The Outsiders, By S.E Hinton

Personal Rating:7.9
Technical Rating: 8.7

From the Back Cover of The Outsiders,
“Ponyboy can count on his brothers. And on his friends. But not on much else besides trouble with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kinds whose idea of a good time is beating up “greasers” like Pony boy. At least he knows what to expect—until the night someone takes things too far.”

Personal Review
When I first started to read this book, I knew it was a classic. I mean, most bestselling books written in the 60’s-80’s are written off as classics. And naturally in this “classics” someone dies.
I won’t say who though, just to keep from spoiling it. The story was great, not particularly original, but when you’re going for realism, originality is the key point here. This is a character based story anyway. And what wonderful characters there were indeed. (Even if some have really weird names, like Ponyboy and Sodapop.)
Although all the characters were great, my favorites would be Sodapop (and you should see this coming) Dallas. Of course, the happy supportive brother with good looks and the blonde bad boy with no ties. You really can’t blame me.
What I also liked about this book was the way the characters sought to resolve their problems. Matthew more often than not got drunk, Darry worked, Sodapop ignored it and Dallas made himself feel nothing.
There was also the difference and the similarities between the Socs and the greasers. They dressed differently, and they spoke differently, and maybe some had better break than the greasers, but they were human also. The greasers were human, and the Socs were human, both with their problems and worries.
It was nice to see the same kind of social division from the past and how it was like the present day. I once also read a book called Black and White, about two guys (one black one white, as you can imagine) living in the same neighborhood. This reminded me of that book, but instead of a racial difference, which almost naturally breeds hate, it was a social difference. It kind of made me feel weird seeing kids all the same age, same race, same problems, fight like animals because of difference in wealth and style.

Technical Review

Narrative Pace: since this is a character driven story, the pace does not move particularly fast. But it’s not too slow either. I’d say medium.

Writing Style: Talks a lot about feelings. The characters when first seen are introduced completely and thoroughly before moving on with the narrative, and almost after every significant event, how the character feels about something.

Beginning: a little drawn out. Ponyboy’s inner monologue is a little repetitive, but then goes straight to the action after a few pages.
End: one of those warm and fuzzy ones where it goes, “and he died and stuff happened THE END.” But it was suitable, tied up loose ends and was rather heartwarming.

And thus ends another book review. Man, I wonder why I went ahead and read a book I’d love for the characters and hate for the plot? I guess its just nature.

Till the Next Review,
PenMaster