‘The Outsiders’, is a story of two gangs who are against each other and share different angles of the society, and are rich and poor but have the same feelings for each other. Despite various types of classification, and differences in the financial status of the people in the society, there are various factors related to emotional and personal satisfaction which are common in every human being. Taking this is a theme, the story is analyzed for various instances as depicted by the author ‘Hinton’, and her experiments with the characters in the story. The analysis clearly reveals the fact that, common themes of life like love, affection and satisfaction are clearly associated with human nature and our common in everyone, despite the financial status, the power and the social ability.
Introduction
Needs are the key reasons behind the various causes, good or bad; and there are various sources that suggest about the presence of similar thoughts and emotions related to the human nature, regardless of them being associated with a special class or section, rich, poor, literate, illiterate, smart or dumb, one can notice that common human needs are the cause of usual emotions and happenings around people. Literature, has presented various works across centuries that have attempted to showcase the ‘needs’ that prevail in our society and the similarity in approach which cause them to associate the different sections of our society and weave them into one string, of humanity, helplessness and pain. Hinton's The Outsiders is also a fantastic work to present the close association of ‘needs’ with human nature and this paper highlights various instances from the story that bring forward, the themes of human needs, universally.
Although, most of the literary works have always concentrated on providing a true picture of the society, it has been a common factor that most of the written work revolves around the common themes of life which include rise and fall at different levels and therefore Hinton’s book is a great work as it is able to show the rise and fall at the same time through the differences in the life of the Greasers and the Socs. This paper would concentrate on evaluating closely, the rise and fall and the needs which require to be fulfilled for the rich and the poor shown in the book ‘The Outsiders’, this will be an attempt to prove that although poverty in richness are important aspects of social beings however the common needs remain the same for everyone.
The first and the most glaring thing that comes out of the story is about the division of communities where we can see that Ponyboy is a part of the various conflicts and he acts as a mediator between the two groups which represent the rich and the poor “It seemed funny that the sunset [Cherry] saw from her patio and the one I saw from the back steps was the same one. Maybe the two worlds we lived in weren’t so different. We saw the same sunset”. It is easy to see that although, both the groups get involved into various things like dressing up, hanging out socially and managing their existence however due to the difference of money and power they have different way of handling the situations. It is clearly visible that, both the communities are determined to work against each other and stand at the first place however their way of managing things is very different considering the fact that they live in a different class of society and think in a different manner.
Empathy, is the other theme which is clearly highlighted, and gradually we see that as the story progresses, and Ponlyboy learns more about Bob and other members of the Socs group individually, from Randy and Cherry, it becomes easier for them to understand that despite the riches there are various problems related to human life which are being faced on the both sides by Greasers and Socs and there is a sense of empathy that comes in him due to which he is motivated to write the essay which later on becomes a novel and also the central theme of the story. Similarly, Ponyboy had a lot of misconceptions related to Darry’s strictness and is attachment to him however it was Sodapop who was successful in making him realise that, Darry always wanted to him to do better in life and that is the reason why he handled Ponyboy strictly.
The other thing which is highlighted in the story is related to preserving childhood innocence, and we see that both the rich and poor community have children who are being raised in the society to understand the class differentiation and they behave on the basis of the same.
Hinton, has been successful in highlighting the fact that there are children like Ponyboy who have great ideas and a lot of thought process where they like to daydream and appreciate nature's beauty however if their childhood is not preserved and they are not allowed to develop this character and future then it may result into a mentality, similar to those of other members of the two gangs and may lead them to be stuck into the class differentiations forever. The search for individual identity, is an important theme of the story and is also a very important human ‘need’; the story clearly revealed the fact that Ponyboy was initially a dedicated Greaser, however as time progressed and he learned more from Johnny, cherry and Randy, he understood about his choices of life and that is when he selected his own identity where he did not believe in class differentiations and started looking at people from an individual's perspective, which made a difference and gave him his own personal identity. Even for that matter on the other side there are few characters were very strong with their internal identity, like Darry and Randy however there are significant changes that come in them during the course of time which makes it clear that, despite how an individual is placed in the society, various incidents in life can result in a gradual but drastic change in character and beliefs with time, which is again a part of the common human nature.
If we look at all these things together, it is clear that whether it is about the divided communities, or empathy or preserving the childhood and establishing individual identity, all these factors are common to humanity and are not interrelated within a specific caste, creed, class or society and therefore Hinton has been very successful from this perspective, to bring out the fact that the human themes remain common and can be easily depicted through the daily life scenarios which are a part of this book.
Love: Bringing a major change in characters . . .
Although love has not been something which has been directly related to the characters of this book however it has definitely made a lot of impact on the understanding of the overall association with the various happenings and the end that takes place in the book. Hence, it becomes important to discuss about the impact of love and everyone, regardless of the financial status in society; and we can easily see that since childhood Ponyboy had a perception that among his brothers Darry was not the one who actually liked him, and he believed that Sodapop was close to him just because of the fact that his display of affection was direct and Darry acted strictly as he wanted Ponyboy to be successful in life and follow a disciplined path. “I don’t care, I lied to myself, I don’t care about [Darry] either. Soda’s enough, and I’d have him until I got out of school. I don’t care about Darry”, Ponyboy realizes this, later in his life and that too on Sodapop took the initiative of doing so, however it was clearly visible that through the days of his youth, he always longed for the love of his elder brother however although it was there, he was never able to recognize it and this is one of the reasons why he always waited for his elder brothers love which he understood when he realized about the same.
On the other hand, there was a great transition in Ponyboy that came with time due to the love and affection that he had for Cherry, and a similar transition was also seen in Johnny due to his love for another Soc girl. It was clearly visible that, lovers important factor for all the members of both the gangs, the greasers and the Socs and therefore their relationships were also very impactful on their life, and it cannot be denied that it was the love of Cherry which was responsible for the huge transition and Ponyboy which changed his life.
Importance of Life: A universal need . . .
The importance of life is also very important factor, which closely binds all human beings regardless of their monetary value. Hinton providers various instances in her book ‘The Outsiders’, where both the gangs have a clash with each other and their concerned about their life and want to be safe. Darry, expresses anger in the initial chapter of the book in order to warn Ponyboy from roaming around on the road alone, as it could be life-threatening due to the attacks which may be caused by the other group of Socs. Similarly, Bob is seen struggling with his life in the latter half of the story and finally he died, although Ponyboy was a part of greasers and was going through transition, Bob's death was something which had a great impact on his conscience and he better understood the importance of life, the importance of people, and their individual needs.
The story also brings about instances where Darry was strict with his brother as he wants him to do good in life “Greasers can’t walk alone too much or they’ll get jumped, or someone will come by and scream “Greaser!” at themWe get jumped by the Socs”, however initially it was misunderstood by Ponyboy and he could not realize, that his brother Darry who had seen rough time in his life wanted him to be successful and lead a life with positive outcomes.
Hinton’s theory of universal humanity . . .
Ponyboy, had been present in most of the instances that took place in the book, and there is a whole lot of transition that took place in him, from being a gang member, to a good student and a friend and then finally becoming a thinker who could relate to the various incidents and bring out a positive outcome for the people to accept. “Suddenly it wasn’t only a personal thing to me. I could picture hundreds of boys living on the wrong sides of cities, boys with black eyes who jumped at their own shadows. Hundreds of boys who maybe watched sunsets and looked at the stars and ached for something better.”. There is a clear indication of the fact that the author was also interested in showcasing the fact, that these kind of incidents are not commonly associated with a single character which was depicted in the story however is associated with the millions who live in this world and daydream about the successful and peaceful future. The incidents that take place since the beginning are interlinked to the social context which is common and does not have a specific definition; thus making it possible for another Greasers or Socs, to go through the same situation even today and therefore it cannot be denied that, the story reflects a lot about the general incidents that take place in our society with our own people around us.
Conclusion
So various instances in the overall discussion above, clearly bring about the fact that Hinton has been successful in presenting the instances related to human life which are common to our society and needs well known to everyone. In the initial discussion, it seemed unsure that whether the themes of love, affection, success etc. are common or associated to a specifically mentioned class of people, however with the discussions and the themes which have been a part of the story ‘The Outsiders’, it has come out quite clearly that, there are various factors which are related to human beings and are not associated with a particular class, richness or poverty in life and therefore they are common needs and everyone wants them to be satisfied in the course of their life. Hence, the thesis that we had hypothesized in the beginning of this research holds true.
Works Cited
Bateman, Christy. Concept/Vocabulary Analysis for: The Outsiders. Research. Kansas City: Novelinks, 2006.
Gillespie, Joanne S. "Getting inside S. E. Hinton's "The Outsiders"." The English Journal Vol. 95, No. 3 (2006): pp. 44-48.
Hinton, S.E. The Outsiders. Tulsa: Viking Press, 1967.
