1st post for The Outsider--Socs and Greasers

I agree that the Pony is a very interesting character that makes the book so much interesting that you don’t want to put it down. I would personal wouldn’t want a life as a greaser because it is dangerous in way like you could jump by the socs for no reason just cause of being a Greaser. Then after being jump you have to watch your back every step you have to take. Even though a life of a Greaser can be scary because you could get jumped by the Socs and get beaten up pretty bad and take part in fight, but it can have be fun to be a Greaser too. As I see it in their shoes, it just seems complicated and a crazy life style.

The story takes place during a time where there these classes called the Socs and the Greasers that people especially teens in high school use to define who they are. The Greasers are the one from the east side of town that are “almost like the hook; we steal things and drive old souped-up cars and hold up gas station and have a gang fight once and a while” (3). They also appeared to have long hair and dress with blue jeans, T-shirts, leave shirttails out, leather jackets, tennis shoes, and/or boots. They were given the name Greasers because kids from the East-side aren’t has good compared to the kids on the rich side. Unlike the Socs, they live in the West-side of town where the rich kids live. They think they are better than everyone else and can do anything they want. They also judge people a lot especially kids from the east-side.

People will define themselves or people will define for you of who they are based on where they live and where they mostly hangout the most, like Ponyboy. He joined the Greasers because he wanted a family. People would think the greasers are the bad ones compared to the Socs since the Socs appear better compared to the Greasers. They are trying to discover were they belong in their society but during these times it was hard to choose where you belong in society. In these times it is most properly for teens to be Socs and Greasers. That’s why socs and greasers were created in this society, to provide a place of somewhere to belong and it was the thing to do during this time as well.

These different classes of Socs and Greasers collide with each other a lot causing a lot of trouble in their society. They are similar to gangs in our society today and during those times they were considers gangs because all the trouble they cause in the town.