The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton is about gang rivalry between two social classes, the poor and powerless Greasers and the rich and appealing Socs. The Greasers disliked the Socs because they believed the Socs had everything easy with their money and privileges. On the other hand, the Socs have been always drunk and choose to pick fights with the Greasers. These gang fights, or “rumbles” would usually consist of violence, brutality, and competition, and result in bruises, wounds, and at times, death. Moreover, violence is a “behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something.” Throughout this novel, there are many significant events that portray the theme of violence.
To begin with, physical violence is represented in The Outsiders. The Greasers carry around and use weapons such as guns and switchblades whenever a Soc wanted to fight or jump them. As an example, in chapter 4, Johnny stabbed Bob with a switchblade at the park and stated that he had killed him in self- defense …show more content…
Nonetheless, an example would be when the Socs seeked for revenge and settled a rumble because Johnny had killed one of the Socs. This depicts that the rumble would resolve a fair relationship between the Greasers and Socs. To continue, after they left off to hide from the police from killing Bob, Ponyboy and Johnny had also endured the consequences of boredom, hunger, and getting sick. In other words, Johnny and Ponyboy hid in the abandoned church with a book, baloney, playing cards, and more. As days passed, they quickly got bored of playing poker, continuously feeding on baloney, and getting ill from smoking too much cigarettes. This describes that if they had just turned themselves in initially, Johnny and Ponyboy wouldn’t have had to go to even more trouble to survive. Likewise, acts of violence could also lead to catastrophic