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A review by shreyas1599
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
5.0
I loved the story. I got the impression that I was reading a book similar to Catcher in the Rye. I suppose it had to be the teenage tone of the narrator throughout the book.
The story is about a group of teenagers growing up in a less-than-ideal strata of the city, and in conditions not conducive to moving up the socio-economic ladder. The greasers as they are called are in a perpetual battle with the socs who are members of the upper echelons of society. The socs are all people who experience first-world problems while the greasers experience all the harsh realities of life. There's a constant tussle between these two groups, who always try to one-up each other. All of it to no avail. Socs and greasers mixing is a big no-no.
The concept of greasers and socs is an ode to every kind of division that exists in the real world, from economic divisions, race divisions, religious divisions and many others. Tribalism is baked into our genes and there's running away from its manifestation in real life. The only question one should ask is in what form is it going to manifest and not whether or not it is going to make an appearance. Humans will find one way or another to form their own tribes and there's nothing that can stop them from doing it. Of course, there are always fringe members on each of those tribes, who try and make an effort to understand the perspectives of the so-called other tribe but those are a minority in almost every case. In this story too, there was Randy and Cherry and the protagonist himself who sort of understood their opposite group's lifestyle and situation that led them to why they were as they were, but nothing came of that.
You could also tell that the life experiences of the protagonist gave rise to a lot of maturity well beyond his years. Such as this quote:
"You read about people looking peacefully asleep when they’re dead but they don’t."
Death is never peaceful, and no matter how people try to sugarcoat events to rationalise horrific events, death can never be peaceful.
Of course, a lot of events in the story border on fiction but one almost feels a sense of realism while reading through it. I have never lived in an environment or witnessed first-hand an environment such as the one described in the book - so I might be way off base in terming it as unrealistic.
All in all, an excellent story.
The story is about a group of teenagers growing up in a less-than-ideal strata of the city, and in conditions not conducive to moving up the socio-economic ladder. The greasers as they are called are in a perpetual battle with the socs who are members of the upper echelons of society. The socs are all people who experience first-world problems while the greasers experience all the harsh realities of life. There's a constant tussle between these two groups, who always try to one-up each other. All of it to no avail. Socs and greasers mixing is a big no-no.
The concept of greasers and socs is an ode to every kind of division that exists in the real world, from economic divisions, race divisions, religious divisions and many others. Tribalism is baked into our genes and there's running away from its manifestation in real life. The only question one should ask is in what form is it going to manifest and not whether or not it is going to make an appearance. Humans will find one way or another to form their own tribes and there's nothing that can stop them from doing it. Of course, there are always fringe members on each of those tribes, who try and make an effort to understand the perspectives of the so-called other tribe but those are a minority in almost every case. In this story too, there was Randy and Cherry and the protagonist himself who sort of understood their opposite group's lifestyle and situation that led them to why they were as they were, but nothing came of that.
You could also tell that the life experiences of the protagonist gave rise to a lot of maturity well beyond his years. Such as this quote:
"You read about people looking peacefully asleep when they’re dead but they don’t."
Death is never peaceful, and no matter how people try to sugarcoat events to rationalise horrific events, death can never be peaceful.
Of course, a lot of events in the story border on fiction but one almost feels a sense of realism while reading through it. I have never lived in an environment or witnessed first-hand an environment such as the one described in the book - so I might be way off base in terming it as unrealistic.
All in all, an excellent story.