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Socioeconomic Status In S. E. Hinton's 'The Outsiders'

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Socioeconomic Status In S. E. Hinton's 'The Outsiders'
Introduction

In “The Outsiders” S.E Hinton creates a realistic theme and a protagonist that will intrigue young readers.

The Theme

Mclean (2011) states that young readers experience real life situations by reading about them. Division by socioeconomic status is a theme that all teenagers can relate to. According to Hinton (1967) there is a clear social division between the teenagers that live on the West- and East-side of the town. This division is caused by socioeconomic status. Hinton (1967) states that the rich teenagers live on the West-side and the poor teenagers live on the East-side of the town. Hinton (1967) classifies the East-side teenagers as ‘Greasers’ and the West-side teenagers as ‘Socs’. The protagonist, Ponyboy, is from the East-side of town. He is a ‘Greaser’. Ponyboy, dresses, behaves and even talks like a typical ‘Greaser’. Ponyboy is aware of the social division between the ‘Socs’ and ‘Greasers’ and the fact that these two social groups do not get along or like one another. Socioeconomic divisions are found in everyday life. Irrespective of all other trades and circumstances we are labelled by demographics. In their adolescent stage, teenagers will become aware of their socioeconomic status as they realise and start to weigh their monetary worth according to their peers. Teenagers will measure their status using non-traditional measures for …show more content…
The protagonist, Ponyboy, is portrayed by Hinton (1967) as a normal, inexperienced teenage boy that has to deal with real life problems that all teenagers will face such as looks, being disliked by peers as well as being different or having different interest from a social or peer
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