At just 16-years old, Susan Eloise Hinton, better known as S.E. Hinton, disguised her real name and gender in order to be taken seriously, and made a groundbreaking coming-of-age novel that changed the literary world. This novel is now read by eighth and ninth graders around the globe, and is a favorite of many. Hinton’s work shed some light onto a world many hadn’t realized before, a world which is split through the middle, a world where you wish to be someone you are not, a world we call The Outsiders.
The Outsiders, published in 1967, was adapted as a movie 16 years later in 1983. The story reflected the privileged and underprivileged in Hinton’s life: the privileged, represented by “The Socs”, and the lower-class, being “The Greasers.” The Socs get into a dispute with The Greasers leading Ponyboy and Johnny, protagonists of this story, to go to a church in the countryside of their state. The boys leave after a while but reach yet another dilemma, leading Johnny to get extremely injured and later on die. Johnny tells Ponyboy to “stay gold” right before he dies, leaving Pony to think about the poem that he had quoted. Since Johnny had died, it leaves the rest of the boys broken, leading to another gang member getting lost in his own grief and killing himself.
The book gives us great detail and insight into Ponyboy’s life, yet the movie does not provide audiences with quite as much information. The book lets its readers know exactly how he feels, physically and emotionally; it let’s its readers get into Ponyboy’s mind, and explore his growth as a character throughout the story. The movie does not only stop its viewers from feeling or thinking what is going on, but it just glazes over Ponyboy and his friend’s lives, not even taking a second to realize that the viewers need to have some sort of context. On the other hand, the book goes into deeper detail, giving us time to really analyze and understand what is going on, we can really feel their emotions and see how these characters deal with tough situations. When reading a book you are transported into a life far from your own, but when watching a movie you are merely a listener.
In conclusion, the book is a lot better than the movie, allowing its readers to slip into Ponyboy’s point of view. It allows the reader to understand what was going on in the 60s and how exactly The Greasers were discriminated against. My review for the movie is 4/5 stars because despite it not being as detailed as the movie it remained really great and my review for the book is 5/5 stars. So in conclusion, I would strongly recommend reading this novel and watching the movie in your spare time seeing as how it not only is fun but also a representation of true events during the 60s. So with that being said, have a great day and remember… stay gold.