The Outsiders by Susan Eloise Hinton is a thrilling tale that captures the mind. Hinton starting writing this book at the age of 15 and finished it her Junior year of high school. This amazing novel plants a seed in your soul and makes you think about the message Hinton is sending. Ponyboy and Johnny are very developed and have amazing personalities. The book, in general, is a very eye-opening novel- a true classic.

Ponyboy is a 15-year-old high school boy whose older brothers, Sodapop and Darrel (Darry), take care of him. They are “Greasers,” a rough young man, especially one who greases his hair back and is a member of a motorcycle group, who are in a “gang.” The boys who are in the group are Ponyboy, Darry, Sodapop, Dallas (Dally) Winston, Johnny Cade, and Keith “Two-Bit” Mathews. When Ponyboy and Johnny get into a brawl with the Socs – someone who wears Abercrombie & Fitch, a jock, or a prep – it ends in a horrible tragedy. Ponyboy and Johnny then have to leave the city in fear that they will be arrested.

The best part of The Outsiders is the fact that it’s true. The social divide between the Socs and the Greasers is still true to this day even though the book was written in the 50’s. Our society is a totem pole where we feel pressured into a box of the exquisite or the undesirables. Our whole lives we have been taught to treat other people as we wish to be treated and yet we still treat other people with such shameless attitudes. The barrier between the two groups of people is both the best and worst part of the book strictly because of its genuineness.

The Outsiders is great for teens and adults who are not the average reader. The reader should be a mentally mature individual who finds something interesting about the book. The story flows properly and is easy to read and the characters are interesting and easy to relate to. Overall this is an astonishing book that would be great for taking a trip back in time to when our grandparents were dealing with the same issues we are.