The Outsiders
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I did not want to (re)read this book. It was required reading in 5th grade, and all I retained was that someone dies. Well, that and the fact my friends couldn’t agree on who the cutest boy in the book was. When a friend recommended I revisit it as an adult I wasn’t thrilled - why would I come back to a book if I didn’t love it the first time?
Turns out my 11 year old brain just hadn’t experienced enough life to appreciate the adult themes of The Outsiders, and it was a real heavy-hitter this time around. This time the foreshadowing was clear and I could see the inevitable off in the distance, but also better understood the character motivations and the ‘why’ of it all.
As I read The Outsiders for a second time, old frustrations came back to me - if the teens knew they were making poor choices, that events were escalating more than they should, why did they stick with the same approach? But new understanding came along as well - sometimes ‘right vs wrong’ is outweighed by the need to be part of something, the need to feel like you belong. As painful as it was to watch the events unfold, S.E. Hinton did an incredible job making the character's and their choices feel real. Even while you're rooting for the greasers its impossible to forget that the socs are also just kids, that they're also trying to figure out how to survive to adulthood and being pressured by society to conform to expected narratives.
Hinton was only 16 when she wrote most of the book, and I'm honestly in awe of how perfectly she encapsulated the struggle of young adults who have almost made it out of adolescence. Many of them have all of the same adult struggles and concerns, compounded by societal expectations for teens and their own lack of life experience. The Outsiders is a beautiful exploration of different types of strength in adversity, and the importance of never judging a book by its cover. If you didn’t read it in school, its definitely worth coming back to either on your own or with a discussion group.
A true pairing probably should have been the cheapest 40 I could find in honor of underage budgets and tastes , but since I’m 30 and can’t handle the hangover anymore I went with the classic version. Writing this now, I wish I’d gone with the classic Coca-Cola glass bottles instead. 20/20 hindsight, I’ll track them down next time I read it!
