CHARACTERS IN THE NOVEL:

Ponyboy Curtis: 14-year-old member of the Greasers, a group from the east side of town. His parents died in a car accident, so he lives with his older brothers Darryl and Sodapop. He is a good student and athlete, but most people at his school think he's a bad guy like the rest of his Greaser friends.

Sodapop Curtis: Pony's handsome, charming older brother. Soda dropped out of school to work at a gas station. He doesn't share Pony and Dally's interest in school and sports.

Darryl Curtis: Pony's oldest brother. Darry is very strict with Ponyboy about school, curfews, etc. He is the leader of the Greasers, and very well-built.

Johnny Cade: Pony's closest friend and the gang's pet. Johnny is smaller than the rest and always has hair in his eyes. The gang is protective of him, since he is smaller than everyone else. His parents are alcoholics. He is afraid to walk the streets after being attacked by a group of Socials.

Cherry Valance: from the west side of town. She is part of the richer part of town and hangs around mostly with the Socs. She becomes friends with Pony and the other Greasers and gives them information about the Socs.

Bob Sheldon: Cherry's boyfriend. He was killed by Johnny after he tried to drown Ponyboy.

Dallas Winston: Dally is the toughest member of the Greasers. He has spent time in jail. He helps Johnny and Pony escape to Jay Mountain after Johnny kills Bob and gives them money.

Two-Bit Mathews: the Greasers' oldest member. He is a mentor to the other members of the gang.

Steve Randle: another member of the gang and Soda's best friend.

SUMMARY

The Outsiders is a story about a feud between two groups in a town: the Greasers, the poor "tough guys" from the east side of town, and the Socials, or Socs, the richer group from the west side of town. The narrator of the story is Ponyboy Curtis, a 14-year-old orphan who lives with his two older brothers, Soda and Darry. He is a good athlete and student, but is not treated the same as the richer students at his school. He knows this is because of his juvenile delinquent appearance. Ponyboy has long hair that he greases back, a symbol of him being in the gang.

Ponyboy is not happy with his situation: Darry is way too protective of him and he is always afraid of a Soc jumping him. One night Pony and Johnny are cornered in a park by a group of drunken Socs. One of the Socs tries to drown Pony. He goes unconscious and when he wakes up, he sees that Johnny has killed Bob, one of the Socs.

The two boys go to their friend Dally and he gives them money and directions to a church on Jay Mountain. There they hide out for a week, and then Dally comes to find them. After eating at Dairy Queen, they return to the church and see that it has caught fire. A group of schoolchildren are stuck in the burning building. Pony and Johnny jump in to save the children. Pony gets out relatively fine but Johnny is hit with a piece of falling timber and severely burnt.

In the newspaper, the boys are written up as heroes, even though they are still wanted for murder. Pony is fine, but Johnny is badly hurt and he will never walk again, if he lives. Soon after, the Greasers fight the Socs. The Greasers win, and when Dally and Pony go to tell Johnny that they won, he dies during their visit. Dally is destroyed by this, and runs off. Later he calls Pony's house to tell him that he robbed a store and is being chased by the cops. They go to meet him, and see him shot down after he pulls a gun on the police.

Pony is scarred by what has happened, and convinces himself that he, not Johnny, killed the Soc. He is also afraid that Social Services will take him and Soda away from Darry and into a foster home. Nevertheless, he is acquitted in the Soc's murder and gets to stay with Darry. The events of the past still haunt him, and finally, as a project for English class, he writes down the story of what happened.