The Outsiders Classroom Notes

In what ways is it evident that the writer of The Outsiders is, indeed, a female? 

-- The novel as a diary
-- The story is a story of “toughening”
-- The story is a story of economic status

I. Greasers
-- Poor
-- Slicked back hair “greasers don’t have anything but their hair”
-- Hoodlum
-- Wrong-side of town
-- Cigarettes hanging from mouths
-- Black leather jackets
-- Tough and tuff

II. Socs
-- Johnny died after the rumble (the Socs lost) and Johnny’s death was metaphorical / a parallel “useless, fighting is no good”
-- When Johnny died so too did Pony’s innocence
-- Pony “I’d rather be hated than pitied”
-- Dallas gets himself shot b/c he can not bear life without Johnny

III. Cherry written with sympathy
-- she did not judge
-- she knew she could fall for (another) a bad boy too (Bob = Dally (Dallas))
-- after talking to Johnny and Pony, she knew that they were not like the others
-- p. 117 “things are rough all over…” She looked at both sides of the world – She was a realist
-- She did not hold a grudge re: Bob’s murder

IV. Johnny
-- Like a scared puppy's eyes that had been kicked too many times”
-- fearful b/c he was jumped
-- the guy with the ring
-- he was not loved at home / parents did not want him there / abusive
-- he preferred when his dad beat him b/c at least he knew he was there
-- the gang was his family / he was the pet / he liked Dallas the best b/c Dallas was an authority figure to him

V. Darry
-- had to grow up fast when parents died in accident (18 when they passed away)
-- “Darry has eyes exactly like frozen ice” – Pony
-- Darry would be a Soc if the gang were not around (Darry was a football player / he seems ashamed of the greaser side)
-- Was the 1st person in the family to hit Pony (the cause of the novel in essence)

VI. Masculinity in the book
-- Teenager vs. adulthood and the complexities of gender
-- Pony as feminine character (without a family, we would think he would be stereotyped as a tougher character)
-- maybe just a sensitive person and this was the depth of his character (the other characters saw him differently than the readers do)
-- sensitive b/c he read so much
-- Yet, he was the baby of the group, the “honey”
-- he looks up to guys that treat women a certain way, who do not go to school—they are his masculine role models
-- Perhaps he sees the example of the authority figures as a forum for his parents, a way to keep them alive
-- His best friend murdered and Pony walked away from the body
-- He ran into a burning building after children (that is a masculine act)
-- Pony and the sunsets (everyone is handsome (perhaps a neutral term))
-- Soda puts arm around Pony to go to sleep /  the stroking of the hair / laying in the lap
-- Johnny Pony are tangled up together in the church (they were cold).
-- Pony has the most dynamic change in the book.  The affect of what happened to him with the killing, the reading yet not understanding what he read, his grades began to fall towards the end all do to the loss of his authority figure – “Stay Gold”
-- the names of the characters are not typically associated with ,masculine names
-- innocence, beauty, and purity = Pony and “Stay Gold”

VII. Female Author
-- Arms around brothers = no, but arms around sisters is ok
-- It is stereotypically a dream to have a boy play hero (run into the fire to save kids) for a girl
-- a comment on the forbidden pregnancy
-- descriptive flourishes that are conceived as feminine embellishments

The Outsiders - notes from 10/18 class
Written by a woman? Why? “And we are generalizing”

  • The description of the men and the clothes of the girls
  • Affectionate characters (sleeping in the same bed, “are you cold” the males putting arms around each other
  • European in nature (very familial)
  • Ponyboy and the Frost poem (the greaser reciting poetry)
  • Johnny wanting to read Gone With the Wind
  •  Description of emotion is so detailed
  • Overlooked th4e female characters

And she was 16?
The boys:

  • Ponyboy
  • Dally
  • Johnny
  • Darry
  • Soda-pop
  • Two-bit

Socs vs. Greasers

  • Preppy, upper-class, rich kid, letter-sweater
  • Greasers is almost like hoods (see page 3)
  • Johnny killed Bob (Pony was grabbed);

Why do we fight?

  • Statement on youth counterculture
  • Exercise her own experiences at he time
  • To help youth identify with social tensions / class barriers / “everyone is an outsider (no one cares about me mentality)
  • - Life through the eyes of a youth
  • To show that characters like Darry can be better parents than the traditional parents

Johnny’s death represents:

  • Pony’s death of innocence

The letter as symbol of ________________

  • Immortality
  • An ending for J. but a new beginning for Pony (the paper)
  • An outlet for the social system of the Greasers
  • J.’s voice (non verbal on paper)

Johnny as puppy

  • Abused
  • A follower (yet he was loyal and protected Pony)
  • Just hanging around the gang

The Frost poem
Stay Golden Ponyboy (stay fresh, youthful, innocent)