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Foreshadowing
Genre
Explanation and Analysis:
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton is a coming-of-age novel that follows protagonist Ponyboy Curtis as he navigates the bitter rivalry between the greasers and the Socs. "Greasers" is a nickname for the middle-class teenagers in town who grease their hair back and don leather jackets. "Socs," short for "Socials," is a nickname for the wealthy teenagers who Ponyboy describes as "the West-side rich kids."
As a piece of young adult fiction in the modern American canon, the novel deals with themes of belonging, socioeconomic injustice, family, and newfound adulthood. As a teenager who feels like he doesn’t belong, Ponyboy struggles to understand his brothers and navigate interactions with his friends, greasers, and Socs alike.
The Outsiders is, overall, a novel about bravery and tenacity. Throughout the story, Ponyboy learns to refuse the greaser identity with which society seeks to label him. His journey teaches him that he can rise above the greaser label and continue to believe in a beautiful world. The novel's repeated motif of gold illustrates a brighter future, one in which Ponyboy and others like him can escape the cycle of crime and poverty. Ponyboy discovers that the world is so much bigger and more beautiful than the rivalry between the greasers and the Socs. All Ponyboy must do is be brave enough to hold on to that beauty.
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