The Outsiders is a coming of age story about fourteen year old Ponyboy Curtis, a member of the social class dubbed the 'greasers'.His friends johnny, Two-bit,Dally,Steve and his two brothers Darry and Sodapop who lost their parents in a fatal car crash. They are jumped or attacked on a regular basis by teens from the opposite side of town called the socs. One night, when Ponyboy and Johnny are outside alone they are attacked by a group of socs who attempt to drown Ponyboy. Johnny, defending his friend stabs the attacker, Robert, killing him. Dally provides them with a set of instructions including a place to hide out, money and a loaded gun.The two boys travel to an abandoned church, as per Dallys instructions and set up camp, cutting and bleaching their hair so they will remain unrecognised. When dally shows up at the church he takes Johnny and Ponyboy out to get food and informs them that back home a fight is set to occur between the socs and the greasers tomorrow. He also lets them know that in the court trail against Johnny for the murder of Robert, that a soc, Cherry, whom they had previously met a cinema, will testify that Robert was drunk and asked for it and that they were acting in self defence.When they return to the church, they notice that it has caught alight and that a group of young children are trapped inside. Ponyboy, Dally and Johnny go in, despite the flames and save them. While Ponyboy gets out relatively unharmed, Dally suffers from severe bur to hime arm and a large piece of wood falls onto of Johnny, breaking his back and burning him badly. The three are declared heroes and Ponyboy is reunited with his brothers. As the fight against the socs draws closer, Ponyboy visits the hospital ridden Dally and a slowly dying Johnny, where dally declares that they ‘beat the socs for Johnny’. The fight occurs with the graders coming out victorious. They go to the hospital to relay the news. When they are there Johnny tells Ponyboy to ‘stay strong’ then passes away. Dally is unable to cope with the fact that Johnny is dead causing him to freak out, leave the hospital, rob a convince store and be chased to a vacant parking lot by police officers. Ponyboy and the rest of the gang arrives only to see Dally shot down my the officers. When the greasers have gotten over the deaths of Johnny and Dally they try to be friendlier with the socs. Ponyboy finds a letter that Johnny wrote to him before him passed away. he ends up finding closure as he begins to write a story about Johnny for a school english project.
“For readers, genres are sets of conventions and expectations:knowing whether we are reading a detective story, or a romance, a lyric poem or a tragedy, we are on the lookout for different things and make assumptions about what will be significant. Reading a detective story, we look for clues in a way we don’t when we are reading a tragedy". Jonathon Culler,1997
This quote explains how readers will expect certain things from certain stories in a genre. Such as a love story in a romance classified novel or a crime or mystery that someone need to uncover in a mystery novel. The reader looks for things that are different and then make assumptions about how that will change the story.
This quote explains how readers will expect certain things from certain stories in a genre. Such as a love story in a romance classified novel or a crime or mystery that someone need to uncover in a mystery novel. The reader looks for things that are different and then make assumptions about how that will change the story.