Most Excellent Evidence

Here it is!  The compiled, aggrigated, and filetered BEST of the BEST evidence to be found on our theme study of S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders.  This represents hundreds of collective hours from 120 students over several weeks. Fantastic job everyone!

There are four quotations for each side of the theme and three images from the film.  Images are in bold.


Individuality - “No, it wasn't Cherry the Soc who was helping us, it was Cherry the dreamer who watched sunsets and couldn't stand fights,” (86).

Individuality - “‘Greaser’ doesn’t have anything to do with it...maybe it’s the individual,” (115).

Individuality - “‘Socs were just guys after all. Things were rough all over, but it was better that way. That way you could tell the other guy was human to,’” (118).

Individuality - “Someone should tell their side of the story, and maybe people would understand then and wouldn’t be so quick to judge a boy by the amount of hair oil he wore,” (179).

Individuality - The image of Ponyboy and Johnny looking peacefully at the sunrise together at the church.

Individuality - The image of Ponyboy framed as the same height as Randy during their conversation in the car as they make eye contact as equals.

Individuality - The image of Dally crying after Johnny died.



Labels - “I really couldn’t see what Socs would have to sweat about - good grades, good cars, good girls, Madras, and Mustangs and Corvairs,” (36).

Labels - “You Greasers have a different set of values. You’re more emotional. We’re sophisticated to the point of not feeling anything,” (38).

Labels - “Our hair labeled us greasers... it was our trademark. The one thing we were proud of. Maybe we couldn’t have Corvairs or Madras shirts, but we could have our hair,” (71).

Labels - “‘I am a Soc. I am privileged and well blessed. I throw beer blasts, drive fancy cars, break windows at fancy parties,’” (136).

Labels - The image of the Socs and the Greasers standing in two separate lines before the rumble.

Labels - The image of Cherry Valance turning away from Ponyboy at school, and the look of hurt understanding on his face.

Labels - The image at the drive in movie theater where it was split with one side open and the other side with a run-down sign saying “Closed for repair.”



Renewal - “I never thought I’d live to see the day when I would be so glad to see Dally Winston, but right then it meant one thing: contact with the outside world,” (77).

Renewal - “Natures first green is gold, her heart is hue to hold. her early leaf's a flower; but only so an hour then leaf subsides to life leaf. So Eden sank to grief, so dawn goes down to day nothing gold can stay,” (77).

Renewal - “I remembered my mother, beautiful and golden, like Soda, and wise and firm, like Darry,” (123).

Renewal  - “He told me to stay gold I remembered. What was he talking about?” (152).

Renewal -  The image of Ponyboy and Johnny looking with hope and peace at the sunrise together at the church.

Renewal - The image of when Johnny’s face appeared when Ponyboy was reading the note on the last scene.

Renewal - The image of when all three of the Curtis brothers, Darry, Sodapop and Ponyboy, were walking away arm in arm after agreeing not fight anymore.



Loss - “He didn’t used to be like that… We used to get along okay… Before Mom and Dad died. Now he just can’t stand me,” (51).

Loss - “She’s probably come to tell me about all of the trouble I’m causing her and about how glad her and the old man will be when I’m dead. Well tell her to leave me alone. For once,” (122).

Loss - “Two friends of mine had died that night: one a hero, the other a hoodlum,”  (154).

Loss - “You know a guy a long time and I mean you really know him, you don’t get used to the idea that he’s dead overnight,” (178).

Loss – The Image of Dallas Winston crawling in the street, dying after being shot by the police.

Loss - The image of Johnny laying face down in the hospital bed covered with burns.

Loss - The image in the flashback of the train hitting the car when the Curtis brother’s mom and dad were killed.



Feeling - “I was smarting and aching and my chest was sore and I was so nervous my hands were shaking and I wanted to start bawling, but you just don’t say that to Darry,” (7).

Feeling - “‘Stop it!’ Johnny gasped from between clenched teeth. ‘Shut up about last night! I killed a kid last night. He couldn’t of been over sixteen or eighteen, and I killed. How’d you live with something like that?’ He was crying,” (74).

Feeling - “He was stroking my hair and I could hear the sobs racking him as he fought to keep back the tears. [...] That was his silent fear then -- of losing another person he loved,” (98).

Feeling - “Johnny’s eyes glowed. Dally was proud of him. That was all Johnny ever wanted,” (148).

Feeling - The image of the traumatized expression on Johnny’s scared face when he sees Bob’s rings while the group is walking Cherie and Marcia home after the movies.

Feeling – The image of the hurt look on Ponyboy’s face when Cherry Vallance turns away from him at school.

Feeling - The repeated images of Ponyboy, Sodapop, and Darry Curtis hugging each other as brothers; first in the hospital after Ponyboy survives the burning church, second when Darry keeps custody of his brothers in the courtroom, and third when they agree to stop fighting after Sodapop had ran away.

Calloused - “The fight for self-preservation had hardened him beyond caring,” (59).

Calloused - “They can’t really do anything to guys like Curly Shepard or Tim; they’ve had about everything done to them. And they can’t take anything away from them because they don’t have anything in the first place,” (71).

Calloused - “Dally didn’t give a Yankee dime about anyone but himself, he was cold and hard and mean,” (90).

Calloused- “I wasn’t scared. It was the oddest feeling in the world. I didn’t feel anything- scared, mad, or anything. Just zero,” (171).

Calloused – The image of Johnny kicking a can in the Curtis brothers’ rundown front yard, not wanting to go home to his parents.

Calloused – The image of the Socs and the Greasers punching each other other during the rumble.

Calloused - The image of Dally running away to the park after he robs the store unable to control his emotions after losing Johnny just before he is shot by the police.