1. Chapter 1
Notes

2. Ponyboy Narrator (first person) Fourteen years old
Is small for his age but has a good build
Has light-brown, almost-red hair that is long (says he looks better with long hair)
Has greenish-gray eyes
Lives with two brothers, Sodapop and Darry
Describes himself as “different” from his brothers and the other greasers; likes to watch movies alone so he “can get into them” and likes to read books
Does not do things that greasers normally do; is not allowed to get into trouble
Is smart; does well in school
Darry says he does “not use [his] head” (has no common sense)

3. Ponyboy says that he and Darry “just didn’t dig each other”; he feels like he cannot please Darry
Believes that Darry sees him as just another mouth to feed and as someone to holler at
Questions whether or not Darry loves him; believes he doesn’t love anyone or anything, except Sodapop
Ponyboy doesn’t hardly think of Darry as human
Tells himself that he doesn’t care about Darry either, though he admits he is just lying to himself
Says, “I lie to myself all the time. But I never believe me.” (Will be important for later – foreshadowing).

4. Darry (Darrel) Twenty years old (but looks older)
Is tough, cool, and smart
Six-feet-two
Broad-shouldered and muscular
Has dark-brown hair that kicks out in front and has a slight cowlick in the back
Has eyes that “are like two pieces of pale blue-green ice”; they have a “determined set to them”
According to Ponyboy, Darry would be handsome if his eyes weren’t so cold
Is hard and firm (serious and strict)
Doesn’t understand anything that isn’t plain, hard fact
Uses his head (has common sense)

5. Works too much (and too hard, according to Ponyboy)
Has “gone through a lot”; “grown up too fast”
Was really popular in school; was the captain of the football team and had been voted Boy of the Year
Became the guardian for his two younger brothers (Sodapop and Ponyboy) when their parents died in a car wreck
Didn’t have the money for college, even with the athletic scholarship he won
Has no time for college now; has no time for anything because he works all the time
Ponyboy says Darry “isn’t ever sorry for anything he does”
He looks like their father but “[acts] exactly the opposite from him”

6. Sodapop Sixteen-going-on-seventeen
Extremely handsome; like a movie star
Has a finely drawn, sensitive face
Not as tall as Darry, and slimmer
Has dark-gold hair that he combs back; long, silky, and straight; bleaches to a shining wheat-gold in the summer
Eyes are dark brown; they are “lively, dancing, recklessly laughing eyes that can be gentle and sympathetic one moment and blazing with anger the next”
Manages to be reckless and thoughtful at the same time
Does not drink. Ponyboy says that Sodapop does not need to; “he gets drunk on just plain living”
Always “happy-go-lucky and grinning”
Will “never grow up at all”

7. Ponyboy describes Sodapop as “one of a kind”; says he is “different from anybody”; he understands almost everything and everyone
Ponyboy also says he “loves Soda more than [he’s] ever loved anyone”
Soda tries to stay out of trouble so that he and his brothers can stay together
Dropped out of school; works at the gas station
Is not afraid of Darry like Ponyboy is; enjoys teasing him
Always picks up for Ponyboy when Darry is hard on him
Tells Ponyboy that Darry doesn’t mean anything he says when he yells at him; says Darry has more worries than someone his age should
He also tells Ponyboy that Darry is proud of him, loves him a lot, and is only trying to protect him because he is the baby (Ponyboy thinks that Sodapop is wrong for once)

8. Johnny Youngest, next to Ponyboy Sixteen years old
Smaller than the rest with a slight build
Has big, black eyes in a dark, tanned face
Hair is jet-black, heavily greased, and combed to the side; it is so long that it falls in shaggy bangs across his forehead
Has a nervous, suspicious look in his eyes
Was jumped recently by the Socs
Face was cut up and bruised
Was found half-conscious by his friends; cried when they found him
“Scared of his own shadow after that”

9. Ponyboy says, “If you can picture a little dark puppy that has been kicked too many times and is lost in a crowd of strangers, you’ll have Johnny.”
Has it very rough at home; father beats him and his mother ignores him, except when she’s angry at him (then she yells)
Ponyboy says Johnny “would have run away a million times if [his friends] hadn’t been there.”
He also says, “If it hadn’t been for the gang, Johnny would never have known what love and affection are.”
Is the gang’s “pet”

10. Steve Randle Seventeen years old Sodapop’s best friend Tall and lean
Has thick, greasy hair that is combed in complicated swirls
Is cocky and smart
His specialty is cars
Works at the gas station with Sodapop
Ponyboy says that Steve doesn’t like him because he tags along with him and Sodapop (at Soda’s request)
Ponyboy says he only likes Steve “because he is Soda’s best friend”; he even says at one point that he hates him

11. Two-Bit Mathews Oldest of the gang; eighteen-and-a-half
Six feet tall; stocky in build
Very proud of his rusty-colored sideburns
Has gray eyes and a wide grin
Is a wisecracker; “couldn’t stop making funny remarks to save his life”
Ponyboy says, “You couldn’t shut up that guy; he always had to get his two-bits worth in. Hence his name.”
Makes smart aleck comments to cops
Real name is Keith, but everyone knows him as Two-Bit, even the teachers
Ponyboy says life “is one big joke to Two-Bit.”
Is famous for shoplifting
Has a black-handled switchblade
Likes fights, blondes, and school (goes to school “for kicks”)
Is still a junior (11th grade)
Ponyboy likes him “real well” because he keeps them laughing

12. Dallas Winston (Dally)
“The real character of the gang”
Has a dangerous mood
Has an elfish face, high cheekbones, pointed chin, small, sharp animal teeth, and ears like a lynx
Hair is so blonde that it is almost white
Does not like haircuts or hair oil, so his hair falls over his forehead in wisps, kicks out in the back in tufts, and curls behind his ears and along the nape of his neck
Eyes are “blue, blazing ice, cold with the hatred of the whole world”
Spent three years on the “wild side” of New York
Has a poor reputation
Gets arrested often (the first time was at age 10}; the police “have a file on him”
Tougher than the rest of the greasers – and colder and meaner
Is as wild as the boys in real gangs
Likes to get drunk; rides in rodeos; lies; cheats; steals; jumps small kids
Ponyboy says he doesn’t like Dally “but he was smart and you had to respect him”

13. Greasers Greasers: poor kids from the East side of town
Typical greasers:
Are wild
Are almost like “hoods” – someone who acts like they are from the ghetto
Steal things
Drive souped-up cars
Hold up gas stations
Fight
Carry knives
Smoke (very typical for young people to smoke in the 1960s)
Dress in blue jeans and t-shirts
Wear leather jackets and keep their shirttails out
Wear tennis shoes or boots

14. Socs
Socs: short for “the Socials”; rich kids from the West side of town
Socs:
Jump greasers
Wreck houses
Throw beer blasts
Get editorials in the paper for being a public disgrace one day and an asset to society the next
Wear madras shirts
Carry knives
Drive Mustangs and Corvairs
Ponyboy wonders why the Socs hate the greasers so much; the greasers leave the Socs alone

15. “Gang”
Typically refers to an organized group of criminals who engage in rivalries with other gangs
In The Outsiders, “gang” refers to a small bunch of friends who stick together
Ponyboy says his gang is just a group of boys who have grown up together and who consider each other family
Consists of: Ponyboy, Sodapop, Darry, Two-Bit, Steve, Dally, and Johnny
He also says there is no true gang rivalry (except with the Socs). The real rivalry is between the social classes.

16. Slang words Blade: a knife (short for switchblade) Rumble: a fight
Usually occurs when two people have a grudge to work out and bring their friends along
The cooler: jail
Tuff: cool
Not to be confused with “tough”, which means “rough and strong”
Both are compliments to the greasers
Dig: like, understand
You dig?: Do you like it? Do you understand?

17. Girls
Greaser girls:
Tough, loud
Wear too much makeup; giggle and swear too much
“The only kind of girls that would look at us” says Ponyboy
Dally’s girl, Sylvia, “two-timed” him (cheated), so he broke up with her “for good”
Sodapop’s girl, Sandy, is different
Hair is natural blonde and her laugh is soft
Has soft, china-blue eyes
A “real nice girl”
Sodapop tells Ponyboy that he is going to marry Sandy someday

18. Ponyboy is curious about what it’s like to be in love (Sodapop says “It’s real nice”)
Ponyboy also wonders what other (non-greaser) girls are like – the ones who are bright-eyed and wear their dresses at decent lengths
Says “they’d like to spit on us if given a chance”
Also says, “Some were afraid of us” and “looked at us like we were dirt” (This is the same kind of look the Socs have when they drive by in their cars and yell out “Grease!”)
Thinks that the “nice” girls look down on him and the other greasers
Girl in biology class said, “They are right. You are a hood.”
Ponyboy says this didn’t “make [him] feel so hot”

19. Words
Paul Newman = popular actor known for his good looks and blue eyes ( )
Corvair = a Chevrolet automobile model
Madras = a fine, firm, cotton cloth, usually striped or plaid, used for shirts, dresses, and so on.
Will Rogers = US actor ( )
The cooler = jail
Savvy = to understand, to get the idea