The Outsiders Chapters 1 - 3
The narrator of The Outsiders is a fourteen-year-old teenager, Ponyboy Curtis, who lives with his elder brothers, Sodapop and Darrel, in Tusla, Oklahoma during the 1960s. Ponyboy is the Greaser gang’s youngest member. The Greasers are a gang of people from the poorer part of town and are characterized by their long greasy hair. They steal and get into fist-fights with other gangs, especially the Socs. The Socs are West-side rich kids from upper-middle-class families who are condemned by the newspapers for throwing lavish parties one day and then praised for their excellent citizenship the other day. When a Greaser is spotted alone by the Socs, he becomes a target for a brutal and outnumbered fight. Johnny had found himself in such a situation not too long ago, and the result of his fight with Socs had been horrific for the whole gang.
Ponyboy attempts to behave responsibly most of the time because he's afraid of being scolded by his eldest brother, twenty-year-old Darrel Curtis. Darry has been his guardian since their parents died in a terrible road accident. Darry works two jobs to support the family and keeps a close watch on Ponyboy's activities. Ponyboy has trouble keeping up with Darry's near-constant scolding, but he puts up with it because of Sodapop. Sodapop is the middle Curtis brother. He is a high school dropout who works at the local Gas station, and according to Ponyboy, Sodapop is by far the most handsome individual around. Ponyboy shares a close relationship with Sodapop and deeply admires his ever-jolly temperament.
Ponyboy walks home alone one evening after watching a Paul Newman film, and accidentally he runs into the members of their rival gang, the Socs. He notices a red Corvair trailing him and fails to outrun it. Terrified with the knowledge of how the Socs had beaten his friend, Johnny Cade, Ponyboy panics and begins to scream for his brothers just as the Socs swoop down on him. Sodapop and Darry come to his rescue along with the other members of his gang, before the Socs can hurt Ponyboy. Darry becomes aggravated and scolds Ponyboy for walking home alone instead of calling a ride, but Sodapop defends him.
The gang calms down and they begin to make plans for the upcoming night. Soda and his best friend, Steve Randle, plan on taking their girlfriends to a game, Darry has to work, and Two-Bit plans to get boozed up. Ponyboy and Johnny, the gang's pet, decide to visit the double feature at the drive-in with Dally, who has been in and out of prison since before he was a teenager. Ponyboy wonders what spending time with a Soc girl would be like while Dally talks about his ex-girlfriend, Sylvia.
Ponyboy reads Great Expectations for school before bed and wonders how his life resembles the life of the protagonist, "Pip," who is lousy and belittled just like the other Greasers. Ponyboy considers Greasers to be responsible for much of their trouble but he doesn't understand why the Socs hate them so much. Before going to bed, Sodapop assures Ponyboy that Darry loves him despite their differences. Ponyboy feels like he is a burden on Darry, and believes that his brother views him as an extra mouth to feed.
Johnny and Ponyboy meet Dally the following night. They visit a rough drive-in, the Dingo, where they talk to their neighbors. They leave the drive-in when a fight breaks out, and they sneak into another drive-in theatre, where they come across two pretty girls. Dally harrases the girls, and they threaten to call the police on him. He leaves to get them some sodas, and the girls begin to talk to him and Johnny. One of the girls is called Cherry Valance, and she is a cheerleader from Ponyboy’s school. The girls ask Ponyboy why a smart kid like him is roaming around with a trash guy like that. Ponyboy tells them that he is a greaser, and they talk about rodeos.
Dally returns with sodas and offers coke to Cherry but she throws it in his face. He puts his arm around her and becomes forceful, but Johnny pleads with him to stop. Dally is stunned at Johnny’s boldness and leaves all of them there. The girls invite Ponyboy and Johnny to sit with them as their protectors. Two-bit pretends to be an attacking Soc as he sneaks up on the group, terrifying Johnny quite severely. He had come to warn Dally that Tim’s gang is in search of him as someone spotted him slashing the tires of one of their cars. Cherry worries about the violent situation, but Two-Bit seems certain that the two would resolve the matter without hurting one another too badly.
Cherry asks Johnny to come and get popcorn with her. She inquires about Johnny's jumpiness, and Ponyboy decides to tell her about the time John had been ambushed by the Socs. Ponyboy tells her that it had happened about four months ago when Johnny was returning from a gas station where Soda and Steve worked. They had found Johnny unconscious with a badly bruised face and his shirt covered in blood. The Socs beat Johnny without mercy and he could not remember much about the incident except that one of them wore several rings. Johnny was extremely traumatized by the incident and became more nervous than ever. Cherry assures Ponyboy that all Socs aren’t that bad and that they have their troubles and insecurities as well. They return to the others and finish the movie.
The boys walk to Two-Bit's house with the girls, so that they can pick up his car and drive the girls home. Ponyboy finds it very easy to talk to Cherry. He realizes that the Greasers and the Socs are alike in many ways. Even though they differ from each other in some of their values. Ponyboy gets comfortable around Cherry and shares intimate details of his life that he hadn't ever shared with anyone else. Cherry is amazed by Ponyboy’s sensitivity and intelligence. She assumes that he enjoys watching sunsets and reading books. They decide that the main difference lies in their emotional voids. The Socs are busy filling that up and the Geasers feel everything intensely.
A blue Mustang, drives past them, making the group, especially Johnny, nervous. The Socs in the car doesn't seem to notice them at first. They return to their conversation, and Cherry asks Ponyboy about Darry. Ponyboy can't keep himself from confessing how he truly feels that Darry wants to send him away. Ponyboy’s statement shocks Two-bit and Johnny, leaving him embarrassed. They assure him that it isn't what Darry wants at all. Ponyboy is momentarily overcome by frustration as he suddenly sees all the difficulties in the lives of his friends as well as his own. Two-Bits helps Ponyboy calm down. The mustang returns and pulls up by them; Bob and Randy, the boyfriends of the Soc girl come out. Johnny is terrified, and he notices that Bob wears several rings, just like the Soc who had beaten him. They threaten the Greasers and try to get the girls to come back with them. Cherry ends the argument by agreeing to leave with the Socs. She apologizes to Ponyboy because she is going to have to ignore him in public as she can't be seen associating with the Greasers. Ponyboy yearns for a place where labels do not exist and reminds Cherry that they do share the same sunsets. Cherry suddenly admits that she could fall in love with Dally and doesn’t hope to see him again, which shocks Ponyboy.
Ponyboy falls asleep in an empty lot, watching the stars. He returns him way past his curfew, and Darry who is at his wit's end with worry slaps Ponyboy for staying out late. Ponyboy storms out crying in rage, without listening to his brothers. He finds Johnny still sleeping in the lot since he lives with an alcoholic abusive father. He tells him that they are running away. He breaks down after a few blocks of running, and Johnny consoles him. Ultimately, Ponyboy decides against running and to cool off by walking in the park.
Analysis
The opening chapters of the book paint a chilling picture of the violence that is often precipitated by the chilling rivalry between the Greasers and Socs. The author's descriptions of the attacks on Johnny, and Ponyboy effectively indicate high levels of severe violence. The reader discovers that Ponyboy is aware that violence is essentially meaningless since the Socs belong to a more privileged social class than the Greasers, and no amount of violence is going to change that. Ponyboy is depicted to be a thoughtful and reflective narrator who has a keen understanding of the relationships shared in the foster family of brothers that they all call a gang. The author humanizes the young Ponyboy through the descriptions of his relationship with his elder brother and guardian, Darry. We see a slight immaturity in Ponyboy, as he is unable to recognize the love that motivates Darry to behave so strictly with him.
Ponyboy's understanding of the social order, and human life, deepens with his meeting with Cherry, and the other Soc girl. For the first time in his life, he begins to understand the fact that not all Socs are the same. He concludes that although they may conform to behave per their group identity out of loyalty or out of a desire to belong. Yet, they are still very much individuals who have their own set of problems to contend with. Ponyboy and Cherry as well as Randle and Ponyboy’s relationship as described later onwards demonstrate that it is possible to cross the barriers of social class to find common ground. Ponyboy and Cherry discover that both of them enjoy watching sunsets, which is symbolic of the sameness that exists in humans irrespective of their social status.
