The Outsiders
Background Information
S.E. Hinton




Susan Eloise Hinton
Born in 1948 in Tulsa, OK
She was a self-confessed tomboy growing
up wanting to be a cowboy or a writer
At 16 she wrote The Outsiders because she
was aggravated with the social climate of her
high school.
S.E. Hinton

Wrote under the penname S.E. Hinton after
publishers expressed concern that males,
the prime target audience, would not take the
novel seriously if written by a woman.
S.E. Hinton


Suffered from writer’s block after writing The
Outsiders and plummeted into depression
After some soul searching and a nudge from
her boyfriend she wrote That Was Then, This
is Now in 1971.
–
(Good novel for student choice lit circle end of
year)
Other Novels






Rumble Fish 1975 (eventually into a movie)
Tex 1979 (eventually into a movie)
1983 The Outsiders movie is released
1988 Taming the Star Runner (made into
movie)
1995 The Puppy Sister and Little David, Big
David (Children’s books)
…20 years later 2004: Hawkes Harbor (adult
lit)
The Setting of The Outsiders
Oklahoma
Hairstyles of the Fifties and Sixties
Women wore their hair
either soft and curled
or pulled into a
ponytail and secured
by a colorful scarf.
Men often wore their
hair in a buzz cut or
flat top.
The Duck Tail


To accomplish this look, lots
of hair grease was required.
In this case, a little dab ain't
“gonna do ya.” This is where
the term “greasers” was first
established.
There were no blow dryers
to create a look. To make
hair stay in a certain style,
you had to either spray or
grease.
Fashion of the Early 1960s
This look was made
popular in the 1950s
and continued
through the early
60s. A poodle skirt
is a wide swing skirt
with a poodle
appliquéd or
transferred onto the
fabric.
Girls usually wore
flared skirts, but the
pencil skirt became
popular in the late
‘50s. All dresses and
skirts came to or
below the knee.
Men’s Fashion
For casual dress,
men often wore
cardigans
(sweaters) over
their dress shirts.
The cardigan sweater seen here was a
popular style which was used for the
"letter" sweater-popular among the
younger men and athletes.
Madras
English Leather

Popular, yet
expensive
cologne
Corvair (Chevrolet)

Red
Corvair
was a
popular
car prior
to the
‘65
Mustang
Mustang
The Coolest of the Cool
The “coolest” of the
young men often
wore leather jackets
over T-shirts with
jeans and loafers.
Often, this outfit
would make people
think that the wearer
was a “hood.”
Drive-In Movies
Allusion
a
reference to a person, event,
thing or to a part of another
text
Allusions in The Outsiders






Paul Newman
Robert Frost
Great Expectations
Gone With the Wind
The Beatles
Elvis
Paul Newman



Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid
The Hustler
The Long, Hot Summer
More recently…
“Doc”
and you may have even seen him at
the store!
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens

This is the story of Pip,
an orphan boy adopted
by a blacksmith’s
family. Pip learns how
to find happiness. He
learns the meaning of
friendship and the
meaning of love and he
becomes a better
person for it.
Gone With The Wind
American classic in which a
manipulative woman and a
roguish man carry on a
turbulent love affair in the
American south during the
Civil War
The Beatles

The Beatles were an
English rock band,
formed in Liverpool in
1960, and one of the
most commercially
successful and
critically acclaimed
acts in the history of
popular music.
Elvis

Elvis Presley was one of
the most popular
American singers of the
20th century. A cultural
icon, he is widely known
by the single name Elvis.
He is often referred to as
the "King of Rock and
Roll" or simply "the King".
Robert Frost
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Analysis of Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
This simplistic, beautiful poem
illustrates the coming of age with
plants and nature. When your young
your gold. Every thing is new and
beautiful. The flower. After a short
time, hence “But only so an hour.”,
you prepare for adulthood, like when
“Leaf subsides to leaf,” as a tree
prepares itself for winter. “So Eden
sank to grief.” refers to looking back
on your past and wishing you were
still a kid. “So dawn goes down to
day,” is becoming an adult. You can’t
stay a kid and “Nothing gold can
stay.”
http://www.eliteskills.com/c/13186
| Posted on 2010-10-14 | by a guest