The novel

There are strong bonds amongst all Greasers; they all feel like they are members of one big family. When something goes wrong with one of the members, the other ones promptly stand up for him and protect him. All types of human beings are present in the gang - Ponyboy is the smart member and probably the only one with humanitarian values, Johnny is the gang’s "pet", whereas Darry is the gang’s uncrowned king and the best fighter. Sodapop is the gorgeous one who gets all the women, while Two-Bit does not take anything seriously, hence his name. Finally, Dally is the distracted member who very well could have killed a person without any scruple at all.

The characters are not heroic - they are just humans - it is easy to believe that this is the way they would have acted if they’d existed. The characters in the plot give the reader a feeling this could have been a true story. The author has created the personality of the characters through the descriptions of Ponyboy - the narrator - and through their actions. S.E.Hinton uses a first person perspective point of view in this book, in other words: Ponyboy is actually talking to you in his own voice throughout the whole story. This makes the book informal, and it’s easy to become part of the scene and the story. Hinton’s way of writing opens for in-depth descriptions of the characters, incidents and surroundings. Ponyboy is, as previously said, the main character, and Hinton describes literally everything he meets on his way in a thorough matter. You feel highly strung in certain situations, for instance when Ponyboy and Johnny enter the burning church to save the children who are stuck inside it. Listen to the way Hinton summarises Ponyboy’s feelings after his friend Johnny has just killed a Socs in self-defence: "A panic was rising in me as I listened to Johnny’s quiet voice on and on. ’Johnny!’ I nearly screamed. ’What are we gonna do? They put you in the electric chair for killing people!’ I was shaking. I want a cigarette. I want a cigarette. I want a cigarette. We had smoked our last pack." It’s easy to see that Ponyboy already, in a young age, relies on cigarettes to help him calm down in mentally challenging situations. The book makes perfectly clear that Ponyboy is a fond lover of sunsets: "...The dawn was coming then. All the lower valley was covered with mist, and sometimes little pieces of it broke off and floated away in small clouds. The sky was lighter in the east, and the horizon was a thin golden line. The clouds changed from gray to pink, and the mist was touched with gold. There was a silent moment when everything held its breath, and then the sun rose. It was beautiful." Descriptions like this one can be found almost everywhere in the story. The author puts them there to let the reader get familiar with the characters. The descriptions make the reader know the characters better and understand their actions.

The ending of the story did not come as a surprise on me. I anticipated the death of Johnny because having a broken neck usually means death - sooner or later. The death of Dally was not as predictable as Johnny’s death because the book often tells how big and mentally strong Dally is: "He was tougher than the rest of us-tougher, colder, meaner." A cute feature with "The Outsiders" is the fact that it ends with the exact same words as the book started with. In the end, Ponyboy decides to write an essay at school about all the things he’d experienced in the last few days. He begins the essay in the same way as the book starts. Hence is the novel actually the essay Ponyboy writes in the end. Smart, eh?

To conclude I would like to say that the book gave me a taste of what life on the street might be like. It bows low into the emotional life of its characters, and tells us how they behave and feel within themselves. The book is not just about gang warfare; it also deals with loyalty, courage, frustration, and despair. It encourages people to stick together, even if the odds are against them.