Coming of Age in The Outsiders

     The characters in a book are complex and develop as the story progresses. One example of character development is coming of age. Coming of age is the transition a young person goes through. This transition is from childhood to adulthood. In The Outsiders by S.E Hinton, the character Ponyboy is going through his coming of age. His social class affects his coming of age.  His social class has caused him to grow up in a dangerous environment.

     Ponyboy’s social class caused him to be placed in a dangerous siutaion. Ponyboy is a Greaser, a member of the lower class. The Greasers “are almost like a hood” (pg. 3). The Greasers are looked down upon by the Socials, also know as the Socs. The Socs are members of the upper class. The Socs view the Greasers as a group of hoodlums and “white trash with long hair” (pg. 55). The Socs harass the Greasers, both verbally and physically. The Socs and Greasers grew to become hate each other. This hatred led to violence between these two groups. Ponyboy, being a Greaser, is placed in a hazardous. He is caught between the ongoing problems of the Greasers and the Socs.

     Ponyboy coming of age is being affected heavily by the problem of social class. Being a Greaser, he is harassed by the Socs. In the beginning of the book, Ponyboy is assaulted and almost killed by the Socs. The Socs seemed like terrible people to him, but then Ponyboy meets a girl named Cherry Valance. She is a Soc girl that he meets at a drive in movie. He talks to here and realizes that they share interests. One line in particular encapsulates the conversation between Ponyboy and Cherry. She tells him “ Just don’t forget that some of us watch the sunset too” (pg. 46). She is trying to say that the Socs and the Greasers have things in common.  These conflicting ideas, the Socs and the Greasers being alike and the Socs just being cruel towards the Greasers, is going to cause Ponyboy’s coming of age to be confusing for him.

     Ponyboy’s coming of age is based on both social class, and it is also based on his friends and family. His gang friends are telling him that the Socs are not to be trusted. But others, such as Cherry Valance say that the Socs and greasers are the same. The people that he is around are influencing his coming of age. But the major influence on his coming of age is social class.