The Outsiders - Hinton

AUTHOR: S.E. Hinton

TITLE: The Outsiders

MAIN CHARACTERS:

Ponyboy (Pony) Curtis  is fourteen years old. He has greenish-grey eyes and red hair, which is longer than a lot of boys wear theirs and it´s squared off at the back and long at the front and sides. He growned up with a gang, which is called Greaser. The boys from this gang live on the East Side and the are poor and from the middle class. Pony´s Mum and Dad were killed in a car crash. Ponyboy likes his second-oldest brother Soda more than anybody else. At school Pony gets good grades and he also has a high IQ but he doesn´t use his head.

Sodapop (Soda), Ponyboys second- oldest brother, is sixteen-going-on-seventeen years old and very handsome. He is always happy and grinning. Soda likes Ponyboy very much and helps him very often. He wanted to marry his girlfriend Sandy when she and Pony had finished school.

He works at a filling station with his best friend.

Darrel, his friends call him Darry, is Pony´s oldest brother. At school he was a popular guy and got good grades. But he hadn´t enough money to go to college. He works very hard.

Darry yells very often at Pony and treat him like a six-year-old child.

Steve Randle is seventeen years old, tall, lean, cocky and smart and has thick greasy hair. He is Soda´s best buddy and he is good with cars. Steve works with Soda at the same filling station and doesn´t like Pony very much.

Two-Bit Mathew is eighteen years old and the oldest of the gang. He has grey eyes, a wide grin and life is one big joke for him. He likes fights, blondes and school although he isn´t good at school. Pony likes Two-Bit because he keeps the others laughing at themselves.

Dallas (Dally) Winston has a elfish face, blue eyes and his hair is blond. He spent three years on the wild side of New York and had been arrested at the age of ten.

Johnny Cade is the youngest and smallest of the gang. He has big black eyes and his hair is jet-black, long and greased. He is the kid brother for everyone and he was beaten up by the Socs, a gang from the West-side which consists of rich boys.

Ponyboy is jumped by the Socs on his way home from the cinema.

They wants to cut his hair. But then comes Darry and they run

away. The next day Ponyboy goes with Dally and Johnny to the

cinema. There they meet Cherry and her friend Marcia, whose

are Socs. Dally molests Cherry but Johnny helps her. Pony

tells Cherry about the fight between Johnny and the Socs

while they buy popcorn. After the film Pony tells the others

something about his brothers.Then some Socs come and Marcia

and Cherry goes away with them.

When he come home Darry is angry because he is too late and

hits Pony. He runs away and goes with Johnny to a park to

cooled off to go home.

In the park they meet five Socs. One of them press Pony´s face into the fountain. He loses his consciousness. While this happens Johnny kills Bob, one of the Socs. They ask Dally what they should do and he sends them to an old abandoned church on the top of Jay mountain. Johnny and Ponyboy cut their hair and bleach Pony`s hair blond.

Six days they stay at the church and play poker or read Gone with the wind. Then comes Dally and visits them. He brings a letter from Soda and drives with them to a shop and buys them something to eat. Dally tells them that Cherry would like to help and spy for them. Johnny tells them that he will not spend the rest of his life in the church and that he wanted to go to the police and tells them that he had killed him in self-defence. Dally thinks

that`s not right and so Johnny isn`t sure what he should do. So Dally drives back to the church which was on fire. Some kids are in the church and so Johnny and Pony go in and take the kids out. Pony`s jacket is on fire and Dally puts it out. Then the three boys are brought to the hospital . Pony and Dally are allright but Johnny is unconscius. Darry, Pony and Soda are waiting too hear how Dally and Johnny are. Then reporters and policemen come and interview Pony. After that happens he hear that Johnny`s back has been broken and that he will be crippled for life. Then the three brothers drive home. The next morning Pony read in the newspaper that Soda and he maybe should be put in a boy`s home. In the city Pony speaks with a Soc, who will not fight at the big rumbler between the Socs and the Greasers this night. Two-Bit and Pony visit Johnny in the hospital. His mother wants to see him but he wouldn`t like to speak with her. After the two boys saw Johnny they go to Dally.

At seven o`clock the big rumble starts. It doesen`t take much time. The Greasers wins and the Socs run away. Then Pony and Dallas visit Johnny in the hospital. He died. Dally couldn`t

take it and run away . Pony goes home and tells the others that Johnny is dead. Dally is robbed a grocer´s and hopes that he has a chance to die. After that a policeman shoot him.

Pony is well again and goes to school. He is very often absent-minded and gets worse grades. Soda has a lot of problems, too. Darry and Pony don´t care about him and so he runs away. But his brothers find him and they speak with each other and get on together. At home Pony started to write an essay. He wants to help teenagers which are like he or one of his gang.

So he writes about what has happened to him and his friends.