The Book I have chosen is the "The Outsiders- by SE Hinton. The author wrote the story when she was just 16 years old, in the 1950s. The book was successful, and it was sold, and still being sold, as a young adult's novel. There was a movie and plays made about it, and today there are still many high schools that use this book for English classes. .
The Outsiders is about a gang. They live in a city in Oklahoma. Ponyboy Curtis, a 14 year old greaser, tells the story. Other characters include Sodapop and Darry, Ponyboy's brothers, Johnny, Dallas, and Two- Bit, who are also gang members and Ponyboy's friends. This story deals with two forms of social classes: the socs, the rich kids, and the greasers, the poor kids. The socs go around looking for trouble and greasers to beat up, and then the greasers are blamed for it, because they are poor and cannot influence the authorities. .
The plot is easy to follow and the first sentence starts right away with the plot "without any forewords. Quote "When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house."" (page 9). As you can see, it goes straight to the point. Events occur in a reasonable order. The ending of the story was a bit expected although it was nevertheless effective. I anticipated the death of Johnny. The death of Dally was not as predictable as Johnny's death because it was said that: Quote "He was tougher than the rest of us "tougher, colder, meaner."" (page 19). I did not think that such a tough person would get himself killed because of a death of a friend, although it was said a short time before the death of Dally that: Quote "Johnny was the only thing Dally loved."" (page 160). The climaxes at the end of the story were the deaths of Johnny and Dally. Here are quotations about the deaths: Johnny's death: Quote "The pillow seemed to sink a little, and Johnny died."" (page 157). Dally's death: Quote "He was jerked half around by the impact of the bullets, then slowly crumpled with a look of grim triumph on his face.
