The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Mistaken Misfits by Makayla Wright

The Outsiders is a classic book that every person that has gone through school has most likely read or heard of. It’s the classic storyline of the rich vs. the poor, burnouts vs. the jocks, etc. There’s a deeper meaning to this story though about how just because they are rebellious they still are smart and have deep thoughts.

The book The Outsiders is about a group of guys called outsiders because they don’t meet the normal standards of teenagers in that time. The teenagers considered normal were rich kids called socs. Ponyboy and Johnny kill a soc because the socs started a fight with them. They leave town so they don’t go to jail and while they’re out of town they stay in a church, meanwhile the church caught on fire. There are kids inside the church and Johnny, Ponyboy, and Dally go inside to save them and have to go to the hospital for smoke inhalation. Ponyboy and Dally are fine but Johnny has to stay because his case is worse. There’s a rumble between the outsiders and the socs, then Johnny dies, and Dally holds up the local convenience store and the police go after him and kill him.

In book club we didn’t talk too much about the book because we also watched the movie but what we said was basically the summary of the book and some people said they liked it because it was relatable and a classic and I agree with that completely.

I think there’s a deeper meaning than just the fact they’re misfits who go through troubles, they show that even though they have to be tough guys they still care about their friends a lot and they have a lot of feelings. The part where they read the “Stay Gold” poem is kind of a symbol for the fact that most of their lives they’ve had to be tough and fight but they still have a lot of innocence inside of them and they’re still pure and good. It’s one of the best books I’ve read and I think that’s a super important theme in the book.

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