The Outsiders
Homework Questions
Directions: Answer each question using complete sentences. Use quotations from the chapter to
support your answers.
Chapter 1
1. Who does Ponyboy wish he looked like? Why? (If you don't know anything about Paul
Newman, do some research!)
2. What sets Ponyboy apart from his brothers and the others in their gang?
3. Explain how Ponyboy sees Soda and Darry.
4. What makes the two gangs different from each other?
5. What are the signs of real family love among the boys?
6. How does Ponyboy define "gangs" in the Southwest?
7. What do Darry's words and actions toward Pony show about his feelings?
8. What kind of future had Darry been forced to give up?
9. What does Ponyboy think Darry's feelings toward him are?
Chapter 2
1. What are Ponyboy's feelings about Dally's behavior toward the girls at the movies?
2. How do the Soc girls, Cherry and Marcia, react to Ponyboy and Johnny?
3. According to Ponyboy, what is the "motto" of a gang?
4. Describe Cherry's personality.
5. What had happened to Johnny that still frightens him?
6. What does Cherry say about the differences between Socs and Greasers?
Chapter 3
1. What does Cherry do to ensure that there will not be a fight between Socs and Greasers on that
particular night?
2. What does Cherry reveal as her real feeling toward Dally?
3. What exactly does Ponyboy mean when he says, "I saw Johnny's cigarette glowing in the dark
and wondered vaguely what it was like inside a burning ember . . ." (Hinton 47)?
4. Why does Ponyboy dream of the country?
5. Why is Darry so upset about Ponyboy's arriving home late?
6. What makes Ponyboy decide to run away?
Chapter 4
1. Who comes after Ponyboy and Johnny in the park?
2. What do the Socs do to Ponyboy?
3. How does Johnny react?
4. Who seems more level-headed after the stabbing? How does this seem out of character?
5. Who do Ponyboy and Johnny go to for help?
6. What does Dally give them?
7. Where does he send them?
8. How does Ponyboy's trip to the country differ from his dream?
Chapter 5
1. What seems to be the strangest thing Johnny brings back to the church from the store? (Look
for significance as you go through the novel.)
2. Why is hair such an issue to the greasers?
3. Explain how crying helps Ponyboy and Johnny to relax.
4. How does Ponyboy explain that Dally is not a hero to him?
5. Why does the poem Ponyboy recites make so much sense to Johnny?
6. Find the foreshadowing in this chapter.
7. What has Dally told the police about the two boys?
8. What news does Dally bring?
Chapter 6
1. Who has become the greasers' spy among the Socs?
2. Why does Johnny decide to turn himself in?
3. How is Dally so different from Johnny?
4. What side of Dally comes out when he deals with Johnny?
5. Why do Ponyboy and Johnny go into the burning church?
6. What happens to Johnny? To Dally?
7. What does Ponyboy finally realize about Darry's feelings toward him?
8. Explain the significance of the following statement from the end of the chapter: "I had taken
the long way around, but I was finally home. To stay" (Hinton 99).
Chapter 7
1. Describe Dally's condition. Johnny's condition.
2. What is the focus of the newspaper article that was written about Ponyboy and Johnny? Why
is Ponyboy so bothered by the article?
3. Why is Ponyboy so scared by the dream he occasionally has that he cannot remember?
4. What does Randy reveal to Ponyboy that he cannot tell anyone else?
Chapter 8
1. In Johnny's and Ponyboy's opinions, why was 16 years not long enough?
2. Why do the boys say, "We could get along without anyone but Johnny" (Hinton 123)?
3. Why does Johnny's mother's say that Johnny's situation is the greasers' fault? Explain.
4. What does Two-Bit mean when he says, "'You know, the only thing that keeps Darry from
bein' a Soc is us'" (126)?
5. What role has Cherry taken?
Chapter 9
1. Why does Darry eventually decide to let Ponyboy fight in the rumble?
2. Why does Darry want Pony and Soda to leave the rumble quickly if the police show up?
3. What weapons were to be used in this rumble?
4. How does the rumble start? How does it end?
5. Why does Dally rush Ponyboy to the hospital at the end of the rumble?
6. What is Johnny's last statement to Ponyboy?
7. How does Dally react to Johnny's death?
Chapter 10
1. What has Dally done after leaving the hospital?
2. What is Dally's end?
3. Why is Ponyboy upset over the fact that he might not have asked for Darry while he was so
sick?
Chapter 11
1. Why does Randy come to visit Ponyboy?
Chapter 12
1. What is the outcome of the hearing?
2. After Ponyboy returns to school, how does he react to Socs?
3. What happens to Ponyboy's school work?
4. Why can Soda not stand to hear Darry and Pony fight?
5. Explain the end of the novel. (This is a technique used frequently by writers.)