"The Outsiders" by S. E. Hinton

Essay by H4ck3l2High School, 10th gradeA, December 2006

download word file, 16 pages 1.0 1 reviews

With reference to a novel you know well show how a characters background and circumstances directly affect their actions.

Recently in school we have been reading a book called The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton which is a novel where the author shows us how past events or circumstances can affect their personality and future actions.

The story is set in a small town in America.

A young boy and gang member, called Ponyboy Curtis narrates it.

He tells us about the bond between the gang members and the different ways they cope with the poor and dangerous conditions faced in everyday life.

The main characters in this book which I will be writing about are: Johnny, Darry and Dally.

The purpose of this essay is to show how past circumstances affect the actions of someone. I am going to evaluate the actions of Darry, Johnny and Dally in four incidents where they react differently to what anyone else would have done in their position and try to explain their actions in relation to their past circumstances.

All of them came from different backgrounds, all of them faced a similar problem, which was, losing their parents. In the novel S. E. Hinton shows how each character is affected by this circumstance.

These three characters all faced their problems and have changed in personality because of it.

Johnny and Dally lost their parents appreciation and acceptance. Both Dally and Johnny were ignored and abused by their parents.

Both of them however reacted differently to it.

Dally "hardened", he began to feel angry at everything, he didn't let anyone else come close to him to prevent the feeling of vulnerability (Johnny was an exception). Dally's eyes "were blue, blazing ice, cold with a hatred of the whole world". Dally felt that the...