S.E. Hinton’s realistic fiction story, “The Outsiders,” takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A place full of gang violence and gang activities. It is around the time of 1965. Ponyboy, a gang member who is a really good kid, is not up for the hood life. He reads and plays sports. He isn’t a hoodlum. One lesson the story suggests is that you should not judge a book by its cover.
At the very beginning of the story Ponyboy had thought that every single one of the Socs were all just lucky kids who got all that they wanted. He thought it was all unfair that they never had any problems. He thinks that they love their lives. He thinks that they get whatever they want whenever they want it. He gets very jealous when he thinks of all the Socs getting whatever they want. He felt anger towards the Socs. They never got into any trouble and just wanted to pick fights with the greasers. But he was wrong Bob made a whole bunch of problems to get the attention of his parents and to try to make them mad at him. He also thought that Randy was just a hard guy but he is actually soft.
In the very middle of the story Ponyboy thought that when Darry was being hard on him he hated him. Pony thought that he did not like him because he was all nice to Sodapop but not him. He hated the fact that he rarely joked around or played around with him. He always made sure that Pony came home on a certain time. He made sure that every day Pony could not do anything until he did his homework. He would get mad at him if he took a knife for protection but would also get mad if he did not. But the reason he did all that was to make sure when Pony grows up he will grow up smart and with a future. He sees potential in Pony. Soon Ponyboy realized that and he never had seen Darry cry not even when their parents died. But when Ponyboy went missing and when they found him he cried which meant that he does care about him.
In the very end of the story Ponyboy still was judging books by their covers. Even though he went through a whole lot he still judged. This time he was judging Dally by his cover. He thought that Dally was just straight up a mean person. He thought he was just a bad guy who hated everyone and everything. He always goes to jail. He always steals things. He tries to fight lots of people. He wouldn’t leave Cherry alone at the movies and a whole bunch of stuff like that made Ponyboy think that he was a bad person. He was very wrong though. When Johnny said that he was going to turn himself in Dally got mad. That was because he did not want Johnny to go to jail and he did not want him to come out hard like he did. He saw Johnny like a little brother. At the very end when Johnny had died Dally could not handle it so he went and robbed a gas station then he pointed a gun with no ammo at the cops so they would kill him. That shows that he does not hat everyone or everything. He cared lots about Greasers and especially Johnny.
In the story there is a counterpoint that goes against the theme. The theme is don’t judge a book by its cover. The counterpoint is that Tim Shepard who seems to be very bad and mean is a really mean and bad person. He is like Dally except actually very mean. He is described as an alley cat which he very much is like. He fights all the time. He goes to jail all the time as well. And he hates everyone and everything. Also his little brother Curly Shepard went to jail and Tim was talking about it being all proud and stuff like that. That shows that sometimes even if it is rude you can judge a book by its cover and get the truth. He is a Greaser but his gang has a leadership and other stuff like that. Ponyboy’s Greaser gang is just a group of friends. He doesn’t care about anybody. He even proves it in the story.
