OUTLINE STRUCTURE FOR THE OUTSIDERS

I. Catchy Title: Nature’s First Green is Gold

II. P1: Introduction

Hook: If everything you think you know, you actually don’t. For this ink is black, it is
actually gold
Author: S. E. Hinton
Title: The Outsiders
Short Summary: Ponyboy and his brothers live in an area where there are separation
between social classes; Greasers and Socials, where jumping and rumble are a usual event,
even a 16-year old carries a pocket knife. One night, Ponyboy and his best friend, Johnny, got
attacked. Johnny killed someone and they needed to run away as soon as possible with the
help of Dallas Winston, the story continues with bitterness and heroism.
Thesis: S. E. Hinton uses many perspectives to show that seeing gold in others gives
one the ability to experience their other side.

III. P2: First Body (How the socials look at greasers)

A: The socials and greasers are enemies, most of them think of each others as trash,
even though they had never knew how brave, admiring, and strong greaser family is.
B: Most of the socials and greasers cannot stand each other, they always jump on each
other as pride. They are so different that they could not unite to make a peaceful community.
However, some socials are distinctive to the clan, they are the dawn in daytime and they are
thoughtful enough to pass through the difference between the two gangs. The socials have
only seen the tough side of greasers, not their loving and caring sides, not how they could risk
their lives to protect their meaningful friends that had became family.
1. Cherry, Dally
2. Cherry was trying to get to know Ponyboy, even though she knows that he
is a greaser. Dally risked his live to safe Johnny
C: “You know what a greaser is?” Bob asked. “White trash with long hair.” (p.55,
line18)
D: The socials do not have any feeling toward the greasers other than hatred. They
think of them as nonvaluable rubbish.
 E: People’s minds are manipulated by their hostility, which prevents them from
knowing that the people that they see could be various.

P3: Second Body (How thegreasers look at socials)

A: Not just the socials do not know the greasers, most of the greasers also do not
know the socials too, there are more likeness than they thought.
B: Greasers always stick together heeding for an upcoming intrusion from the socials,
they always talk about them in an awful way. They had never noticed that the socials could
be more alike than they thought, how socials maybe love and admire each other like they are.
1. Ponyboy
2. Ponyboy was looking through Soda’s yearbook and came across Bob.
C: “Yeah, he was good-looking even then, with a grin that reminded me of Soda’s, a
kind of reckless grin.” (p.161, line 14)
D: If looking attentively, there are not much difference between the two groups, Bob
could had been like Soda, the most deering and charming person for Ponyboy and the other
boys. Ponyboy is starting to look at Bob and how he was, he kept wondering how Bob was
and why many people consider him as a different person than he thought.
E: Just the start of a thoughtful statement could change one’s perspective and have a
better understanding of how that person may be, if the gangs could see this leaving their
hatred behind, maybe there would not be the socials and the greasers.

P4: Third Body (Ponyboy’s ability)

A: Ponyboy is still staying in the gold stage, he is still youthful and innocent, these
characteristics give him the qualification to look through people’s fictitious surface and
understand how they really are.
B:Ponyboy is quite different to the other group members, he still has a “special
element” in him. He watches sunset and said to “use his head”. He likes writing and poetry.
He has the talent to understand people, both whom he hate and love using his “special
element”. Even when his best friend die, his gold shade still have not fade.
1. Two-Bits: use your head, Ponyboy

2. After Jonhhy’s death, Ponyboy did not take it well. He was trying to be like
the other people in the greaser. He tried toughen up, which he stopped later on when it wa
shown that he started using his mind again. This actions shows that even through a rough
point of his life, he still maintain at staying gold, which compliments on how he think of
other characters. He also did not like Dally at first, but later on think of him and other
characters differently at the end of the book.
C: “He is just a guy. He just wanted to talk.” (p.118, line5)
D: Even though after Johnny’s death, Ponyboy was angry and sad, he was still open-
minded and let Randy had a conversation with him.
E: Because of Ponyboy’s ability to stay gold, it differentiate him from others and
made him understand that people might not be so bad from a different angle
P5: Conclusion
A: The ability to really see others will come when you passed the difference and
become open-minded.
B: In conclusion, both greasers and socials could not look or experience others fully
because they are blocked by their difference and hatred. They should master to cope with
others peacefully and ignore their peculiarities.
C: Ponyboy knows how to see others without any barriers that prevents him from
thinking about them critically and that is how he is able to look at everyone passionately.