The Outsiders Reflection

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Did you know that The Outsiders was written by a 16 year old girl who was inspired to write the book because she was experiencing rival gangs beating each other up and she wanted to change the interaction between them? S.E Hinton writes in a way to change the reader's evaluation on topics that troubled her throughout high school. One of the most important topics that S.E Hinton emphasizes in the book The Outsiders, is how characters exit the world, and how they will be remembered. Simon Sinek once said, “No matter how many or how few people you have reporting to you, you must remember that as you climb higher in the ranks, your words will be taken as commands even if you're just thinking out loud.” S.E Hinton develops two characters that later …show more content…
The way that others think of them changes what and how they do things. In The Outsiders the greasers want to appear in a tough way that will make others think differently about them. Just before the rumble starts, Johnny is having second thought about the whole thing. “I shouldn't be here and Steve shouldn't be here and Soda shouldn't be here and Two-Bit shouldn't be here. We're greasers, but not hoods, and we don't belong with this bunch of future convicts. We could end up like them, I thought. We could. And the thought didn't help my headache”(120). Johnny doesn't want to end up like the Brumly boys, or hoods, because he has seen how they turn out later in life, and he wants to back off of that thought. The least innocent member of the whole gang is Dallas, who has done any crime that you can think of. “And Dally--- wild, cunning Dally--- turning into a hoodlum because he'd die if he didn't”(37). Johnny is is saying that Dallas will always be a hoodlum in his life, because of all the things he’s done. He can’t crawl out of the whole that he dug. These aspects in the book connect to real life events in our word that happen every day. People want others to view them as a tough and “cool” person. In order to reach this appearance many people do terrible things that they can never recover from. The identity of the greasers makes them different from the hoods and the Socs, which sparks the friction between …show more content…
Johnny's last words will always be remembered. His words capped off his innocent personality. “Stay gold, Ponyboy, Stay gold. . . The pillow seemed to sink a little, and Johnny died”(148). Later in the book Ponyboy finds a letter, “I don’t mind dying now. It’s worth it. It’s worth saving those kids. Their lives are woth more than mine, they have more to live for.” Just before Johnny dies, he writes that it was worth saving the kids inside the burning church. This letter is what states that Johnny was a true hero. Johnny will always be remembered for his idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, and noble qualities. Dally on the other hand, will turn out to be a violent man his his last moments. “He was jerked half around by the impact of the bullets...I knew he would be dead, because Dally Winston wanted to be dead and he got what he wanted”(145). Dally is so depressed that he thinks that that the best thing that he can do, is die for Johnny. Although Dally died a violent death, he will always be remembered as a true friend to his gang. “Nobody would write editorials praising Dally. Two friends of mine had died that night: one a hero, the other a hoodlum. But I remembered Dally pulling Johnny through the window of the burning church; Dally giving us his gun, although it could mean jail for him; Dally risking his
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