56. the OUTSIDERS

S.E. Hinton 1967

Written by the author when she was seventeen years old in 1965, this is a young adult book also set in that period about Ponyboy who at fourteen was inside a gang called the Greasers and therefore an outsider of their opposite gang Socs. He narrates in a fast-paced story a series of suspenseful and tragic events involving gang rivalry, male friendship and brotherhood.

When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home. I was wishing I looked like Paul Newman--he looks tough and I don't--but I guess my own looks aren't so bad.(9)

We get jumped by the Socs. I'm not sure how you spell it, but it's the abbreviation for the Socials, the jet set, the West-side rich kids. It's like the term "greaser," which is used to class all us boys on the East side.(10)

Ponyboy's my real name and personally I like it....I've got a brother named Sodapop, and it says so on his birth certificate.(30)

You take up for your buddies, no matter what they do. When you're a gang, you stick up for the members. If you don't stick up for them, stick together, make like brothers, it isn't a gang anymore. It's a pack. A snarling, distrustful, bickering pack like the Socs in their social clubs or the street gangs in New York or the wolves in the timber.(34)

It';s not just money. You greasers have a different set of values. You're more emotional. We're sophisticated--cool to the point of not feeling anything. Nothing is real for us.(46)

Rat race is a perfect name for it...We're always going and going and going, and never asking where. Did you ever hear of having more than you wanted? So that you couldn't want anything else and then started looking for something else to want? It seems like we're always searching for something to satisfy us, and never finding it. Maybe if we could loose our cool we could.(46)

In the country...I loved the country. I wanted to be out of towns and away from excitement. I only wanted to lie on my back under a tree and read a book or draw a picture, and not worry about being jumped or carrying a blade or ending up married to some scatterbrained broad with no sense.(56)

A paperback copy of Gone with the Wind! How'd you know I always wanted one?(79)

He kept trying to make someone say 'No' and they never did. They never did. To have somebody lay down the law, set the limits, give him something solid to stand on. That's what we all want, really.(124)

You can't win, even if you whip us. And we'll still be the lucky ones with all the breaks. So it doesn't do any good, the fighting and the killing. It doesn't prove a thing. We'll forget it if you win, or if you don't. Greasers will still be greasers and Socs will still be Socs. Sometimes I think it's the ones in the middles that are rally the lucky stiffs...(125)

Sixteen years on the streets and you can learn a lot. But all the wrong things, not the things you want to learn. Sixteen years on the streets and you see a lot. But all the wrong sights, not the sights you want to see. (130)

...can you see the sunset real good from the West side?...You can see it good from he East side,too.(138)

Soda fought for fun, Steve for hatred, Darry for pride, and Two-Bit for conformity. Why do I fight? I thought, and couldn't think of any real good reason. There isn't any good reason for fighting except self-defense.(145)

A guy that'll really listen to you, listen and care about what you're saying, is something rare.(186)

Penguin Books
188 pages
Book owned