Key Facts
For The Outsiders

Full title
The Outsiders

Author
S. E. Hinton

Type of work
Novel

Genre
Coming-of-age; class struggle

Time and place written
1960s, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Date of first publication
1967

Publisher
The Viking Press

Narrator
Ponyboy Curtis

Point of view
Ponyboy gives a first-person, subjective account of events, explaining how we should interpret events and people in the story.

Tone
Youthful; melodramatic; slangy; simplistic

Tense
Past

Setting (time)
Mid-1960s

Setting (place)
Tulsa, Oklahoma

Protagonist
Ponyboy

Major conflict
Against the background of the clash between the poor greasers and the rich Socs, the greaser Ponyboy struggles to mature.

Rising action
Johnny kills a Soc; Johnny and Ponyboy flee; tension mounts between the greasers and Socs.

Climax
Johnny's death, in Chapter 9.

Falling action
The greasers win the rumble; Dally dies; Ponyboy recovers from his emotional and physical trauma.

Themes
Bridging the gap between rich and poor; honor among the lawless; the treacherousness of male-female interactions

Motifs
Literature; eye shape and color; Ponyboy's losses of consciousness

Symbols
Two-Bit's switchblade; cars; Bob's rings; greaser hair

Foreshadowing
The Socs jump Ponyboy while he walks home alone, previewing their later attack on him and Johnny; Johnny threatens to kill anybody who jumps him again, foreshadowing his murder of Bob.