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The Outsiders Theme Essay

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Outsider Themes Have you ever thought that something as little as a theme can change the entire plot of a book? In the novel, The Outsiders, by S.E Hinton, life is divided by the two main social groups: the Greasers, who are known to cause trouble and have a reputation of being dangerous, and the Socs, the people who are known to get all the breaks and are able to get away with anything they do. Ponyboy and his gang live their daily life rivaling against their enemy, the Socs, until things turn and events change the way they live their lives. People then realize things are not the way it seems to be and they find out the true meaning of life, the hard way. Throughout the story, many different themes are displayed, yet the two main and effective themes are changes over time and loyalty. First of all, changes over time can be found through each scene and event in the book. The first example is …show more content…
The main character, Ponyboy Curtis, states, “You take up for your buddies, no matter what they do. When you’re in a gang, you stick up for the members.” This shows loyalty because Ponyboy is trying to convey that a gang is like a family so everybody trusts and sticks up for one another. Therefore, Ponyboy’s gang lives their lives and solve problems through loyalty with each other, showing that this is an important theme in the novel, because without it, each character’s lives would be much more difficult and harder. Another example can be shown when the socs are jumping Johnny and Ponyboy and they start drowning Ponyboy, until Johnny comes and saves him with his blade. This displays loyalty because Johnny and Ponyboy were greatly outnumbered but instead of running away, Johnny was loyal to Ponyboy and saved him from dying. Johnny had a reputation of being the shy person in a group, yet he still risked his life in order to help a friend. Obviously, loyalty is very conspicuous theme in the

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