Summary:
S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders" is the story of youth gangs and conflict set in the 1960s. The novel is compared to the 1983 movie version.
In 1968, a fifteen year old girl named S.E. Hinton published a book called The Outsiders. It was a story of a young boy named Ponyboy who is from the hood, and his ongoing battles with the rich kids (Socs.) The book is still read and is very popular today. It is so popular that in 1983, a movie of the book was released. Though there were several differences between the book and the movie, there were also many similarities and hidden meanings.
In the book, Dally, a hoodlum, had blonde hair and blue eyes. So even though he had been through all of these hardships, he was still almost soft in a way because of this. In the movie however, they portrayed Dally as fierce and dark, with brown hair and brown eyes, which symbolized that he had no more good in him.
Another big part of the book that the movie left out was a hospital scene. In the movie, Johnny, is abused physically and mentally by his parents. That's why in the hospital, he won't see his mother, but he will see his friends. Because of this, his mother glares at Two-Bit and Ponyboy for being allowed to see Johnny. This implies that Johnny loves his friends more then his family and his friends almost were his family.
After saving children from a burning church, Johnny and Ponyboy are labeled heroes. However, even though Dally helped them save the kids, he was not mentioned in the newspaper article about the fire and how brave the boys were. Which implied that he was not cared for and he "didn't die a hero. He died violent and young and desperate." (Page 154.) Where as when Johnny died, he was a hero for the entire town to recognize. But in the movie, Dally is mentioned in the newspaper article, which loses some of the meaning of his death.
While being stuck in a church with nothing to do, Ponyboy reads to Johnny Gone With the Wind. While Ponyboy is reading it, Johnny mentioned that he thought the Southern gentlemen "were cool ol' guys," (Page 75,) because even though they were riding into death, they were doing it gallantly and with their heads held high. In the movie, they didn't mention this, which affected it because that part made Johnny seem more gallant when he died.
In the movie, Cherry Valance and Ponyboy get into a heated argument about why she wouldn't go see Johnny when he was dying. While they are doing this, the sun is setting, which signifies Ponyboy turning from nice to mean, or from innocent, pure and "gold" to not so innocent and pure. Even though this didn't happen in the book, it signified something important, as Ponyboy matured from the conversation after all.
When Johnny dies, Ponyboy receives a note that Johnny had the nurses give to him. It says things about how he doesn't "mind dying now. It's worth it. It's worth saving those kids." (Page 178.) That represented what Jesus Christ did for Christians; he died for them, just like Johnny did for those kids. Also, Johnny's initials are J.C. just like Jesus'.
In conclusion, The Outsiders had a lot of hidden messages in it. From the movie to the book, from Jesus Christ to sunsets, The Outsiders really makes people think.
This is the complete article, containing 555 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
