The Outsiders Debate Essay

“For thugs from the ghetto, violence is a way of life - it’s what helps you survive.” The Socs and the Greasers were two gangs in The Outsiders. Throughout the novel these two gangs had a continuous rivalry. Society viewed these two gangs differently. The Socs as rich kids and the Greasers as poor kids.

Where the Socs more harmful to society that the greasers, or were the greasers total outcasts to society. It's hard to say which, but I have come to a conclusion. I think that the Socs were more of a disgrace and menace to society because they were the ones that attacked Johnny and Ponyboy when the greasers didn't even want to fight with the Socs. This also proves that the Socs don’t really care about what happens to the greasers which further messes up Society. A second piece of evidence that proves that the Socs are not as good as the greasers in society is how they act. Most of the Socs would attack or provoke the greasers if they ever meet, but if you look at Ponyboy and Johnny, you would know that they would only fight if provoked. The

Finally, Johnny is not justified in what he did and is guilty because Johnny killed Bob, who didn’t cause any physical harm in the fight. Johnny stated that “‘I killed that boy.’ Bob, the handsome Soc, was lying there in the moonlight, doubled up and still” (56). This states that Johnny killed Bob instead of David, who was the one harming Ponyboy. This means that Johnny must have wanted to harm Bob for what he has done in the past.

“For thugs from the ghetto, violence is a way of life - it’s what helps you survive.” The Socs and the Greasers were two gangs in The Outsiders. Throughout the novel these two gangs had a continuous rivalry. These two gangs were viewed differently by society. The Socs as rich kids and the Greasers as poor kids.

The socs were bullies. If they saw a greaser alone they would gang up on

A greaser is really a hood “gang” that no one really cares about but they get into a lot of trouble and go to jail a lot. A soc is in a higher class and are very smart and talented yet are very mean and brutal to the greasers. I would personally be a mean tuff greaser than the little rich kids that lose fights. The greasers and the socs have a war between them, neither of them like each other. The greasers get jumped by the socs all the time, and they are more scared of them because they are older, at least most of them. Quite a ways through the book, towards the end, the greasers and socs have a “rumble” it is kinda like a HUGE fight between everyone! All though the greasers won that doesn’t make any less of the socs. The greasers are all

The five Socs could have been armed with guns or each have a blade. All the Socs, especially these five were always known for being tough and always trying to get the last word in. They are also known for starting fights which is basically what they did with Johnny and Ponyboy. Johnny risked his life very much to save a friend that was more of a brother to him, as well as one of the only people that cared for him. “....they were going to beat me up…”

Johnny is justified in what he did and did it because the socs were about to drown Ponyboy so Johnny had to act. The text states ”I had to. They were drowning you, Pony. They might have killed you” (Hinton 57). This evidence proves that Ponyboy was about to be drowned, and Johnny had to step in and stab Bob in order to save Pony. Therefore Johnny is not guilty of murder because he was acting in defense of his friend who was being drowned.

The Greasers and the Socs are two different social classes in the neighborhood that have their differences and take up their problems with violence. Socs versus Greasers beef gets heated when Bob the head Socs gets killed. Greasers mourn the loss of two loved members when they die. In the book, The Outsiders, Hinton uses conflict, dynamic characters, and static characters to show that violence is not always the answer. Hinton uses conflict to show that being tough and violent doesn’t always get you where you want to be.

This reveals that Johnny was looking out for Ponyboy during that situation. If Johnny didn’t do something immediately, then Ponyboy would have been hurt or even killed. In conclusion, Johnny was defending himself from Bob because Bob was the leader of the group.

Imagine you lived in a place where you always had to watch your back and there was always another brutal enemy. The only way to survive was through violence, as if you were born with a knife. S.E. Hinton depicted this world in her novel The Outsiders. She wrote about two feuding teenage gangs; the Socs, who were “the West-side rich kids” (page 2), and the Greasers, who were poor. The rivalry between the two groups ran deep and the question surfaces: who is to blame for the conflict? Although the book is written from the perspective of the Greasers, and the Socs are shown as the bad guys, there is a case to be made that the conflicts in the book started with the Greasers.

Johnny made the choice to fight the group of Socials who were drowning Ponyboy. After Johnny and Ponyboy run away, they wander into the park, where they meet a group of drunk Socials. The Socials are furious at Ponyboy and Johnny, since they watched part of a movie and were walking their girlfriends Cherry and Marcia home. The pair attempted to run from them, but were easily caught and Ponyboy was dragged to a fountain where the Socials began to drown him. The other Socs who weren't drowning Ponyboy, most likely did not see Johnny as a threat and left him to observe Ponyboy getting drowned. But little did they know, Johnny had a switchblade, which he used to stab the Socials leader, Bob. I think that Johnny made the right choice to injure

(Hilton pg5 The socs want to fight with the Greasers. The Greasers have it harder. They get beat up and they don’t get a rest from it. The Greasers are Getting beat up violently. This shows the struggle of the group byAlso

We were all hyped about the rumble; we were all ready to show the Socs what us Greasers were made of. We just had to wait for Dally and Johnny to show and then we would be ready for the rumble.

I think that the Socials started the rumble. The socials are always looking for a fight. And when they do fight, they’re drunk so even if you wanted to talk them out of it, you couldn’t. The Socials are the ones that usually start fights too, I mean, did you see what the did to poor Johnny? He was defenseless with no weapon and they beat him to a pulp! For no particular reason too. They show no mercy at all.