Stay gold: rereading S.E. Hinton’s “The Outsiders”

By Erin Hayhurst

“When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home.” Many of us could recognize this opening line from middle school reading assignments. Teachers have assigned S.E. Hinton’s “The Outsiders” in middle-level reading classes for decades. While some have picked up the novel a few times after that initial read, many have left it on the shelf since seventh or eighth grade. I was one of the latter so this summer, during quarantine, I decided to pick it up again and I am very glad that I did.  

For anyone who has not read the book or who doesn’t remember, “The Outsiders” centers around the life of a 14-year-old ‘Greaser’ named Ponyboy Curtis. ‘Greaser’ is the slang term used to describe Ponyboy and his friends due to their lower social class and slicked back hair. Ponyboy is trapped in a life divided by social class; the Greasers vs. the Socs, short for Socials. The Socials are the rich kids on the other side of town. The Socs have it all while Ponyboy’s older brothers Darry and Sodapop have to work full time, even two jobs, to keep the family together. The fellow Greasers are also like family to Ponyboy, like the skittish pet of the gang Johnny Cade or the troubled hot-head Dallas Winston. With the constant fear of getting jumped by Socs or getting hauled in by the cops, Greasers have to stick together for survival.  

The book deals with the struggles of social divide in 1960s Tulsa by making the reader see through Ponyboy’s eyes. We feel his desperation and frustration as the book progresses; seeing him and Johnny on the run after a fight with a group of Socs goes terribly wrong, sensing the anger and fierce energy during the rumble, and feeling the connection and endearment between his family and friends, all leading up to the novel’s intense and heartbreaking climax.  

S.E. Hinton’s storytelling serves as a reminder of not only the importance of friendship, but also the importance of unity as a society. Ponyboy’s experience is meant to show us that no matter where we come from, what our own experiences are, whether we’re a Greaser or a Soc, we all watch the same sunset at the end of the day.