The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

🌟🌟🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

The Outsiders is about two weeks in the life of a 14-year-old boy. The novel tells the story of Ponyboy Curtis and his struggles with right and wrong in a society in which he believes that he is an outsider. According to Ponyboy, there are two kinds of people in the world: greasers and socs. A soc (short for "social") has money, can get away with just about anything, and has an attitude longer than a limousine. A greaser, on the other hand, always lives on the outside and needs to watch his back. Ponyboy is a greaser, and he's always been proud of it, even willing to rumble against a gang of socs for the sake of his fellow greasers--until one terrible night when his friend Johnny kills a soc. The murder gets under Ponyboy's skin, causing his bifurcated world to crumble and teaching him that pain feels the same whether a soc or a greaser.

I decided to give The Outsiders a second chance because I think that I might have been unfair to the book. I had to read this back in either middle school or high school. I can't remember exactly when but I hated required reading in school as I'm sure most kids do because teachers pick the novels that most kids are not into at a younger age. I have to read a popular book from the 60s to complete a reading challenge so I decided to read The Outsiders for the second time to see if I liked it any better than the first time. 

This reread was an interesting one for me to say the least. I was hooked into the story very quickly. I enjoyed each of the characters especially Soda which is probably because he is a friendly, happy go lucky character of the greasers. I really felt for both Johnny and Darry because each of them are trying to get through life but it is a struggle for each of them. They are having to cope with things in their young ages that others wouldn't normally have to. I liked Ponyboy a lot more reading the book this time because I feel like as an adult I can empathize with him easier. When I was a kid I didn't deal with anything like he does in the book and I think that might be one of the reasons why the book didn't interest me back then. I couldn't understand what the messages of the book were and I can comprehend them much better now. It's okay to be different and that just because you have less doesn't mean that you have to be of the same mindset as those that let that jade them into hating people with more. I think that the author is also trying to say that sometimes life gets out of our control and it is okay to fight the tide and try to swim rather than letting the water sweep us away.