Rebels

Susan Eloise Hinton

Editorial: Santillana S.A.

Avda. Universidad, 767. Col. Del Valle, Mexico City, Postal Code 13100, year 2003

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1.- Brief Summary About The Author:

Susan Eloise Hinton was born in Tulsa (Oklahoma, USA) in 1950. She studied her early years in the
Hill Rogers High School in her hometown. She soon left her career to get married, but
he carried the memories and experiences of his student years, to portray characters in his works
and conflicts of that environment.

Later he came to southern Spain where he bought some hectares of land, but when her husband
she got a teaching position in California, they return to their country (U.S.). Susan Eloise Hinton is a
of the most prestigious and qualified authors of the new North American narrative. With only
At 16 years old, he shot to fame with his work 'rebels' (original title 'The Outsiders'), which would be
immediately translated into many languages, and brought to the cinema by director Francis Ford
Coppola.

Selected as "best book aimed at young people", Rebels has also been awarded for
the American Booksellers Association

2.-Content and Organization

2.1-Summary of the argument

The book 'The Outsiders' is about a boy named Ponyboy Curtis who is a 'greaser' (from a lower class),
who lives with his two brothers, Darry and Sodapop, since their parents died in an accident in
the one that a train ran over his car with both (mother and father) inside. Ponyboy belongs to a
a gang of friends that includes Johnny Cade, Steve Randle, Winston Dallas (Rally), Two-Bit, the two
brothers of Ponyboy and him.

One night, after having gone to the drive-in with Dally and Johnny andhaving met two girls.
the socs named Cherry and Marcia (the socs are the rival gang of the greasers, that is, those from the class
Johnny and Ponyboy decide to stay for a while in the vacant lot, but they fall asleep. After a while
A few hours later, Johnny wakes Ponyboy up and tells him to go home so that his...
brothers don't worry about him. When Ponyboy enters the house, Darry, controlled by the
fear that had come from thinking that something might have happened to his little brother, hits him
Ponyboy. He runs to the lot and tells Johnny to go with him, that he is going to escape from
house.

The two friends run several blocks until they arrive at a park to rest.
When they sit down, one of the socs (rich kids who are always fighting with the
greasers who at one time beat up Johnny) drunk and angry because one of them
he was Cherry's boyfriend, and he can't believe that his girlfriend could have been with a greaser, so
they grab a pony and start drowning it in the park fountain.

Johnny can't stand seeing the socs drowning Ponyboy, so he grabs his knife and kills
Bob, who is the leader of the group and Cherry's boyfriend. No one would have thought that Johnny would have
I did something like that, since he was attacked by the socs a while ago and they beat him up,
I had always been very insecure and reluctant to fight. The rest of the Socs run away, and at
After a while, Ponyboy wakes up and Johnny tells him that he has killed the Soc while Pony
look at the still and bloody body in the middle of the park.

They go running to see Rally and ask him for advice since he is the toughest and most informed.
matters like these.

Rally gives him a loaded gun just in case. He gives Pony his jacket because he is wet, and
it also gives them 50 dollars to make ends meet; it also tells them to go to a
church in the field where there is no one to hide and wait for him to come see them.

Ponyboy and Johnny decide to do what Dally told them, so they sneak onto the freight train.
What happens over there, and they jump from the train to the field. Some time passes and in the end, they find the church.
During his stay there, Johnny buys supplies for the two: candy, tobacco, a book of 'The
that the Wind took away" and hydrogen peroxide.

To change their appearance, the two of them cut their hair and Pony dyes it blonde.
Days pass and Pony Johnny become very good friends (they were already, but now they depend on each other)
they themselves make even more friends.

After a few days, Dally comes and tells them that everyone is very worried about them. They decide
to go with Dally to a pub for breakfast and when they return to the church (convinced that they must return
to pack their things to go back home, there is a fire inside the church, with
trapped children. Ponyboy decides to go in to save them, and Johnny decides to follow Pony, so
the two enter the church. When they manage to see the children, they take them out through the window and just
when Pony goes out, the beams fall and one hits Johnny in the back. Dally goes into the church, and
He takes out his friend Johnny, because he cannot move.

When Ponyboy is in the hospital, he sees his brothers. They hug and kiss, but not
Everything is happiness because Johnny feels nothing from the waist down and Dally has
burns everywhere and is weak. The two of them remain hospitalized, but Ponyboy does not,
because what he has is a headache and that's it.

They tell Pony that there is going to be a fight between the socs and greasers and that there is little time left for the fight.
and that Cherry is his spy (because she informs the greasers about what is happening with the socs). Everyone
are you ready for the great fight that will take place in the solar and unarmed. Johnny is
dying, and Dally asks for the knife that Two-Bit has in order to leave the hospital and go to the fight.

When the fight ends (the greasers win), Dally and Pony go to tell Johnny, but Johnny,
after they tell him and after telling Pony to keep being golden, he dies. Dally
he runs, and Ponyboy goes home to tell everyone that they were there.

A few minutes later, the phone rings. It's Darry, saying that he has robbed a store and that he
they hide, but then it turns out that Dally, since the only thing he would want is Johnny, what he wants is
also die. So, when the police arrive, what he does is pull out his gun (he is not
loaded), so that the cops kill him.

After all this that has happened, Pony wakes up after having slept for 4 days, because
he had fainted from blood loss from the leg

As they had hit him on the head the night of the fight.

Ponyboy's life at school continues. He used to be very smart, and he had skipped a grade.
but now he has loosened up a lot and since he is doing poorly, the language teacher tells him that if he wants to pass,
You have to write a free essay of no less than 5 pages on something you consider
really important. So Pony writes his essay about this whole story, that is,
It turns out that the whole book was about the writing he did about what had happened to him.

2.2.- Organization

The history of the book is told by an internal narrator who coincides with the protagonist.
Ponyboy. This narrator imparts a subjective character because he judges and evaluates the characters of the
book. Ponyboy tells the story through an assignment that his teacher had given him, in the
What should I tell that was truly important to him.

The fictional device that the author uses to narrate the story is the connection of the situation of
text at the end and at the beginning of the story, that is, in the end it turns out that the story of the book turns out to be
the work that he had to submit to his teacher as an assignment to pass the course.

We can structure the book into three sections: link, knot, and denouement. The link is the
presentation of all the characters; what they are like and how they live. We could understand the plot.
like the moment when Johnny and Pony hide in a church unaware of the present situation,
they were wanted as suspected murderers of a 'sco' named Bob. The outcome consists
in the rescue by Johnny and PonyBoy of some children trapped in the burning church
(this fact allows them to be acquitted of their alleged murder as it presents them to the police
like heroes) and continues until the end of the story.

With his letter, Johnny aims to encourage Ponyboy to continue with his good nature and goodness.
heart, for it will achieve becoming who it truly wants to be far from evil.

As the story unfolds, Ponyboy draws conclusions and reflections about the
facts, such as when one feels sad for having run away from home, since otherwise
all the unfortunate events could have been avoided

Ponyboy Curtis

Of slender and agile physical appearance with long, greasy hair. Intelligent when it comes to overcoming his
studies but not very smart for not applying them to everyday life. I have great respect for his friends.
and I would never betray them. He has an ease for relating to others.
Throughout history, it takes Johnny's friendship to another level to the point of killing for it.
his friend, creating a relationship between them superior isolated from the world.

3.2.- Darry:

Large and muscular, he dropped out of school to support his family. He is the
older brother of Ponyboy and between them, they have many arguments but in the end, their relationship improves
relationship, due to family affection.

3.3.-Sodapop:
Ponyboy's brother, tall and thin in appearance, works at a gas station because he doesn't like it.
to study. He is very fond of his little brother (Pony) and maintains a very good relationship.
among them. Pony idealizes him for his beauty or ability to relate to girls and is very
sensible in light of events.

3.4.-Johnny:

Fearful due to past mistreatment; his parents neglect him; underdeveloped for his age. To the
At the beginning of the story, it was difficult for him to show his feelings (like crying) but the relationship and the
events with Pony make him more open and show himself as he is. It could be pointed out as
Pony's best friend teaches us that it’s always possible to change for the better; that it’s never too late.

3.5.- Dallas Winston:

Pony describes him as having a 'goblin face, very prominent cheekbones and a shy chin, small teeth.'
and very sharp, lynx ears…" in the sense of disdain, fear, and respect for his life "dude"
and violent. The only thing important to him is Johnny, to the point that his death drives him to
to commit suicide.

3.6.- Two-Bit Mathew and Steve Randle:

Little relevance in the story and a member of the band. The first joker and best friend of soda.
the second. Two-Bit, with dark skin, doesn't need much to be happy and seems to find it
positive or the good side to everything. Steve does not relate to Pony and there are not many quotes of his
character.

3.7.- Bob:
He is an enemy of the protagonist gang. All the 'greasers' classify him as evil.
drunk and reckless, lives the night and is always on the hunt for a fight. According to Cherry (girlfriend of
Bob) affectionate and protective.

He is the victim of the fight and his death provokes a huge brawl between the two gangs.

3.8.- Cherry:
According to Pony, she is a very beautiful and affectionate girl who seems to match Pony's personality.
I cared a lot for Bob and although I knew that Bob brought it on himself, I can't relate.
again with Johnny after the events.

4.-Topics

The families of Pony, Johnny, and Bob are very different from each other, but in the situation of Bob and
Johnny, there is a contrast. For Pony, the only family he has left are his brothers, since his ...
Parents were run over by a train while they were in their car.

Johnny's family is a family that should not have had a child because they do not love each other at all.
way and, besides, his father beats him a lot (Johnny).
Bob's family is a wealthy family since they are Socs, and they allow Bob everything. The contrast is that
At some point in the book, Cherry mentions that if Bob had been beaten up at some point, maybe
he were alive and Jonny's father doesn't stop beating him and maybe if his parents had
if more had been allowed and they had wanted him, he wouldn't have ended up like this either.

Ponyboy's family, after the death of his parents, had to make many efforts.
Darry had to drop out of school (when he was a very good student) to be able to provide food for
his 2 brothers; Soda, as he didn't like studying, dropped out of school at 16 and started to
working at a gas station; Ponyboy, unlike Soda, liked to study and was advanced.
a course.

Johnny and Pony's friendship increases greatly in a positive sense since given the
the circumstances of being separated from the current world unite them.
When Pony says, 'A guy who is willing to listen to you and understand what you're saying is
a hard-to-find guy refers to Johnny because according to him, he is a quiet person
he listens and likes to listen and, most importantly, he understands.

Another topic addressed in the story is the difference between the two sides. In the story
there are fights between the 'socs' and the 'greasers', there are assaults, etc. They seem to be among themselves
completely but it turns out that "sunsets look good on both sides" wanting to
to say that although there are great differences between them, in how they live, in the money they have...
The two bands are made up of people and people are the same.

The relationships with the opposite sex that take place in the book are (besides with Johnny and Pony)
completely disrespectful and the book clearly states pony with the way that they had of their
gang (Two-Bit, Dally...) of telling them nonsense and not respecting them.

5.-Style

Spontaneous dialogues:
The spontaneous dialogues occur in the novel, for example, when they don't know each other or anything,
Cherry, Marcia, Johnny, and Pony suddenly start a conversation (and a long one at that) as if they already
they would know each other.

Agile narration:

The agile narration happens when something long is summarized in a few lines, and, in the book, I would say
An example of agile narration is when Ponyboy wakes up after having spent 4
Days sleeping and absolutely nothing is accounted for what happens during that time.

Brief and precise descriptions:

Brief and precise descriptions are short descriptions that are also like this.
obliges us to imagine a little what each thing is like. At the beginning of the book when you
describe all the members of your band, that could be an example of a brief description
but precise.
Descriptions of youth and criminal slang:

The youth and delinquent slang is like the language used by those I just mentioned and the
is used many times in the book but the one I would like the most to use as an example I think
What would it be like when the blue car with the Socs inside corners Pony and Johnny and them both
groups are described (the socs describe the greasers and the greasers describe the socs) with that vocabulary.

6.-Recreación De La Obra 6.1.-El libro de "Rebeldes" frente a la película de "Rebeldes"

The movie tries to tell the story of the book but it didn't seem like a good movie because the
the beginning of the book which I would say is the most important part is shortened too much in the movie and
extend the final part until you get tired of it (the movie). I liked it a lot.
more book.

6.2.-I had a dream

If I were Ponyboy, when I grew up I would love to receive a scholarship to go to college.

doing athletics, getting my master's degree in architecture and (doing small jobs like
waiter, helping Darry, etc) to form a construction company.

6.3.- The panel of institutions

I believe that to help young people who are somewhat socially and educationally marginalized, we...
they should have more group activities where everyone's role is necessary and
depended on each other.

7.-Personal Critical Commentary

I personally really liked the book and I think it's amazing that a girl of only
sixteen years could write a story as fascinating as the one we have read.
This story is completely believable and it seems to me that such things really happen in today's world.
these stories. I have enjoyed reading it and at the same time I am grateful that we have been forced (by the
(book) to read this story because it really is not exactly the kind of book that fascinates me;
but I do not regret at all having read it