Kentucky Fried Connor

The outsiders

The novel the outsiders by S.E. Hinton, is an interesting book. The film version is similar in some aspects. The book takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1965, but it is never stated in the book. The story is about a bunch of teenagers in a gang, in a rivalry with another gang. The story is based on the ‘greasers’ and ‘socs’. The main character, ‘Ponyboy’ is a 14 year old boy that is the brother of ‘sodapop’ a 15 year old boy, and brother of, ‘Dallas Winston’ who is there caretaker, because their parents died when they were children. These boys are all greasers along with their friends; Johnny, dally, Darry and two- bit.

The story starts off with ponyboy waiting at the cinema, when a blue mustang full of socs appears. They chase him and end up pinning him down and ganging up on him. He gets cut on the throat in all the movement when they pull a blade to him. The greasers appear out of nowhere and scare the socs off. A bit further into the story, Ponyboy, Sodapop and dally are at the drive in, hitting on cherry and Marcia, two girls that they had just met. Dally is being mean to the girls and walks off. The girls tell ponyboy and sodapop that they are too nice to be greasers. They all walk off together, when the blue mustang appears, soda pulls out a butterfly knife, breaks a bottle and hands it to pony, but he does not know what to do with it. They are about to fight, but cherry does not allow it, she says she hates fights. Soda and Johnny walk to an area known as ‘the wasteland’ and lay on a mattress. Ponyboy falls asleep and has a dream about his parents.

Ponyboy walks home and Dallas is aggravated because they have been out all night. Dallas hits pony and he runs back to the wasteland and him and Johnny run away. They walk to a playground when the blue mustang once again turns up with the socs in it. They pick a fight and are trying to drown ponyboy. Johnny has no choice but to pull out a knife and he stabs a greaser known as Bob. When pony awakes, Johnny is sitting down next to him crying. Pony takes a look at the dead person lying in blood and Johnny tells him that he killed him. Pony goes away for a minute and throws up. The boys run to a pub to meet Darry or Dally (I can’t remember) and they go up to a room. He hands the boys a gun and gives pony a dry shirt, (because he was getting drowned in the fountain) and tells them that there is an old abandoned church on a hill.

 The movie version of the story skip out some parts, like a side story that is sodas pretend pet horse. Soda finds a horse named Mickey Mouse (which is why he is always wearing Mickey Mouse shirts in the movie) but it gets sold and he is devastated.

In general, I believe that the novel version is better because it is original, and it describes the characters better and doesn’t miss bits out. It is more likely to have people engaged in it.

Krystopher Lloyd Opstelten

The Outsiders was written by S.E. Hinton in 1965 first published in 1967 by Viking Press. This novel is about the new age of gangs and the terrible things they do. This book follows the activities of two rival gangs known as the Greasers and the Socs.  Tension arises when two members of the Greasers gang, Ponyboy and Johnny, get jumped by a group of Socs. During this gang fight Ponyboy was being drowned in a fountain by a Soc named Bob.  Johnny used a knife to stab Bob and save Ponyboy but Bob died and the conflict between the gangs increased.

So now let me talk to you about the main differences I uncovered between the book and the movie. The novel certainly lacked the violence that was portrayed in the film and was more concerned with the characters. In the novel I found it quite simplistic in some parts but the character portrayal was quite complex. All around the novel was a good read and easy to follow and at some points I was asking myself questions as I felt involved in the scenes and situations that Hinton described throughout this great novel. Another odd difference was that the descriptions of the characters in the book were not reflected in the appearance of the same characters in the movie. Dally is supposed to be blonde with ice blue eyes but has dark hair in the film. Another thing I picked up on was that Ponyboy and Johnny weren’t swearing in the book but certainly let fly in the film.

In the film it was mostly violence, violence, violence! The cinematic version of the Outsiders emphasised the brawls and scenes when the Socs and Greasers were head to head fighting or arguing with each other. Although it is more simple and less story line involved this one would have clearly been a favourite for those of you who are into action packed thrills! In this the characters such as Ponyboy and Johnny are always getting into trouble with the Socs and having to get out of situations or stand up to them!

Now let me talk about the stylistic features in The Outsiders. One of the main motifs would definitely be the car, do you not agree? The Socs’ mustangs always driving around and coming into shots is a symbol of the Socs power and authority against the Greasers vulnerability. The conflict between rich and poor is shown in this series as it is the rich Socs verses the poor Greasers. In general the novel’s gloomy prognosis is that the battle between the classes is a long-lasting one

In general I found the novel to be more complex and engaging in a way where you have to imagine the brawls whereas the film was just get up and go for me! But in my opinion the book was better, understanding the finer parts of The Outsiders really draws you into it that little step further to complete that goal of a good book!

matthew schunemannnananannananananaa is awsome

The Outsiders

It is common for films to be made about stories and books. Sometimes the film makers change some of the characters or events in the film to make it more popular. The film “The Outsiders” is based on the novel “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton. The movie is better because of the visual aspect of the plot, characters and the stylistic features. The plot is the most important of the plot, characters and stylistic features.

The plot of both the novel and the film show the terrible things that happen when the Greasers and the socials, otherwise known as the socs. The socs live in the west side of the town and are very popular. They come from wealthier backgrounds than the greasers who live the east side of the town. The movie focuses on Johnny and Pony Boy’s adventure and the troubles that Pony boy goes through at home. The movie portrays this better by giving the viewer a visual effect and more of a feeling towards what happens. This is how the Movie portrays the plot better.

The characters are the socs and the greasers. The greasers are from very poor background who struggle to survive every day. They are led by Darry who looks after his two brothers Pony-Boy and Soda-Pop because their parents died a couple of years back. Jonny and Steve are other members in the gang. The socs live on the rich side of town and drive around in fancy cars. There are only a few members of the main gang, bob and cherry who are in the main events of the movie like when they were at the drive in. The movie is better at showing the characters because you get a sense of what they look like and how they interact with each other. This is why the characters are easier to relate to in the movie then the novel.

The stylistic features of the film include visual choices and symbolism/motifs. This makes the film better because it explains visual choices and symbolism better, because the viewer is able to see it. Some examples of this include sunset. This is a symbol for childhood innocence.  The film explains this better because the viewer is more engaging than the film. This makes the viewer more emotional towards the characters. This is how the film uses the stylistic features to make the viewer more engaged in the film.

The film was a spectacular in the way it used its characters, plot and stylistic features to make the people more engaged with the movie. This is how the film makes the viewer’s listen more and become more engaged with the film rather than the novel.

The outsiders review: Aidan Hughes

Stay Gold

Reveals ending

“The Outsiders” was an amazing novel and an alright film about a boy who is fourteen called Ponyboy who is the narrator in the book.Ponyboy is a Greaser, someone who is poorer and likes to wear their hair long with lots of grease. Greasers are terrorised by the Socs or richer people, in turn the greasers tend to form gangs and are violent. Ponyboy is in a gang with his two brothers Darry and Sodapop as well as Dally, Johnny, Two-Bit Mathew and Steve. Johnny is sixteen and is great friends with Ponyboy and was “jumped” by some socs in a blue mustang.  After Ponyboy, Johnny and Two-bit give Bob’s and Randy’s girlfriends, Cherry and Marcia, a ride after a movie Bob and Randy decide to bash Pony and Johnny. As Ponyboy is drowning the only way Johnny can help is by killing Bob with a switch blade. This means the two have to go and find Dally for some help. Dallas tells them to go to an abandoned church in the country to live for a while.  The novel was written by Susan Eloise Hinton who was seventeen when it was first published.

The events in the novel are more sensitive and emotional. You get a better idea of what was happening and the way it was affecting the characters due to Pony’s narration. Some stories and childhood memories that build Ponyboy’s character are removed from the film such as Soda’s horse Mickey Mouse.  

The characters in the novel and the film help to tell the story. In the novel you get a sense that you’ve known the characters for years and understand their point of view. The greases are also more distinctive in the novel and are closer to hoodlums than the film makes them to be. The films characters are close to the original but don’t have the same life to them as the novel did even t0hough most of the lines where the same or similar. They didn’t express the same personality as the novel.  An example of this is Dally in the film he’s the cool guy and is calm most of the time whereas in the novel he’s the scary guy you don’t mess around with an example of this is when Johnny told him to leave Cherry and her friend alone Ponyboy thinks of how Dallas once belted a complete stranger for telling him what to do. 

The novel was much better than film as the narration and the emotions of Ponyboy seems to tell the story much better though the movie did a good job in the way they presented the film. The use of slang makes the novel more realistic and gives you a clear sense of how things would happen and sound. The film is over dramatic and is mournful in different parts examples of this are when Johnny dies, its less emotional compared to when dally is killed. In the novel Dally is shot once and is killed like any criminal in the film however he has an over dramatised break down which ends in him getting shot by four police officers.

The Outsiders was vastly better as a novel than its counterpart film. The novel had more experiences and emotion whereas the film was over dramatises and doesn’t get the sensitivity of Ponyboy which gives the novel its magic. The novel is thrilling and was riveting in the that two people from the same background die in such different ways one a hero and one a criminal.

The Outsiders - Maddii Ganter

“The Outsiders”

‘The Outsiders’ is the journey of a 14 year old boy named Ponyboy. He and his best mate Johnny go on a dangerous and tragic endeavour that he will never forget. This novel is by S.E Hinton, written when she was just 17 years old in the year 1965. The novel wasn’t published though until she was 18. A film adaption was produced in 1983 directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The film gave you a more visual idea of what was occurring throughout the text. Whereas, the novel lets your imagination run wild. Both texts imply Pony’s journey and the ways in which his childhood innocence was corrupted by his experiences in life. Although, the novel was the text that portrayed this more clearly therefore making it my choice as the better text out of the two.

The film version of “The Outsiders” is different from the novel as it retracts parts of the novel to focus on more of the conflicts between the greasers and the Socs as well as Ponyboy and Johnny’s close friendship. These two characters are the key characters to the plot of the text. There were main points written in the novel that were left out of the film. One of these key points would be near the end of the novel where Ponyboy threatens the Socs with a broken bottle. This shows his corrupted childhood innocence although this was not shown in the film making it unclear of the transformation of his childhood innocence. Thus, the novel shows Ponyboy’s journey in more detail through the written word whilst the film focuses more on the visuals of fighting and friendships.

It is vital to understand the characters in any story line. The reader must understand who they are and what role they play in the story. ‘The Outsiders’ film shows them differently compared to the novel. Examples of this would be Sodapop and Two-bit. The film text was as if their appearances and like had been switched around. Sodapop wasn’t seen in the film as much as he was written in the novel. There was no mention of his love for his girlfriend. There was also no mention of his horse which he adored but lost, Mickey Mouse. Two-bit Mathews definitely appeared more in the film than what he appeared as in the novel. In addition to Two-bit’s different characteristics within the film he was the one found with the liking for Mickey Mouse the cartoon. This makes the films message different as the viewers do not get to experience the more sensitive moments other than with Ponyboy and Johnny.

Stylistic features are featured in these texts are things such as perspective and symbolism. Perspective is a very important issue that runs throughout this novel. Being an outsider is a matter of perspective. The brothers' relationships are viewed differently according to each other's perspective. The symbolism found within the novel would be the cars that the Greasers have compared to the Socs. On one hand, it symbolizes how the Greasers have a more direct and well-rounded experience than the Socs with the gritty realities of life. On the other hand, the fact that the Greasers must service and care for the Socs possessions demonstrates that the Socs have the power to dominate the greasers. Greasers cannot afford cars and madras that the Socs have so they turn to more affordable markers of identity. By wearing their hair in a specific style, Greasers separate themselves from other social groups making their hair symbolic to the story line.

In conclusion, I found that the most effective text was the novel. This is because it was more efficient in explaining Ponyboy’s journey, preserving his childhood innocence and his individual personality.

~~Cahil Neal's review~~

The Outsiders

‘The Outsiders’ was published by S.E Hinton in 1967, it is an excellent novel and a great film, I enjoyed reading the novel and watching the film because it was a great novel and about what I like. I think that the novel was better even though I don’t like to read. The novel had more detail and description of the characters and scenes, then the film.  The film cuts out scenes that the novel had. The film was good and a lot of the scenes I read in the novel I pictured differently in my head compared to the film.  The plot of the film is about the two main gangs fighting, The Socs and the Greasers. The Socs get anything they want and the Greasers have to work for a living. The Socs are the rich people who live on the East side of town and the Greasers live on the West side of town. The gangs get into turf wars and the Socs always enter the Greasers turf and start fights with them. 

The plot of the film is that the two main gangs are at war and they get into a lot of fights. The Socs are the socials and they get what they want, when they want. The Greasers are the hoods; they are the people who get jumped by the Socs and have to work to survive.  The guys in the Greasers gang are Johnny, Ponyboy, Darry, Soda-pop, Dallas, Two-bit and Steve. Ponyboy is the fourteen year old narrator writing the story in his life. Johnny has a really bad life; he is the puppy of the group that has been kicked too many times. Darry is the oldest guy of the gang; he is super smart and athletic. Soda-pop is seventeen years old, smart, athletic and a hard worker. Dally is fascinated by Ponyboy. Two-bit is eighteen years old and is the joker of the gang, he never stops talking and always has a smart comment about everything. Steve is Soda’s best friend and he thinks of Ponyboy as a child, Ponyboy is least close to Steve.

The Characters in the novel sound tougher, the novel make it sound like there is more action, but in the film there is hardly any action and it depicted scenes that aren’t in the novel. When Dallas steals from the shop, he is mad because he let Ponyboy get hurt; the clerk in the shop starts shooting at him when he runs out of the shop and hits him, in the novel the clerk never has a gun. The novel is good because it displays scenes that aren’t in the film and the film is good because it shows a little amount of scenes that aren’t in the novel.

Outsiders Review: Andrew Marshall

The Outsiders Novel & Film Review

Outsiders Review

The Outsiders is a riveting story about a gang called ‘Greasers’ that are in a constant war with another gang called ‘Socials’ or ‘Socs’. The novel is the original source of the storyline and layout in which the film version is based. The novel was written by S. E. Hinton and first published in the United Kingdom in 1970. The film was directed by Francis Ford Coppola and was first released on March 25^th 1983.

The Outsiders begins with a young fourteen year old boy named Pony Boy, who is starting to begin a story of his past few months for his school English assignment. Pony Boy acts as a narrator throughout the story but does not become repetitive and does an excellent job of telling the audience of what is happening without giving away the plot.

The film has many flaws when it comes to having the same storyline as the book. Multiple characters, objects and ‘mini’ stories where either hardly mentioned or non-existent in the film. However the film does go into detail in events that are not shown in the novel, this means that the film does not follow the novel exactly.

The film is missing out many characters and does not show some of them as many times as they appear in the novel. For example, Soda Pop is Pony Boy’s brother that is only seen very few times in the film. Soda Pop is one of the main characters in the novel that should of appeared more often in the film.

The novel is incredibly better than the film because it goes into more depth during the story and shows more events that happen to the greasers and the socs. The film compared to the novel is a disappointment and is missing too many small parts of the story, that keeps on adding up to become a large hole in the storyline.

For example, during the novel a miniature story between a horse nicknamed ‘Mickey Mouse’ and Soda Pop are mentioned in heavy detail. The horse was not owned by Soda Pop, but always acted like it, by always giving Soda Pop love but become hostile when other people are around. Soda loved the horse and the horse loved him, so when the horse was sold, Soda Pop was devastated and fell into a deep depression. In the film, none of this story is shown or even mentioned, therefor leaving a gap in the storyline.

The novel is spine chilling and exiting while you read it and makes it difficult to put the book down. It is a must read novel that is a writing masterpiece, anyone interested in experiencing this riveting story should read the novel first, whether they enjoy reading or not.