73 pages • 2 hours read
The Outsiders
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Themes
Intimacy and Emotions within Gang-Influenced Masculinity
The coming-of-age story of The Outsiders follows Ponyboy as he begins to understand himself as an adolescent boy and the trajectory of his life. Though the 1960s saw counterculture movements like the sexual revolution, the anti-war movement, civil rights activism, and the general surge against conservative norms by people who labeled themselves hippies, Hinton creates an insulated setting from which all of these external forces are largely absent. The greasers as a group are subversive to the norms of the Socs, but traditional understandings of masculinity and strength apply to both sides of the class divide.
Ponyboy is adamant about not being treated like a baby, despite being the youngest at 14. He frequently makes a clear distinction between acting “soft” and being “hard”—he tries to avoid crying in front of the other boys, knowing that being sensitive “isn’t a good way to be when you’re a greaser” (88). “The fight for self-preservation” (59), as Ponyboy calls it, has hardened some of the boys so much that they have not cried since they were children (102). Ponyboy understands this as a defense mechanism; life on the East side is so difficult for some of them that they cannot afford to feel emotional about their circumstances: “If you didn't [shut off your emotions], you would explode. You learn to cool it” (121). The Socs also mask their feelings, and according to Cherry, are “cool to the point of not feeling anything” (38). Stoicism and toughness are a marker of masculinity, something all the boys in the novel strive for, while emotions are equated with vulnerability; in a world of perpetual violence, vulnerability risks the individual and the group.
The moments in which characters do cry—when Johnny gets attacked; when Ponyboy and Johnny hide in the church; when Darry sees Ponyboy at the hospital—show moments of true vulnerability and fear. In these moments, the boys allow themselves to surrender to their emotions because they feel safe enough to do so around their “brothers.” Even Randy's typical Soc aloofness falters when talking about losing his best friend, and the pain of this grief is, of course, understandable. These intimate moments remind readers that, despite the tough attitudes these young men try to embody to feel and be treated like a man, they are all still just boys, some barely older than 18.
Group Conformity and Loyalty
The Outsiders draws a clear distinction between two social groups, the Socs and the greasers. The wealthier, privileged, clean-cut Socs are the in-group of the town, while the rebellious greasers are the out-group. Conformity to either group is marked by the way each group presents itself: while the greasers slick their long hair with oil and wear jeans and t-shirts, the Socs are always “clean-shaven with semi-Beatle haircuts” and their recognizable madras jackets (141). Group membership is also determined by geographical location, with members sticking to their “territory” and exclusively interacting with “their own kind.”
Crossing these well-established, though arbitrary, social boundaries is an invitation for retaliatory violence, as seen the night at the drive-in. The genuine conversations Pony has with Cherry demonstrate that inter-group friendships are possible, and that relationships do not have to be relegated to one's social class. They both see the “basic sameness” between groups and struggle to reconcile their desire for peace with their sense of loyalty to their respective group.
The greasers consider each other to be an adopted brother and are staunchly loyal to their family of “delinquents.” Ponyboy explains that this loyalty is unconditional: “You take up for your buddies, no matter what they do. When you're a gang, you stick up for the members. If you don't stick up for them, stick together, make like brothers, it isn't a gang anymore. It's a pack. A snarling, distrustful, bickering pack” (26). Regardless of an individual's behavior, the group will defend him. Ponyboy knows that the only reason Darry identifies as a greaser is out of loyalty to his friends, and he would otherwise attempt to escape his current social status. Meanwhile, Cherry feels torn between the groups, acting as a spy for the greasers out of a genuine desire to help, but nevertheless upholding her identity as a Soc. While conformity and loyalty can provide a sense of belonging and protection, for some characters it comes at the cost of voicing their truth or pursuing a different, better life.
Ponyboy's time in Windrixville shows him that places free of labels, where there are no greasers or Socs, just “plain ordinary people” (47), do exist. He aspires to live in a world where things can be “rough all over” without any inherent hatred and does not want to lose any more friends to senseless violence. He knows that he cannot be the only boy who “[watches] sunsets and [looks] at stars and [aches] for something better” (179), and this inspires him to share his story.
Class Violence
Much of the novel's action is driven by, or is a result of, the relentless violence between the greasers and the Socs. The muggings are frequent and brutal; the opening scenes of the story demonstrates just how senseless these attacks are, and Ponyboy stresses throughout the first chapters just how traumatized Johnny was after he was beaten. Acts of violence are so routine for the boys, demonstrated by the casualness with which Two-Bit describes fights to Marcia and Cherry: “A fair fight isn't rough [...] Blades are rough. So are chains and heaters and pool sticks and rumbles. Skin fighting isn't rough. It blows off steam better than anything” (29). There are rules and etiquette within gang fights, but it is the only way to “solve” things.
Rumbles, which are meant to settle a grudge between the two groups, may solve a dispute temporarily, but the damage they inflict only fuel the two sides’ desire for revenge, creating a never-ending cycle of violence. Bob’s death sparks “all-out warfare” across the city (83), leaving no one safe. Randy, Bob's best friend, finally breaks the cycle for himself and decides to not show at the big rumble, even at a cost to his reputation. He recognizes the futility of the groups' fighting, telling Ponyboy: “I’m sick of it because it doesn’t do any good. You can’t win, you know that, don’t you? [...] You’ll still be where you were before—at the bottom. And we’ll still be the lucky ones with all the breaks [...] Greasers will still be greasers and Socs will still be Socs” (117). Randy knows that the violence will never solve the root of the problem: the class disparity between the two groups.
Ponyboy believes “there isn't any real good reason for fighting except self-defense” (137), even after losing his best friend. Nonetheless, he fights in the rumble out of loyalty to the gang; violence is intrinsically tied to the boys' sense of masculinity, and the fear of being “chicken” or “soft” outweighs Ponyboy’s rational thoughts. Johnny echoes Randy's thoughts when Pony and Dally rush to the hospital to deliver the news of the greasers' win, as some of his last words alive are: “Useless… fighting's no good” (148). Ponyboy finally takes this to heart and takes the first steps to sharing the gangs' story, in hopes of preventing any more “boys going down under street lights because they were mean and tough and hated the world” (179).
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By S. E. Hinton
