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Choose To Be Different - The Ousiders

1) The document discusses the novel The Outsiders, which explores social classes and judging people based on appearances. Specifically, it examines how some characters break from stereotypes of their social groups. 2) Ponyboy is shown to be innocent and kind-hearted unlike other greaser characters, demonstrating that not all people in a group are the same. Johnny also shows courage in saving children from a fire, breaking from his cowardly portrayal. 3) The soc Randy expresses wanting to stop fighting and sees no point in rivalry between the groups, choosing a different path than his friends. 4) Overall, the document analyzes how these characters defy expectations of their social castes, illustrating

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68 views2 pages

Choose To Be Different - The Ousiders

1) The document discusses the novel The Outsiders, which explores social classes and judging people based on appearances. Specifically, it examines how some characters break from stereotypes of their social groups. 2) Ponyboy is shown to be innocent and kind-hearted unlike other greaser characters, demonstrating that not all people in a group are the same. Johnny also shows courage in saving children from a fire, breaking from his cowardly portrayal. 3) The soc Randy expresses wanting to stop fighting and sees no point in rivalry between the groups, choosing a different path than his friends. 4) Overall, the document analyzes how these characters defy expectations of their social castes, illustrating

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© © All Rights Reserved
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Oil Ramita

1105
CHOOSE TO BE DIFFERENT

“Don’t judge the book by its cover.” Contrary to this idiom, people nowadays use
what they see from the outsides as a tool to judge one’s humanity. People are judged based
on their wealth, which distinguish humans into different classes. Humans consider one’s
social caste as what define who they are, regardless of their humanity. This case is presented
in the book, The Outsiders. The two groups; the Socs and Greasers are used to symbolize real
world situations, showing how people judge others due to their social classes. The Socs have
more money than the Greasers, they drive nicer cars and they have a clean haircut style. They
jump the Greasers and wreck houses because they think they're better than the Greasers.
Nevertheless, the author, S.E. Hinton, shows through the characters Ponyboy, Johnny, and
Randy that it is possible to break away from one’s social caste.

Throughout the story, S.E. Hinton illustrates that his innocence is what makes
Ponyboy difference from the rest of the Greasers. His innocence can be seen compared with
other characters such as Dally. Dally is a very cold and mean character. In the beginning, we
know the character of Dally from the statement “He had been arrested, he got drunk, jumped
small kids – he did everything.” (pg.11). It shows that he does not mind doing bad things.
Unlike Ponyboy who does not do any of those things at all. After Johnny killed Bob, Johnny
and Ponyboy were in stage of being shock. Dally response like nothing bad happened “Good
for you.” (pg.59). Beside this, in the book has tell us that “It would be a miracle if Dally
loved anything.” (pg.59). It showed that he didn’t even care about anything at all. Contrasting
to Ponyboy who loved so many people included Dally, Sodapop, Johnny and a lot more.
Moreover, he loves reading books, watching movies and sunset as he stated in the book that
“I liked my books and clouds and sunsets.” (pg.76). Also, Ponyboy does not recognize how
much Darry love and care for him which shows he is innocent. He states in the book that
“Darry doesn’t love anyone or anything, except may be Soda.” (pg.18). Still, we all know
that this is not true because Darry work really hard and dedicates his life to take care both
Sodapop and Ponyboy. None of the Greasers are like him, they prefer to go wild, get drunk
and get into fights instead. To some extent, through Ponyboy’s characteristics, it shown that
not every people in the same group are actually the same, so they can’t be judged based on
their social standing.

In the Greasers side, the story show that not only Ponyboy, but also Johnny who is
being different too. Johnny had big black eyes in a dark tanned face. He bears this nervous
and suspicious look in his eyes. Despite his cowardness, there is a great turning point in the
story that led to his death. The story highlights a key point in the story where, Johnny killed
Bob as self-defense. This led to a series of events, which changed Johnny completely. It can
be seen that the fire back of the horrid incident finally changed Johnny in a better way.
Finally, he applies his courage to save others. During their time at Windrixville, the church
was on fire, and there were kids trapped inside. He follows Ponyboy inside to save the kids.
Though the outcome was not in favor of him, he did show out that he was no coward. In his
last words, he mentioned, “Useless… fighting’s no good” (pg.148) and “Stay gold, Ponyboy,
Stay gold…” (pg.148). This supports the fact that fighting is nonsense and how he showed
care to Ponyboy to keep staying on the right path, to do the right thing in spite of their social
caste in our society. Johnny, therefore, is the person that shows that it’s possible to break
away from social caste if you choose to be who you really are.
Oil Ramita
1105

Similarly, a socs teenager Randy also chooses to be different. Randy is Bob’s best
friend and he is one of the socs that jumped Johnny and Ponyboy. The story shows that on
one particular moment after the horrid incident of Bob’s death, Randy decides to have a talk
with Ponyboy. In the talk, he mentions how he is tired of fighting. “-they’d think I was off
my rocker or turning soft. Maybe I am. I just know that I’m sick of this whole mess.”
(pg.116). From the quote, Randy implies that he does not want to fight anymore, “I’m sick of
it because it doesn’t do any good.” (pg.117), that it results in bad outcomes. He pointed out
that the fighting does not change or prove anything between the rivalry of the Greasers and
the Socs. At the near end of the story, Randy comes to visit Ponyboy due to his fever and his
feeble body from the rumble. “Ponyboy, one reason I came here was to see if you were okay,
but you-we- got to go see the judge tomorrow.” (pg.164). Although he is a Soc, Randy seems
to have concern and care on Ponyboy, a greaser kid. The story also emphasized how Randy
was showing his great concern to Ponyboy. “Randy looked worried, he really did. A Soc,
even, worried because some kid greaser was on his way to foster home or something.”
(pg.165) From all that mentioned above, it can be concluded that by looking from the social
classes cannot define who you really are.

Though Ponyboy, Darry, and Randy choose to be different, they illustrate the ideas
that you cannot judge others unless you actually know them. Considering the behaviors of the
characters, it can be concluded that it is possible to break away from the social caste
judgement and do righteous actions. Being a greaser or a soc does not define you, whether
you are right or wrong. It is the individual act that defines the person. “Don't let your luggage
define your travels, each life unravels differently.”, said Koyczan, a famous Canadian poet.

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