Mitchell John Armsden Review

‘The Outsiders’ Review

The Novel ‘The Outsiders’ was written by S.E. Hinton while she was still in her teens. Hinton became a household name as the author of ‘The Outsiders’, her first and most popular novel which was set in Oklahoma in the 1960s. She began writing it in 1965. The book was inspired by two rival gangs at her school, Will Rogers High School, the Greasers and the Socs, and her desire to show sympathy toward the Greasers by writing from their point of view. It was published by Viking Press in 1967, during her freshman year at the University of Tulsa; the book has sold more than 14 million copies in print and still sells more than 500,000 a year.

In 1983, a film called ‘The Outsiders’ was also made. It was an American drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, an adaptation of the novel by S. E. Hinton. The film was released in March 1983.

The film was set in the mid-1960’s in Tulsa, Oklahoma and was about the Greasers, who are a gang of tough, low-income teens. They include Ponyboy Curtis and his two older brothers, Soda and Darry, as well as Johnny Cade, Dally Winston, Two-Bit Matthews, and Steve Randle. Their rivalry is with the Socs, a gang of wealthier kids.

Some scenes in the book are completely removed from the film, such as towards the end of the book, the Socs walk up to Ponyboy but he then breaks a bottle and threatens to use it to stab the Socs. This shows the emotional changes that have occurred to Ponyboy from the events that have occurred as the book progresses. In the film, this scene is not included because the film is based on action and suspense rather than a deep storyline like what the novel ‘The Outsiders’ has. This is so the audience of the film is more engaged in the film rather than being bored by the deeper or more emotional scenes. Another difference between the film and the novel is that not much of Soda is seen and hardly any interaction is made between him and the Greasers. Also the entire story of his horse, Mickey Mouse is completed excluded from the film! This means that the audience does not get to experience some of the more sensitive or emotional moments, in fact really the only emotional parts in the film are really when Johnny and Ponyboy are together towards the end.

In the book The Outsiders, the character's personalities are what made the plot move forward. The main characters in the book were Ponyboy Curtis, Sodapop Curtis, Darrel Curtis, Steve Randle, Two-Bit Mathews, Dallas Winston, Johnny Cade, and Cherry Valance. Each of these characters has to do with the cause and effect chains throughout the novel, even if they only show up two or three times in the book. They all helped the plot move forward, and made the story a little more interesting. The movie left out some characters, and made other characters have much more minor roles. The movie didn't mention Sandy, and Sodapop had an extremely smaller role. I believe the book made the characters seem much more important and showed them in much more detail rather than in the movie. The only characters that are shown in detail in the film are Ponyboy and Johnny.

Throughout the novel, Ponyboy narrates the story and shares his thoughts, opinions and feelings about the events that happen. This use of narration draws the reader into the story more and also makes the novel more interesting. This also brings you in closer to Ponyboys personal Journey during the book. S.E. Hinton’s word choice is exactly as a kid my age would speak if I lived in the hood. She has decent sentence fluency and rarely makes any mistakes in spelling or punctuation. The author doesn't use figurative language because that's not how a greaser would talk since they're not very well educated. The word choice is what you would expect of someone who was part of a gang. I prefer the language used in the book rather than visually seeing the scenes acted out in the film. This is because there is much more detail in the book rather than in the film and there is normally much more emotional scenes in the book than in the film also.

In conclusion, the novel chases Ponyboys journey through a range of emotional events in more detail expressed though the written word, where as the film focuses on the visual appeal of things such as fighting to make the film more action filled and interesting. I believe that both the film and the book are great, but the book expresses the story and emotions of Ponyboy and his gang members much better than in the film, making it superior.