Matthew Reine
I was waiting for the appropriate time to discuss my favorite book on Culture Crossfire and have finally chosen this week to do so. I love reading and it pains me that I don’t talk about literature nearly enough here. That all changes now!
Sure, my favorite book series as a kid may have been the children’s horror anthology series, Goosebumps, but those weren’t only adventures I read as a young’n. In fact, I discovered my all-time favorite novel at the tender age of 13.
After me and my 8th grade English class finished reading The Giver, the next book we tackled was The Outsiders. I’ve heard of the book before and wondered if it was related to the film of the same name (more on that later) I saw as a young child. Like most kids my age, reading books for school was mostly a chore and it was difficult for me to get into many of the stories we read. At the time, I was too young to appreciate Shakespeare so I was seeking a real rollercoaster ride of words. Little did I know that I was about to get just that and more. The novel is a wonderfully written tale about adolescence, social class, friendship, and loss. Despite being my all-time favorite, I didn’t own a copy until my early 20s, nearly ten years after I initially read it.
Published in 1967, this story takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma (author, S.E. Hinton’s hometown) and primarily focuses on the war between the Greasers, a group of poor, blue collar misfits who are looked down upon and the Socials (or Socs for short), a gang of upper class teenagers with a huge chip on their shoulder. The Greasers are comprised of our main protagonist, Ponyboy along with his comrades, Two-Bit, Sodapop, Darry, Dallas, Steve, and Johnny. While Ponyboy is ambushed one night by members of the Socs, Johnny intervenes to save him but winds up stabbing one of them, killing him in the process. The two Greasers then go on the lamb and re-evaluate their lives, especially Ponyboy who seeks a better future. How exactly will this war end and how will it affect the boys?
I’m sure most teenagers could relate to Ponyboy, someone who is forced to possess a tough exterior because that’s what it takes to survive but inside is a worried child who tries to do the right thing and succeed in life. I won’t spoil what happens but the book also contains one of my all time favorite quotes, “stay gold, Ponyboy”.
The Outsiders was Hinton’s first written work and she was only 16 when she wrote it which is absolutely mind-blowing when you think about it. It’s remarkable how someone so young wrote something so captivating that it still remains widely popular more several decades later. I strongly suggest running out now and getting your hands on a copy if you haven’t already. If you liked The Outsiders then you should also check out Hinton’s Rumble Fish, another take on gang life and family struggle.
Believe it or not, after selling more than 14 million copies, The Outsiders is still quite the controversial piece of literature today. Several cases were brought up in the 1980s, 90s, and even 2000s challenging its distribution in public schools around the country due to its portrayal of gang violence and adult behavior performed by children.
Over 15 years after it first hit bookstores, a big screen adaptation of the book was eventually released in 1983 with legendary filmmaker, Francis Ford Coppola on hand to direct. The all-star cast was comprised of the elite of young Hollywood at the time: Ralph Macchio, C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, and even a young Tom Cruise.
I was always a huge Karate Kid fan so when I first viewed this as a kid, of course I was drawn to Johnny who was portrayed by Macchio. I watched the film again once I reread the book after I finished college and thought it was above average. It wasn’t great by any means but it does a decent job of showing a condensed version of the literary classic and I thought the huge throwdown between the two gangs flowed well. Plus, I love seeing all of these actors on-screen together so early in their respective careers. I strongly suggest checking out the Director’s Cut, though which contains lot of important scenes from the book that were omitted from the theatrical release.
Luckily, the picture wound up becoming a financial success and was generally well-received by the public. Readers were obviously skeptical of how The Outsiders would be able to translate into film once it was announced but Hinton herself assured fans that she was on-hand for most of the filming and inserted a lot of her input into the project. As for Hinton, this wouldn’t be the last work she wrote that was translated onto the silver screen. Out of the five of Hinton’s young adult novels, four have been made into movies, three starred Matt Dillon, and two have been directed by Coppola. Not a bad track record at all!
The popularity of the book and movie even caused a television series to be produced in 1990. An entire new cast was introduced and included early roles from Billy Bob Thornton, Stephen Dorff, Patricia, and David Arquette among others. Coppola stayed on as an executive producer. It aired on the Fox network and picks things up where the novel left off. After one season though, it was cancelled and quickly forgotten about. I’ve seen the series and while I think the idea of seeing what happened to the characters after the book ended is interesting, it was executed pretty poorly. It’s exit from the Sunday night lineup was for the better.
I encourage everyone reading this to follow S.E. Hinton on Twitter @se4realhinton. She’s still penning novels to this day and she’s still awesome. Want to know how popular The Outsiders still is? The internet and social media have blown up over the past decade with the few incidents where the actors from the film were reunited in photographs.
Macchio, Lowe, Howell, and Dillon have appeared in several photo-ops together that have surfaced online.
Hinton, Macchio, and Howell especially were on hand on the red carpet alongside one another in 2005 to coincide with of the “Complete Novel” DVD cut.
Stay gold, readers. Stay gold.
