Book Review: The Outsiders

Written by: Nicholas Carbone

    Are you having trouble finding the greatest book of all time? Would you simply desire to locate a book and exclaim: “Wow, that was the greatest thing I’ve ever read!”

Well my fellow reader, you are reading the right article, because today’s article is about The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton. This book is about a 14 year old Ponyboy Curtis, who is part of a gang called the Greasers. This book mainly takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Greasers are poor, defensive hoodlums who have long hair and are quite dirty. But every book needs a villain, and this book’s aggressive villains are the Socs. The Socs are a rich, spoiled group of “good people.” The Socs do many terrible things, including beating people up, and being spoiled brats. So, now that you know more about the kind of characters, it’s about time that we touch the plot of this perfect book.

The book starts off as 14 year old Ponyboy Curtis is walking home from a movie theater alone, when he is jumped, or attacked, by a few Socs, the rich upper class. His 20 year old brother, Darry Curtis, is able to save Ponyboy from the Socs. But there’s something different about the Curtis brothers. The Curtis’ mother and father both were killed in an auto wreck a little bit ago, and the court allowed for Darry to take care of his brothers Ponyboy and Sodapop, as long as they didn’t get into deep trouble. The author then introduces the other Greasers, including Dallas Winston, Two-Bit Matthew, Johnny Cade, and a few others introduced later on. The boys eventually get into a bit of trouble as their rocky road journey begins.  

After S.E. Hinton published this book in 1967, it became a huge success. Then about fifteen years later, the best selling book was made into a successful movie.

Unlike some Hollywood adaptations of books, this movie is very similar to the book. There are some differences; for example, you can see Dally yelling at some kids in the beginning of the movie. This obviously never happened in the book though. But what’s very surprising about this movie is that the movie is known more than the book. But if you ask me, I think the book is way better than the movie adaptation. There is also a show on The Outsiders, and it surprisingly got good reviews, with a 7.3/10 on IMDb. 

All in all, movie or book, The Outsiders will remain golden and loved by many generations of children and adults.