A Tony For Pony: ‘The Outsiders’ Still Rocks

I picked up The Outsiders because we are going to see the Broadway show tomorrow. The show is a hit, and just won the Tony for best musical.

I read The Outsiders when I was a teen, same as every other teen in America. There is always a copy of the book laying around my house. Probably yours too.

So I picked it up to see how the story of Ponyboy and Sodapop and the boys holds up a few decades later.

Very well, in fact. It is a terrific little novel. S.E. Hinton wrote the book when she was 16. Most times a teen gets a book deal, it is because their parent is a bigwig in New York publishing, such as Nick McDonell and his novel Twelve. I don’t know what S.E. Hinton’s parents did. But with her growing up in Tulsa, I’m guessing neither Mom nor Dad was a bigwig in New York publishing.

The book begins, “When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie theater, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home.”

That’s Ponyboy, 14-year-old brother of Sodapop and Darry. Their parents died in a car crash, and Darry, who is 20, raises his brothers.

They are greasers. Greasers are in constant battle with the Socs (short for Socials), the wealthy kids from the other side of town.

Ponyboy is a smart kid. Darry figures his kid brother may find there’s more to life than dropping out of school and working a mindless job. So Darry is strict.

Ponyboy and Johnny fall asleep in a park, and when Ponyboy wakes up and rushes home, it’s way past curfew and Darry is furious. Ponyboy gets slapped and runs away with Johnny.

They take off to a park in the wee hours, and run into some Socs. The Socs are unhappy that Pony and Johnny chatted with a couple Soc girls, and want revenge. One is drowning Pony in a fountain, and Johnny stabs him.

The Soc dies and the greaser duo needs to skip town. They go see Dally, who sets them up with cash, a gun and a gameplan–hop a freight train to some desolate town, then find their way to an abandoned church.

Pony and Johnny pass the time in the church by reading Gone with the Wind aloud. Dally shows up after a week or so, and takes them to lunch. When they get back to the church, it is on fire, and there are kids inside. Pony and Johnny run into the church and save several kids, but the greaser boys are hospitalized.

Pony heals quickly and Johnny does not.

Back in the city, the greasers rumble with the Socs. “I went back to stand with Soda and Steve and Two-Bit then, because the Socs were arriving. Right on time,” writes Hinton. “They came in four carloads, and filed out silently. I counted 22 of them. There were 20 of us, so I figured the odds were as even as we could get them. Darry always liked to take on two at a time anyway.”

The greasers win. They are overjoyed, until they find that Johnny has died.

Hours later, Dally is gunned down by police.

Amidst the losses, Ponyboy struggles in school. Then he finally comes up with the theme for his English composition: A look at the life of a greaser in their dismal city. His essay begins, “When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie theater, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home.”

I see The Outsiders as a book for kids who do not read books. The characters are relatable; teens feel they know Ponyboy. A distracted 15-year-old is not going to get a whole lot out of Julius Caesar or Beowulf. But the story of violent teens scraping by, and one who sees just how pointless the violence is, and appreciates a good sunset? The kid just might read that.

In our TikTok age, there are more and more kids who simply do not read. And so we are fortunate to have one novel they will read, and will enjoy.

The Outsiders is not perfect. The Darry/Dally thing is a bit confusing. Couldn’t Hinton have called Darry Bill or Paul or something? And I found it hard to believe that Cherry and Marcia would chat with Pony and Johnny at the drive-in. Would Soc girls even bother making small talk with a couple greaser boys? Probably not.

But again, the book was written by a 16-year-old. Hinton wrote it based on her experience in school. “I desperately wanted something to read that dealt realistically with teen-age life,” she said.

The book, with 180 pages, has a glittering 4.13, out of 5, on GoodReads, with 1.36 million readers giving it a grade. A review in The Guardian says, “The Outsiders is gritty, honest and authentic, and a novel that I feel every teenager needs to read. It makes the reader see that at the end of the day, as Ponyboy says, ‘we see the same sunset, and that while we are the ones who create the divides between ourselves, we can also be the ones to challenge them.’”

Francis Ford Coppola directed the movie, which came out in 1983. C. Thomas Howell was Ponyboy, Rob Lowe was Sodapop, Patrick Swayze played Darry, Matt Dillon was Dally and Ralph Macchio played Johnny. Throw in Emilio Estevez, Tom Cruise, Diane Lane, Leif Garrett, and even Tom Waits as Dally’s pal Buck, and it may be the most star-studded cast in Hollywood history.

Hinton’s other novels include Tex, Rumble Fish and That Was Then…This is Now. But nothing came close to the impact The Outsiders had on popular culture.

Hinton shared on X about the Outsiders play winning the Tony. “Thanks to everyone congratulating me on ‘our’ Best Musical Tony,” she said. “I think the cast & crew had more to do with it–but I am a part of that family.”

Journalist Michael Malone lives in Hawthorne with his wife and two children.