Dally. Here are quotations about the deaths: Johnnys death: The pillow seemed to sink a li ttle, and Johnny died. (page 157). Dallys death: He was jerked half around by the impact of the bullets, then slowly crumpled with a look of grim triumph on his face. He was dead before he hit the ground. (page 162). To conclude I can say that the plot development was simple and easy to understand and to follow. The author organized it in a way that fits the actual content of the plot. Character Development The characters in the book, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, were not very heroicthey were just humansit was easy to believe that this is the way they should be. The characters in the plot give the reader a feeling this can be a true story. The author has created the personality of the characters through the descriptions of Ponyboythe narratorand through their actions. Following are some examples of these methods of getting familiar with a character. Here is an example for a description of Ponyboy: Steve Randle was seventeen, tall and lean, with thick greasy hair he kept combed in c omplicated swirls. He was cocky, smart, and Sodas best buddy since grade school. Steves specialty was cars... (page 17). The reader can find this kind of descriptions almost everywhere in the story, but especially in the beginning. I think the author