The Outsiders S.E Hinton

1. the outsiders. is a great book & movie , The book follows two rival groups, the Greasers and the Socs who are divided by their Socioeconomic status.

As the novel opens, Ponyboy is leaving a movie theater when he is jumped by a group of Socs. He is saved from the attack by his friends and brothers, Darry and Sodapop. That night, Dallas, Johnny, and Ponyboy meet two Soc girls, Sherri (Cherry) Valance and Marcia . Ponyboy realizes that Cherry is nothing like the Socs he has met before. She tells Ponyboy that "things are rough all over", indicating that the rich kids have problems of their own. On the way home, Cherry and Marcia's boyfriends, Bob Sheldon and Randy Adderson, see them with Johnny, Two-Bit, and Ponyboy outside the movie and think the boys are trying to "pick them up". The boys also realize that Bob is the boy with rings who once beat up Johnny. Cherry and Marcia prevent a fight by leaving with Bob and Randy willingly. When Ponyboy comes home, Darry gets really angry and hits him. Ponyboy storms out of the house and meets up with Johnny. As they wander around the neighborhood, Bob, Randy, and three other drunk Socs confront them in a vacant lot. They chase and catch both of them. Ponyboy is nearly drowned in a fountain by David, another Soc, so a terrified Johnny stabs Bob, accidentally killing him and scaring away the other Socs. The two boys run to find Dally, who gives them some money and a loaded gun and tells them to hide in an abandoned church a short distance out of town.

When Dally comes to find them, he reveals that Cherry has become a spy for the Greasers and that the fights between the two rival groups have exploded in intensity since Bob's death. Johnny decides that he wants to turn himself in, as it isn't fair to Ponyboy to have to hide out while his brothers are worried about him. As they leave for home, they notice the church has caught on fire and that several small children are trapped inside. Johnny and Ponyboy rush to rescue them, but a large piece of burning wood falls on Johnny and breaks his back. Dally rescues Johnny from the burning church, burning his own arm along the way. Ponyboy spends a short time in the hospital. When his brothers arrive to see him, Darry breaks down and cries. Ponyboy then realizes that Darry cares about him, and is only hard on Ponyboy because he wants him to have a good future.
As Ponyboy is recovering at home, Two-Bit shows up and informs him that Johnny and Ponyboy have been declared heroes for rescuing the kids, but that Johnny will be charged with manslaughter for Bob's death. Also, the Greasers and Socs have agreed to settle their turf war with a major rumble in the vacant lot. When Ponyboy and Two-Bit visit Johnny and Dally in the hospital, they find Johnny in bad condition with multiple burns and a broken back. Dally is recovering well and insists on going to the rumble. The next evening, the Greasers win the fight with the Socs. Ponyboy however suffers from a concussion. After the rumble, Dally and Ponyboy visit Johnny again, where he dies in front of their eyes. Dally is overwhelmed and runs out of the hospital. Soon after, Darry and the others get a phone call from Dally, who has robbed a grocery store. The boys run out to find him, but the police are chasing him. Dally pulls out an unloaded gun that he only used as a bluff. Not knowing this, the police shoot him down. The boys realize that Dally couldn't bear to live without Johnny. Ponyboy faints and stays sick and delirious for nearly a week. While recovering at home, he convinces himself that Johnny is not dead and that he is the one who killed Bob. When Ponyboy goes back to school, his grades drop dramatically. He begins to run into things and forget things. Although he is failing English, his teacher says he will pass him if he writes a decent theme. Ponyboy reads the copy of Gone with the Wind that Johnny gave to him before dying. In the pages, he finds a note from Johnny describing how he will die proudly after saving the kids from the fire. Johnny also urges Ponyboy to "stay gold," by which he means to stay the way he is and follow his dreams. With this in mind, Ponyboy decides to write his English assignment about everything that has happened recently in his life, and it is hinted that the novel itself is Ponyboy's English assignment. He begins with the same sentence with which the book began: "When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind Paul Newman and a ride home..."