This novel starts off with the main character, Ponyboy Curtis, getting jumped and attacked by a group of people known as the Socs. In this story, there are two sides of people, the Greaser and the Socs. The Outsiders takes place in Ponyboy Curtis' point of view which means that it is written from a Greasers point of view. Ponyboy has two older brothers, Sodapop (age 16) and Darry (age 20). This novel explains the struggles of being a Greaser and the everyday life they have.
The Outsiders consists of many characters that are both Greasers and Socs. The Greasers mentioned in the book follow.
The following Socs mentioned in the book follow.
IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE OUTSIDERS FULLY THROUGH, I RECOMMEND THAT YOU DO NOT CONTINUE AS THE SUMMARY DOES INCLUDE CERTAIN SPOILERS AND CAN RUIN THE EXCITEMENT OF THE BOOK. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
As you read in the basic introduction, this story starts off with the main character and point of view, Ponyboy Curtis, getting jumped by a group of Socs. The Socs end up beating up poor Ponyboy until the rest of the gang see him in trouble and help him out. Ponyboy lives a very hard life with his two other brothers since both his parents have been killed in a hideous car accident. Greasers have always had it tough since the Socs blame the Greasers for everything that happens, even if they didn't do it.
During the book, there was this one night at the drive-in where the greasers meet some people. Two girls, Cherry Valance and Marcia, were at the drive-in because their two boyfriends just left them there. Marcia and Cherry are both Socs and so are their boyfriends, which made it very rare for the two groups to meet. When the Greasers first met them, Ponyboy and Cherry had a very strong connection as they both enjoyed the scene of sunsets. A couple moments have passed and as the Greasers started heading home, along with the two Socs, they bumped into the girl's boyfriends, who scolded them and took the girls home. Ponyboy and Johnny got past the event and went to their favourite lot, where they both accidentally fell asleep. When Pony awoke, he got up and ran home, where Darry yelled at him for being late and hit him. That hit made Pony upset and it led to Pony running back to find Johnny and telling him that the two of them were running away. As the two of them were running, they were stopped and jumped by the two boyfriends, Bob Sheldon and Randy Adderson. Bob starting drowning Pony and as a self-defence tactic, Johnny stabbed Bob with his switchblade. After Pony has awoken, the two of them start to run away, but they needed a couple other things first. They begin to run to find Dally, who gives them a gun and some money and tells them to head to the train that would take them to Windrixville and to stay at the old abandoned church.
In the first week of Johnny and Ponyboy staying at the church, they cut their hair, ate some baloney, and smoked quite a bit. Dally comes to visit them and takes them to a Dairy Queen to get some burgers. As they were out, Johnny confessed how he had wanted to turn himself in. When the three boys were heading back to the hideout, they came across a big surprise. The church apparently went on fire and Johnny and Pony rushed to the scene. There was a small group of kids from a school who witnessed the start of it during their school picnic. They realized there were some kids in the church, so the boys went in to save them. As they were climbing out, Johnny was stopped and knocked out cold by an enormous piece of burning timber that burnt his back. They were taken to a hospital in the country and Soda and Darry was there to meet and pick up Ponyboy. The group learnt that Johnny is in critical condition and that the rumble was coming up so Darry and Soda took Ponyboy back home to get ready for the rumble. Pony starts feeling sick but goes to the rumble anyways and the Greasers win.
After the rumble had finished, Dally grabbed Ponyboy and rushed to the hospital to see Johnny. Unfortunately, Johnny was dying and for his last words he told Ponyboy "Stay gold, Ponyboy." Dally rushed out of the hospital due to emotions, since he only ever loved Johnny and robbed a grocery store. He called up the rest of the gang and told them to meet him in the lot, where Dally pulls an unloaded gun on the police and gets shot and died. Ponyboy then passes out and becomes sick for the rest of the weekend. When Ponyboy awoke once again, he starts denying Johnny's death because he is still very emotional and sad about it. He eventually comes over this denial phase but just when everything was becoming back to normal, Ponyboy is told by his teacher that his grades are dropping and he was worried about him. The teacher gave Ponyboy a compromise, if he got a good mark on his writing piece, he will pass Ponyboy with a C. Ponyboy then begins writing about the story of his life.
The Outsiders was a very interesting and suspenseful book to read. There were a variety of events that have happened in this novel which was good, as it allowed it to have a lot of action going on as well as a few other factors. I really liked the personalities of each character and the story behind them. It feels like nowadays in novels, there isn't an amazing backstory or personality embedded into the characters. They're just a normal human being who just happened to reflect Voldemort's curse. That's all there is in characters these days. But the people in this book were different. They all had similarities with one another, but they were also unique. Personally, I think every character brings something to the novel, and it's not a cliche that often. This book was very well put together, especially since it was made quite a long time ago. The main thing I loved most about this book, was the suspense. Every chapter leaves you on the edge of a cliff. And I'm not speaking metaphorically. It literally feels as if you're about to fall off a cliff. I'm serious. It's so dang good. I didn't even think an author could make a book so suspenseful, that you want to die if you don't read the next chapter. Well, that's what I feel about the book. Overall, I think this book is amazing and you would agree if you read it.