History Literature / TheOutsiders

The film got its own sequel in 1990, which also served as the pilot episode to a short-lived, little known [[LiveActionTV TV series]].

** Steve's father.
** The Soc who beat up Johnny before the story began. Bob's parents were very indulgent and never disciplined their son.

* AerithAndBob: Inverted with brothers Ponyboy, Sodapop, and Darrel. It helps to set Darrel apart from his brothers. His {{promotion to parent}} made him much more serious than they are.

* AloofBigBrother: Ponyboy feels that his oldest brother Darry is this, being the unofficial leader of their group and always criticizing Ponyboy. But Ponyboy eventually realizes that Darry actually does love him as much as he does Sodapop, who he calls his "little buddy."

* BattleInTheRain: The rumble scene.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Johnny may be the quietest, most law-abiding of the Greasers, but push him too far and, [[spoiler:as Bob found out, you could get killed.]]

* BittersweetEnding: Ponyboy lives, reconciles with Darry, and presumably ends up going back to school and the Greasers defeat the Socs, [[spoiler:but Johnny and Dally are dead]]. Furthermore, the feud between the Greasers and Socs is still shown to continue regardless.

* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler: After Johnny dies in the hospital, Dallas loses it and robs a nearby store. After the cops catch up to him, he [[SuicideByCop points his unloaded gun at them]].]]

** And Darry (in the book), who acts harsh towards Ponyboy, but he just wants him to succeed in life and not make the same mistakes he made.

* PapaWolf: Darry, Sodapop, Dallas, and even Johnny have shades of this, mostly towards Ponyboy.

* TragicDropout: Darry gets a menial job in order to take care of his younger siblings after their parents die, instead of going on to college. Subverted with Sodapop since he didn't do that well in school and prefers his job at the gas station.

* TrueCompanions: The Greasers have each other since that's all they really have.

Not to be confused with ''ComicBook/TheOutsiders'', a superhero team in Franchise/TheDCU, or the [[ProfessionalWrestling tag team]] of Wrestling/KevinNash and Wrestling/ScottHall, or the '60s band that did "Time Won't Let Me". Also not to be confused with ''Literature/TheStranger'', whose title is often translated as ''The Outsider''. ''Very'' different from Creator/HPLovecraft's short story ''Literature/{{The Outsider|1926}}'', or Creator/StephenKing's novel also called ''Literature/{{The Outsider|2018}}''.

* HeroesWantRedHeads: Ponyboy falls in love with the redheaded Cherry.

* DramaticSpineInjury: [[spoiler:Johnny's back is broken by a falling piece of timber as he rescues the kids from the burning church. It's specifically stated that he'll be paralyzed for life if he survives the injury...and he doesn't.]]

** Even Ponyboy himself admits it once before he and Darry reached an understanding.

* PowerWalk: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpHEcDSYtiA#t=0m35s The Socs do one]] prior to the final showdown.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

Unexpectedly, given the genre, it is very light on the [[{{Wangst}} angst]]. The Greasers have it rough, but nobody's {{emo|Teen}} about it.

''The Outsiders'' was followed by several sequels, of which ''Literature/RumbleFish'' is the best known, and, of course, a rather faithful 1983 [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptation]] in which Hinton herself was directly involved, directed by Creator/FrancisFordCoppola and featuring a cast including Creator/CThomasHowell, Creator/MattDillon, Creator/RalphMacchio, Creator/PatrickSwayze, Creator/RobLowe, Creator/DianeLane, Creator/EmilioEstevez, Creator/TomCruise, and Creator/LeifGarrett. (Not to mention some awesome music.)

* TheFilmOfTheBook: Almost entirely faithful to the original novel, with some great music. Hinton herself was actually the location scout; she even took out all of the non-dialogue parts of the novel to create the movie's script.

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Ponyboy, to a degree.

** On a brighter note, it's likely that the public will have a more positivie view of the Greasers following the media coverage of the church rescue and Ponyboy's school project on his traumatic experiences.

* RareGuns: In the movie version, every gun the protagonists use is made by Smith & Wesson.

* KnifeNut: Switchblades are exceedingly common weapons among Socs and greasers alike. Two-bit takes a great deal of pride in his jet-black model. After he got jumped by a gang of Socs, Johnny carries a six-inch blade, which he uses to [[spoiler: [[KarmicDeath kill Bob, who was part of the same gang of Socs who had attacked him before.]]]]

* BittersweetEnding: Ponyboy lives and presumably ends up going back to school and the Greasers defeat the Socs, [[spoiler:but Johnny and Dally are dead]]. Furthermore, the feud between the Greasers and Socs is still shown to continue regardless.

* BittersweetEnding: Ponyboy lives and presumably ends up going back to school and the Greasers defeat the Socs, [[spoiler:but Johnny and Dally are dead]].

* PantyShot: In the film, Two-Bit pulls up a female Soc's skirt, revealing her white panties.

* AdultFear: Older readers can better appreciate [[PromotionToParent Darry]]'s fear that Ponyboy and Sodapop will be taken away from him. Once Ponyboy runs away with Johnny, it's not hard to think about what's going through Darry's head the entire time.