Outsiders Theme Essay

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Outsiders theme

If you were to read the Outsiders, for face value it just seems like an interesting book about a young boy and a gang of “Greasers”. However, if you dug deep to try to find an central theme, you could find many and be stuck The top 3 are: society and class, loyalty, and how appearances can affect how people are treated. These are all valid themes, but only one is right.

The first one I'll talk about is society and class. The main argument for this one is the gangs. The poorer people hang out with other not-so-fortunate people and the upper class also tends to stick together. The “Socs” are the wealthier people. They often drive around in fancy cars and jumping the lower class people. They even use the word “Greaser”, which …show more content…
The gangs are also a very good supporting fact for this argument. The main instance of loyalty is right in the beginning, when Ponyboy is jumped. He is walking home from the movies when a group of Socs pull up in their car and jump him, even alluding to killing him. This is when the rest of Ponyboy’s gang finds them and attacks the Socs, saving Ponyboy. There are many more examples of loyalty throughout the book, but none as prominent as that one.

The third possibility is how appearances can affect how people are perceived. In the Outsiders, appearances are very important and mention often. Even the term “Greaser” is based off the grease hair look that poorer gangs often sport. It is a means of identifying who someone hangs out with and their social class. The Socs, who are the wealthiest, are usually described wearing Madras shirts and driving nice cars, while the Greasers usually wear jeans, boots, T-shirts, and leather jackets. These play a very important role in who dates who and socio-economic class.

In conclusion, I think that society and class is the main theme of the Outsiders. One of the biggest hints is the title. I take the word “Outsiders” to mean multiple outcasts, people who aren't accepted by higher society. The distance between the poor and rich is best shown when Cherry and Ponyboy are talking and seeing how differant they really are because of
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