Looking In-depth at The Outsiders

By Susie Rogers’ 7th Grade ELA Class

Analyzing The Outsiders

The 7th graders are loving the novel, The Outsiders, and have been exploring various themes such as family unit, time period, violence, innocence, and actions. Each student analyzed a specific topic and expressed their views. 

Family by Zachary Bobo

In the novel The Outsiders, Ponyboy is living with his brothers Soda and Darry. A few months before the story takes place his parents are killed in a car crash so it’s just Ponyboy his brothers and the gang. The gang is like family to him, Dally, Johnny, Two-bit, and Steve. He even mentions that they leave the door open in case someone needs a place to sleep after getting in a fight. They’ve always had each other’s backs. Ponyboy has a family, and he has the gang.

Violence by Kaden Wells

The rumbles that the Socs and the Greasers had would always end up causing way too much violence. It was never just a one on one fight; people would get jumped by multiple people, then some would pull out knives(blades). All of the different greasers fought for different reasons Soda fought for fun, Steve for hatred, Darry for pride, and Two-Bit for conformity. The only one who needed a reason to fight was Pony-Boy and Johnny that was self-defense.

Robert Frost by Addison Bobo

We are reading the book The Outsiders in class and in this book the main character, Ponyboy mentions the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost. Ponyboy mentions this poem when he and Johnny are on the run because Jonny killed a Soc in self-defense. They talk about the line in the poem that says nothing gold can stay. At first, they don’t realize that it means nothing good can stay and that all good things will come to an end, but then Johnny realizes it. Johnny then tells Ponyboy to stay golden which means stay innocent.

Johnny by David Mayo

In The Outsiders, one of the main characters, Johnny, is very quiet, but brave. He is also extremely loyal. He is actually so loyal that he killed a boy to save Ponyboy’s life. Ponyboy thinks deeply, and he tries to find the beauty in things. Ponyboy is showing Johnny how to do that too, and Johnny is enjoying it. Johnny said he never really noticed the colors until Ponyboy showed him.

The Fire Scene by Katherine Ayers

As we were reading The Outsiders, we read about a church fire. Ponyboy and Johnny saw the fire and went to the church because they were staying there before. Fortunately, Ponyboy and Johnny were not in the church when it caught fire, but there were children in there. Johnny and Ponyboy went in to save the kids. All of the kids were okay, but Johnny, Dally, and Ponyboy were hurt. Johnny was in the most critical condition. The three of them saved the kids because they thought it was their fault that the church caught fire. Ponyboy thought that he or Johnny left a cigarette on the ground, so they saved them.

Self-Defense? By Morgan Yost

When we were reading The Outsiders, one of the main characters killed someone who was attacking him and his friend. I think that Johnny killed Bob in self-defense. He was protecting himself and Ponyboy.  They were drowning Ponyboy and had pulled a knife on Johnny. If people were about to kill your best friend, would you just stand there or would you try and protect them? If I were Johnny, I would have run away knowing I had no chance in court because I was a Greaser going up against a Soc, even if I did it out of self-defense. 

Time Period by Staten Crossland

The book The Outsiders is written in 1960. A lot of things you could do then but not in 2021. One of the things is kids could smoke. Some of the greaser kids started smoking at a young age. Johnny started at nine, and Steve started at eleven.  In the year 1960, some people would get married at 20. Sometimes they even got married after they got out of high school.