Authors Note~After reading the book The Outsiders I analyzed one of the three themes of the story and the one I picked out was stereotyping.
Have you ever experienced every staring at you as you walk down the hallways at school? You wonder what they are speculating. You have no idea what they are thinking; still you become a little self-conscience. Those classmates of yours, well they're sitting there stereotyping you. Ponyboy knows exactly how that feels. Ponyboy gets to tell his story in the novel The Outsider. This greaser gets judged every day just because of the way he looks. No wonder one of the main themes of this story turns out to be stereotyping.
Stereotyping is a huge part of this book. First of all we have the greasers, white trash with greasy hair. Then there's the socs, white trash with mustangs and madras. These are the two gangs who are at war though out this story. These gangs are very similar to the rivalry between jocks and geeks. In this case the greasers would be the geeks and the socs would be the jocks. The geeks always get beat up on just because they're smart. Big deal! Just because they don't wear the most fashionable cloths and don't know all the football stats for the season doesn’t mean there weird and you can't talk to them. Oh, turns out not all jocks are jerks some of them happen to be very nice just because they were super cool cloths and spend a lot of time with friends, doesn’t mean you wouldn't ever be able to carry on a descent conversation with them. They are people just like me and you they all have feelings, we all just express them in our own way.
Since every one express their feelings differently the greasers have an overly aggressive way of showing theirs. Or do they? Dallas Winston was the one greaser that followed the rules of a stereotyped greaser. He was locked up when he was 10 years old. Always getting in gang fights while he lived in New York, once he moved down south that never changed. Dally's story reminds me of an article I read about a man who got caught up in drug dealing at age 13 and it was hard for him to stop it was his 3rd visit to prison that really opened his eyes to something more affective with his life. He became a professor, teaching kids about black history. He was lucky to be able to get a job. Just imagine how hard it is to get a job after you commit a crime of any sort. All your employers judge you and may be scared of you. Wouldn't that just be offal?
All though people can turn their lives around it takes time for them to realize what they can do to change. Ponyboy was always optimistic and he saw everything in a different view. He was always wondering why the socs have to hate the greasers. Just because they wear jean jackets and grease their hair back. Sounds ridicules but that’s all they know about these boys. The socs will never understand how the greasers live. They don't know about all the family flaws. They don't know that Ponyboy's parents were killed in a car crash. They have no idea what it's like to be ignored and abused by their parents the way Johnny does. The worst part about Johnny's situation at home is that he says he doesn’t mind when his dad yells at him and beats him up because it reassures him that his dad knows he's there.
These boys have a rough life they can't help it. Ponyboy wants to change it, he does he knows it's not fair. Although Ponyboys "friend" Randy reassured him, that no matter what socs will still be socs and greasers will still be greasers. It doesn’t matter. But why should he stop trying. He has a chance to change things he could be a hero. Just like the way he was when he saved those children from that burning church. No one could believe that a greaser could ever do that. Well that’s the kind of reaction he wants. That helps prove to people that stereotyping is a waste of time because people may surprise you.
