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New Your Times Book Review the Outsiders J E Hinton

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The Outsiders Introduction


Want more than deets? Nosotros've also got a complete Online Course near The Outsiders , with three weeks worth of readings and activities to brand sure you know your stuff.


A lot of things were different in the 1960's. Beehive hairdos were trendy. Cigarettes were acceptable accessories. Essays were typed on typewriters. Flight was style more expensive... but also way more luxurious. Music was—according to your grandad, at least—way better.

Just some things haven't inverse at all. As The Outsiders shows us, the world has always been split forth class lines. There take always been direct-laced girls interested in daring bad boys. Buddies have always looked out for each other.

And being fourteen has always been the pits.

The Outsiders is narrated by a xiv-year-quondam called Ponyboy Curtis (weird name, merely a cool kid). Ponyboy is pretty smart and has a lot of opportunity in front of him, but he comes from the "wrong side of boondocks" and hangs out with a bunch of similarly weirdly-named friends who drib out, fume cigarettes, and get busted for robbing stores and stealing cars.

The biggest ordeal in Ponyboy'due south life is the war waging between his friends and family (called Greasers), and the "Socs," or wealthy kids who alive on the other side of town. These gangs go at it similar the Capulets and Montagues, and Ponyboy's world spirals apace out of control.

Violence? Anger? The Outsiders has got it.

S.East. Hinton wrote The Outsiders in 1965, and it was published in 1967. Did we mention Hinton was built-in in 1948? For all you lot non-mathletes out there, that means she was in high school when she wrote it. Not too shabby.

Too groovy? The movie version. Tin't become incorrect with Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, Tom Cruise, Emilio Estevez, Diane Lane, Matt Dillon, and The Karate Kid.

What is The Outsiders About and Why Should I Intendance?

One quick look effectually your school cafeteria volition confirm information technology: people are cliquey creatures. They move in small packs, kind of like meerkats... merely taller and generally less hairy. One time formed, these cliques can be very hard to suspension into—or out of.

In a style, we can see why cliques be. Subsequently all, at that place's safe in numbers, and people naturally gravitate toward others who may have like interests: this is why all drama kids congregate together, the unabridged rugby team inexplicably has the aforementioned haircut, and the phrase "in one case at band military camp" is still being thrown around... fifty-fifty though it'south from a picture show that came out in 1999.

And this phenomenon doesn't go away, even in adulthood. Corporate lawyers hang out together. Artists grade cooperatives. Expats sit down in cafes and pretend to exist Hemingway. Yup: cliques are for life.

Only, because by definition cliques have to exclude virtually people to include a few, they can likewise crusade a lot of hard feelings, loneliness, and tension.

The Outsiders deals with this same phenomenon. Sure, nosotros get two rival gangs, merely they're grouped as the rich kids (the Socials) and the poor kids (the Greasers). Since we become the perspective of Sodapop, Ponyboy, and the Greasers, we really get a feel for what it's like to be—that's right—an outsider.

More than likely, though, that'due south non exactly news to yous. Anybody, at some point in their life, has been on the exterior looking in. Information technology's ane of the sad facts of life.

Merely that likewise ways, despite all these cliques, we're all in the same gang. We're all outsiders.

The Outsiders Resource

Websites

South.E. Hinton'south Website
Hinton'south website is full of info on The Outsiders and Hinton's other books. Definitely cheque out the FAQ section!

Spotlight on Southward.E. Hinton
This is Random House's S.E. Hinton page, and information technology features a bio, Q & A, and a booklist.

Nathan Bransford, Literary Agent
Hinton recommends Bransford'southward blog equally a great resources for young writers who are trying to pause into publication. The blog also features an interview with Hinton.

Movie or TV Productions

The 1983 Film
This classic motion-picture show massively increased the popularity of The Outsiders. It stars C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio, Rob Low, and Tom Prowl.

The Outsiders TV Show
The show only lasted one flavour, and featured Baton Bob Thornton as Buck Merrill, Dallas'south friend, and David Arquette equally Ii-Bit. Francis Ford Coppola served as executive producer. The show picks up where the novel leaves off.

Documents

"An Outsider, Out of the Shadows"
This New York Times article features lots of fun information, along with quotes from Hinton.

"Staying Golden"
New York Press discusses Hinton's move to writing for adults.

"The Outsiders: Forty Years Later on"
This 2007 essay discusses the novel's 40th anniversary, and why we still beloved it later all those years.

Review – The Outsiders Tv set Show
Here's an NY Times review of the TV show, which picks upwardly where the book left off.

Videos

Hinton at the LA Times Festival of Books
Watch and listen as she discusses getting a lilliputian likewise caught up in the writing process.

"Stay Gold"
This is a lyric video for Stevie Wonder'southward song, part of the movie soundtrack.

Audios

Audio Interview with Due south.Due east. Hinton
A 1987 interview with the writer.

The Outsiders Audiobook
Purchase and download the Audiobook from Random House Audio

Images

Young Hinton
This is Hinton in 1968, a twelvemonth afterwards the publication of The Outsiders.

The Outsiders Flick Cast
Check out those stars!

Hinton in Tulsa
Hinton is within the pay booth at the Admiral Twin Drive-In, her model for the Nightly Double, the drive-in in the novel.

Next

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Source: https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/the-outsiders