The young author of The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton establishes an effective and meaningful setting to hook the reader from the beginning. From intense issues at that time period, to teaching life lessons that teenage kids can apply today, Hinton grasps the audience’s attention with dynamic characters like Ponyboy. The setting of The Outsiders is in Tusla, Oklahoma in the 1960’s with two divided sides of town, East and West. The protagonist and narrator, Ponyboy, lives on the East side town which is much a poorer neighborhood than the West side. Beginning at the exposition, a dominant theme that is addressed is the ideology of rich vs poor, in other words, the Socs vs the Greasers. The Greasers is the East side gang that Ponyboy has been born into because of the cycle of violence in his neighborhood. The Socs are the rich East side boys that are constantly looking to jump the disoriented Greasers. Because of this, we begin to learn about the other boys in the Greasers and their important roles as the plot progresses. 

An extensive theme that is illustrated from the introduction is self-identity. How you were viewed and looked upon meant everything to the Greasers because of their generational cycle of bad reputation. By always being compared to the high class and deluxe Socs, this made the Greasers want to prove themselves to the town all the more. Grand fights would happen throughout the novel, with gang members left injured or even dead at times. This rising action sets the tone and isn’t a game anymore, this is real life. The constant back and forth between Greasers and Socs wants the reader to continue reading to see who will win in the end. Even with all the violence and hatred towards the Socs, Ponyboy wanted to open his mind to the other side and find some common ground with his enemy. As a character who admired the little things, Ponyboy saw sunsets as something beautiful that everyone can see no matter which side of town they are on. One night, He went to watch a movie with a west side girl and talk about their similarities with each other. When he came home that night Ponyboy said, “It seemed funny to me that the sunset she saw from her patio and the one I saw from the back steps was the same one.” Towards the end of the book, the “Big Rumble” takes place where everybody from both sides fight for bragging rights and self-identity. In the end, the Greasers win and the Socs drive away in their mustangs. What Ponyboy and the rest of the gang realize is that the violence and fighting isn’t going to change anything unless they stop. This shows the dynamic growth and maturity of characterization from many different people in the book. 

The meaning of finding similarities between one another through sunsets or any other symbol can be taught in today’s world too. I think this book has stayed popular within the schooling system because of the many lessons that are shared with the younger generations. I enjoyed reading, evaluating, and learning life lessons from this very original book that I think many other teenagers can take away with them as well.