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Similes
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis:
The style of S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders is direct and innocent. Told in first person from the perspective of 14-year-old Ponyboy Curtis, there is a certain pureness in the way Ponyboy perceives the world around him. Unlike his brothers and greaser friends, Ponyboy is not old enough to have been hardened yet by the harsh world. There is often very little subtext to Ponyboy's words, lending the story a very honest and to-the-point style:
I could feel my palms getting clammy and the perspiration running down my back. I get like that when I’m real scared. I glanced around for a pop bottle or a stick or something—Steve Randle, Soda’s best buddy, had once held off four guys with a busted pop bottle—but there was nothing. So I stood there like a bump on a log while they surrounded me. I don’t use my head. They walked around slowly, silently, smiling.
Sometimes Ponyboy narrates the story with facts and simple feelings, a result of his youthfulness. At other times, though, the narration sounds more detached, a symptom of the loss Ponyboy has experienced and the fear that he constantly endures. The story also uses fear as a driving force, implementing foreshadowing to push the plot forward and create a mirrored sense of dread in the reader.
Related Themes:
