The Outsiders
by S.E. Hinton

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The Outsiders is a good book. The book is about five teenagers who are friends and brothers.  Their names are Dally, Darry, Ponyboy Johnnycakes and Sodapop.  Johnnycake’s parents don’t care about him and his dad beats him. Ponyboy loses his parents in a car crash.  Sodapop quit

school because there was no action in there and because he didn’t think he was smart enough, and he needed money so he got a job to support his brother.  Darry works and looks after Sodapop and Ponyboy .  Dally robs stores and shoplifts.  They are all in a gang called the “Greasers”.  As a gang they have lost many things in life and they became a family gang, not a gang that intentionally hits and kills, but they kill to protect one another and themselves from the Socs .The Socs are a bunch of rich kids that want to own part of the playground.  One of the Socs hurts Ponyboy and that starts a fight between both gangs.  Johnnycake killed one of the Socs and that changed everything.

 

This book shows brotherhood and love. For example, Ponyboy thinks that Darry hates him.  But he doesn’t; he loves him but he doesn’t show it because he thinks that Ponyboy still has a chance to do good in the world and that’s why he’s so hard on him.  If I had to say what the theme of this book is, I would say it’s kind of about teenagers feeling left out and not being a part of their community.   In the book the greasers had no one to go to for example adults or teachers but today in my life we can go to adults and people who are in that situation who need help.

 

The story is told from Ponyboy’s point of view and he made me want to keep reading because of the details that he gave about what he saw and he explained things in a way I could understand.  Some of the scenes in the book reminded me of my own life, like the scene where Darry or Dally was shot – that reminded me of death and that reminded me of when my aunt died suddenly.

 

If I had to rate this book from 1-10 I would give it a 7 because it tells a lot about life and what people get into when they get into gangs.  There are family gangs, friends’ gangs and a killing gang.  It shows bravery, lots of drama, and revenge.  I would not want it as my favorite because it is too sad and serious and it tells the truth about life and pain.  So it’s too real for me.  I prefer a little bit of sad and happily ever after.  But if you do read the book it feels like you’re in the book and you just get sucked into their world.



~ reviewed by Tereza