Chances are you did not escape high school without a reading of S. E Hinton’s “The Outsiders.” This bittersweet tale of borderline blue-collar youth struggling to survive in a bleak urban environment is haunting and strange. Some of the denimed protagonists are still in high school, where they fight with the upper-class “Soc” boys and reveal surprisingly sensitive inner-beauty to “Soc” girls. The term “Soc” stands for “social” and designates the “Happy Days” refugee middle class citizens who live in the very same city, just on the other side of them darn tracks.
This story is told from the side of the “Greasers”, …show more content…
It provides extensive biographical information about many of the leading figures in western cultural history - individuals the author believed owed their profound success and influence to the advantages of being an “Outsider” in society. More than that, however, it was an examination of the philosophy known as “Existentialism”. In this treatment, Existentialism is not so much a philosophy or ideology as a psychological attitude - almost a post-trumatic stress syndrome brought on by ordinary, everyday life instead of combat in especially sensitive souls. In fact, if Colin Wilson is to be believed, the giants of western thought are basically literate versions of the wounded, no-ranch cowboys of S. E. Hinton’s section-eight housing Tulsa. They are sensitive and artistic souls revolted by a cruel and meaningless universe which they are powerless to …show more content…
William Thorndikes “The Outsiders” is subtitled “Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Succes". So like Wilson, Thorndike is interested in examining remarkable people. Unlike Wilson’s too cool for school authors and artists, Thorndike admires men of action who radically changed and improved their worlds. I wonder what “Pony-boys” life would have been like if Tulsa had a high-tech district and big brother “Soda-pop” was making $400 a week