Introduction
As part of my school curriculum, I had to read the book, The Outsiders By S.E. Hinton. I was convinced that I wouldn’t like the book because it was an old book from the 1960s which I would never understand.
But as the book progressed, I realized that I was actually beginning to enjoy this book about a boy and his buddies going through hardships and sticking together. Read this book review to learn more about this book and what I think of it.
Story
This book starts off introducing Ponyboy (shortened to Pony), the main character, walking home from the movies just as he gets mugged by a group of rich kids (referred to as Socs). As his gang comes to rescue him, Hinton introduces each member and Pony’s relationship with all of them.
This book reveals the rivalry between ‘The Socs’ and the kids living on the poorer side of the town, referred to as ‘Greasers’. This divide will be the main source of conflict in the book.
As the book continues, It shows Pony and his close friends Johnny, get mugged by a group of Socs again and Johnny kills one of their attackers out of self-defense.
Now, Pony will have to persist through this conflict and find a way to help Johnny and prove their innocence.
Opinion
This book showed the character’s emotions very well and had a very engaging and hooking storyline. Hinton created a story in which the main character has to struggle through many problems, but eventually emerges victorious and persists over his issues. I give this book 4 stars out of 5 because of the grabbing storyline, the only issue that I had with this book was my lack of knowledge of how society function back in the 1960s, leaving me without any way to connect to the story. I would recommend this book to middle school students or older and people who like reading realistic fiction novels.
