The Outsiders- Jesse Ehrlich

Ehrlich, Jesse English Period 4 November 15, 2008 The Outsiders- Jesse Ehrlich The book that I read was The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. I selected this book because my older brother read it when he was younger, so I decided to read it. I was looking on my bookshelf and I saw the book, and my brother said he had read it, so I read it. This book is told in the 1st person by Ponyboy Curtis. He has light-brown, almost red hair, and greenish-gray eyes. He has two older brothers, Soda and Darry. Soda is 16 going on 17 and a high school dropout. Unlike Ponyboy, he never reads or likes movies like Ponyboy does. His oldest brother, Darry, is 20 and he works too hard and too long to even care about that stuff. He is also really firm on Ponyboy and treats him like he's a little kid and not 14. When their parents died, Darry, being only 20, became like their dad. Ponyboy loves Soda because he is happy-go-lucky and always cheerful, while Darry is really strict on him. Anyway, one day Ponyboy was walking home from the movies, when a Corvair pulled up to him and five Socs, the rival gang to the greasers (which is what gang Ponyboy and his brothers are in), got out and pulled out a knife on him. He was really scared when Darry came and broke it up. Darry is 6 foot 2 and has a pretty big build so a lot of people are scared him. Later Dally, Johnny, and him (Dally and Johnny are other members of the gang) went to the movies when Dally really pissed off two girls that went to school with Ponyboy. The girls name is Sherri "Cherry" Valance. They started talking when Two-Bit came over and sat with them. At the end of the movie Two-Bit talked them into having him drive them home. While they were walking home, a blue Mustang came up behind them and it was Randy and Bob, Cherry's and Marcia's boyfriends, but they passed by without noticing them. When Ponyboy got home, Darry went of on him because he didn't know where he was and stuff. Darry didn't really get along with Pony, like he does with Soda. Then Darry did what he regretted, hit Ponyboy. When that happened, Pony ran out and found Johnny and told him that they were running away. They decided to walk to the park and back when they met up with Randy, Bob, and other Socs. They started talking trash to each other when Bob told someone to give Pony a bath (he stuck his head in the fountain) and that was when Johnny had taken too much of it and stabbed Bob. The other Socs ran for it, and both Johnny and Pony were in shock. Johnny and Ponyboy went to Dally for some help, and he gave them some money and a jacket for Pony, who was soaking wet. They both jumped onto a train and ended up staying inside a church. They had stayed there for a few days, smoking and reading "Call of the Wild," when Dally came. He took them to a Dairy Queen to eat, and when they got back to the church it was on fire. And what made it worse was that there were kids inside, and on top of that, one of their cigarettes probably started the fire. Johnny and Ponyboy went into the church to save the kids, while Dally told them to come back because he didn't want them to get hurt, and he ended up pulling them out of it. All three of them went to the hospital and Johnny was critically injured. When Pony was able to leave, he was at the DX station, where Soda worked, and sure enough Randy was there. He didn't want to fight, but to talk to him. He told him that he didn't want to keep fighting and that it was all bad. Then he left and thanked Ponyboy for helping him. Then all of the greasers got ready for the rumble (a big fight) with the Socs. Dally had ditched the hospital and got there right before it started. It was a quick fight and they greasers had won, but Pony's head was bleeding really bad. He and Dally went to the hospital to see Johnny and well, I guess you're going to have to read the book to fight out what happens next, and not just to Johnny, Ponyboy, and Dally, but to the rest of the gang and what they see next. "We gotta win that fight tonight. We gotta get even with those Socs! Let's do it for Johnny, man. We'll do it for Johnny!" This was said by Dally during the rumble. I chose this quote because it has a great significance to what happens in the end of the book. I'm not going to tell you what happens in the end that makes this so significant for the end, but trust me, it does. This is hair wax. I decided to use a picture of hair wax because the greasers would put hair wax in their hair. It was like "their thing." I would recommend this book to people who like to read about other people and how their life is. One reason is because it makes you think how your life is different compared to people like Ponyboy, and how messed up theirs is. Another reason is because it makes you appreciate your life and that how lucky you are not to be in a gang and get in fights and smoke a lot. A third reason I would recommend it is because it is a good book and it can paint a picture in your head so you can feel like you're their in the action. Warning: this book has violence, drug use, and mild language.