I couldn't even remember that poem around them. I mean, I couldn't tell Two-Bit or Steve or even Darry about the sunrise and clouds and stuff. 'Well,' I said, thinking this over, 'you ain't like any of the gang. And Darry is thespittin' image of your father, but he ain't wild and laughing all the time like he was. I meant, well, Soda kinda looks like your mother did, but he acts just exactly like your father. Their experience together establishes how different they are from their gang, which they can embrace when they're far away. They bleach their hair and go into hiding away from their fellow greasers. Ponyboy struggles with his identity throughout the story as he tries to figure out whether he wants to be more of a greaser, or whether he wants to be himself.Īfter Bob Sheldon dies, Ponyboy and Johnny are on the run from the law - and the rest of the Socs.
dirty.'"Ĭharacters such as Cherry and Johnny often tell Ponyboy that he's not like the other greasers he's too nice and sweet to be like them. 'No,' Cherry said slowly, looking at me carefully, 'not innocent. 'Sure,' I said tiredly, 'we're young and innocent' Besides that, I've heard about Dallas Winston, and he looked as hard as nails and twice as tough. Aid when we asked you to sit up here with us, you didn't act like it was an invitation to make out for the night. In Dallas's dirty talk, and you made him leave us alone. But Cherry Valance thinks that he's different from the other greasers: "Cherry sighed. He talks about his brother Darry's protective, no-nonsense nature, his other brother Sodapop's good looks and unique personality, his friend Johnny's nervous but kind nature, and all the other greasers in admiring detail. Ponyboy learns more about himself as he changes his definition of both gangs toward the end of the book.Īs the narrator, Ponyboy describes his fellow greasers in very individualistic ways. It becomes more and more difficult for Ponyboy to justify the difference between the gangs when he realizes it's not so black and white. They used to be buddies, I thought, they used to be friends, and now they hate each other because one has to work for a living and the other comes from the West Side. Still Darry and the Soc walked slowly in a circle. "The silence grew heavier, and I could hear the harsh heavy breathing of the boys around me. However, his opinion becomes less clear cut after he meets Socs who don't fit his definition, such as Cherry Valance and Bob Sheldon, whom Johnny killed to save Ponyboy. Ponyboy sees the clear differences between the gangs at the beginning of the book. Greasers are almost like hoods we steal things and drive old souped-up cars and hold up gas stations and have a gang fight once in a while." Not like the Socs, who jump greasers and wreck houses and throw beer blasts for kicks, and get editorials in the paper for being a public disgrace one day and an asset to society the next. "We're poorer than the Socs and the middle class. The greasers see the Socs as haughty and condescending, and the Socs see the greasers as poor troublemakers.
In 1960s Tulsa, Oklahoma, where The Outsiders is set, there are two main street gangs: the greasers and the Socs.