True Meaning of The Outsiders

“Things are tough all over.” The quote from S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders, reminds us that life isn’t always the smooth and steady ride that we anticipate and want it to be. Often it’s hard when you realize that you don’t live in a bubble. I personally experienced this with coming of age, I realize that nothing lasts forever and that you should cherish everything you have now. A couple years ago my Grandfather passed away from cancer, and I thought that my life was at such a low point.

However, I hadn’t realized that other people are facing the same thing. My cousin had gone to get an x-ray for a broken bone and I had gone with him, and in the lobby I was waiting and an older man asked me what brought me here. I told him that I was waiting, and I asked if he was waiting. He later then told me that he had stage 4 cancer and that he was here for his chemotherapy.

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This experience completely left me appalled and changed my perspective on everything, that everything was hard for everyone and people have to deal with these challenges every single day. Shortly after this experience I was in class and I picked up “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton, which inspired me to cherish everything I had and live in the moment.

The realistic novels narrator, Ponyboy Curtis, shares the story of a life changing experience that made him realize the values of life.

Ponyboy tells of his society and how his town has two large cliques. The socs, who are the wealthy upper hand of the town, and the greasers, who are the less affluent half of town and live on the outside of luxury. Ponyboy is a greaser, and wears that label with pride as he’s in a gang with his two older brothers and some other greasers from the block. Sounds calming, right? This is not the case, the socs and greasers of the town don’t get along and constantly get into frequent fights against each other. One night Ponyboy and his friend are out and the other friend ends up killing a soc because they attacked them. The murder is big in the town, and Pony and Johnny are in a run for their lives. This book must read because it’s so simple to fall in love with all the characters of the boys in the gang. Each boy has a unique personality that’s drastic from another which makes you enjoy the story even more.

The story of The Outsiders, by using coming of age and social lessons, leads the readers to appreciate the little things in life because they could be rough later on. I highly recommend this novel because it opened up my eyes on life, showing that nothing can last forever so it is valuable to cherish it while you can. Cherishing reminds us to “Stay gold.” and push forward through the challenges life offers us.