What kind of girls paid attention to the greasers

The girl with red hair turns around and coolly tells him to stop, but Dally continues to make suggestive remarks. He goes to buy Cokes, and Ponyboy talks to the red-haired girl, Cherry Valance. Dally comes back and offers a Coke to Cherry, but she throws it in his face. Dally tries to put his arm around her.

Dally stalks off, and Cherry and her friend Marcia invite Ponyboy and Johnny to watch the movie with them. Tim Shepard is the leader of another greaser gang. Cherry and Ponyboy go to get popcorn, and Ponyboy tells her about the time the Socs beat up Johnny. The leader of the gang that beat him, Ponyboy says, wore a fistful of rings. Cherry looks distressed and assures him that not all Socs are violent like the Socs that beat Johnny.

She also tells him that Socs have problems just as the greasers do, but Ponyboy does not believe her. The novel begins by detailing the differences between the poor greasers and the rich Socs and sketching the treacherous world in which they live. When the Socs jump Ponyboy in the opening chapter, it suggests that Ponyboy lives in a place where even an innocent walk is fraught with danger. Hinton defines her characters as she thinks people should be defined in life—not according to the group to which they belong, but according to their individual characteristics.

For instance, she introduces Ponyboy not as a tough street youth but as a boy who likes to read and watch sunsets. Ponyboy is something of an anthropologist, a natural role for a narrator, and he observes and records the group dynamics and individual traits of his fellow greasers. Darry is presented not as the natural leader of the gang, but as a struggling young man who has had to forgo an education so that he can support and raise his two younger brothers.

Hinton suggests that greasers, despite their exclusion from the mainstream, have moral grounding and sense of decency as strong as—or stronger than—the kids from the privileged classes. Hinton shows the constant conflict between the greasers and the Socs, but she also shows that the two groups are not as different as they initially appear. After meeting faceless, cruel Socs, we meet Cherry Valance, a Soc who is also a sympathetic, warm girl. She and Ponyboy discuss how greasers and Socs deal with their problems differently.

Greasers feel their distress keenly, while Socs pretend their problems do not exist. The conversation between Cherry and Ponyboy exemplifies the rare civil negotiation that would alleviate the tensions between the Socs and greasers far more than violent conflict.

The flirtation between Two-Bit and Marcia demonstrates the social compatibility that could exist between the warring groups. Hinton suggests that male-female friendships are the friendships most likely to result in peace between the groups.

He feels that Soda is not living up to his potential and is embarrassed by it: "I never have gotten over that.

I could hardly stand it when he left school. Cherry knows Sodapop, because he works at the gas station, and she asks why she hasn't seen him in school. Ponyboy is embarrassed to admit that Soda is a dropout. This admission "made me think of some poor dumb-looking hoodlum wandering the streets breaking out street lights — it didn't fit my happy-go-lucky brother at all.

The name Cherry Valance is great fun. The word cherry can be slang for both perfect and red. Cherry is a Soc and she is perfect in Ponyboy's eyes. The fact that "cherry" also means red highlights the author's use of color as a theme in the book. She associates warm colors with Socs and cool colors with greasers. Warmth usually is associated with inside and cool with outside. The colors represent the groups' positions in society: The greasers view the Socs as insiders and themselves as outsiders.

Hinton uses the color white twice in this chapter to describe fright. Initially, she uses the color to describe Johnny at the drive-in when Two-Bit surprises him by sneaking up behind him and impersonating a Soc. Hinton also describes Cherry as "white as a sheet" after listening to Ponyboy's version of Johnny's attack. The use of this color as an apt description for both groups continues the merging of colors.

The world is not quite so black and white when the colors begin to cross lines. The final sentence of the chapter tips the reader off that the narration technique is retrospective. Ponyboy is retelling this story and is, therefore, able to include foreshadowing, which not only teases readers, but allows them to witness his character's growth. During Chapter 2, Pony's character is not able to see Cherry's point of view that the Socs have their own troubles. But the last sentence of the chapter, "I know better now," not only foreshadows upcoming events, but also shows Ponyboy's own personal growth.

Later, he develops a better understanding of the Socs and changes his own perspective. With hindsight, in the retelling of this story, he is able to see the Socs in a different light: "I really couldn't see what Socs would have to sweat about — good grades, good cars, good girls, madras and Mustangs and Corvairs. This notes a change in Ponyboy's perspective. Foreshadowing is heavy within Johnny's story. This tale of injustice reveals the impact that the beating by the Socs four months ago had on Johnny's life.

Using colors, Hinton allows the reader to visualize the extremes and then mix them together to show that there is a middle ground. This theme is not the most important element in the story, but it is a good literary technique that allows the reader to visualize the story and internalize the intensity of the feelings that run strong in adolescents.

The Outsiders can be termed a coming-of-age novel because of the many topics that the story deals with. Cigarette smoking, like many serious issues, is treated in the novel as part of everyday life. Several reasons may explain the author's approach to smoking: The Surgeon General's report linking cigarette smoking to cancer had just come out in l and the implications were not widely realized; the author may have believed that, inevitably, some teenagers experiment with smoking; or perhaps cigarettes were just a prop to help readers better visualize the characters.

Whatever the reason, the treatment of the subject did not affect the telling of the story. The importance, or lack of it, was even underscored when the main character, Ponyboy, who is only 14, is surprised when an adult tells him that he shouldn't be smoking. Suicide, a hot topic among teens, is not glossed over. One of the main characters had often considered suicide, and not until he is dying from other injuries does he regret considering that action. Hinton tries to impress upon readers that teenagers may not have the perspective to understand that life is short enough already and they have so much to see and do in the future.

Teen pregnancy receives attention in the book. The way Hinton handles teen pregnancy may seem outdated. When the girlfriend of one of Ponyboy's brothers becomes pregnant, she is immediately shipped off to live with family in Texas. This consequence undoubtedly still happens today, but it is not the norm. With child-care centers in most large high schools, the social stigma attached to teen motherhood no longer exists as it did in the ls.

Underage drinking is common throughout the book. An author writing today might treat the issue of drinking and driving differently than Hinton did in the s. In this book, the teens who are drinking are often driving. One character, Cherry Valance, condemns adults and questions their motives when they sell alcohol to minors, but teen drinking isn't meant to be the focus of the book.

The importance of remaining in school and graduating recurs throughout the novel, but that topic is also not meant to be a primary focus. These issues make the story interesting, and Hinton does a very good job at not preaching at the reader. If this story had been written without touching on at least some of these topics, it would lack realism.