Language In S.E.Hinton’s The Outsiders -

Language In S.E.Hinton’s
The Outsiders
Eeva Niklander
Jenny Perttola
The Novel
• The Outsiders tells the story of 14-year-old Ponyboy Curtis, his
brothers and the gang of friends they belong to.
• Set in the 1960’s in the rough part of an American city, the story is
a convincing description of the social and ideological conflicts
between East Side Greasers and West Side Socials.
• The Outsiders is the first novel by S.E.Hinton, and was published
in 1967. She was then eighteen.
• The story was inspired by Hinton’s own high school experiences
in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• The novel has also been published in Finnish by Otava in 1969,
as Me kolme ja jengi.
• The Outsiders was adapted into a movie by Francis Ford Coppola
and was released in 1983.
The Story
”We’re poorer than the Socs and the middle class. I reckon we’re wilder too. Not
like the Socs, who jump greasers and wreck houses and throw beer blasts for kicks, and
get editorials in the paper for being a public disgrace one day and a asset to society the
next. Greasers are almost like hoods; we steal things and drive old souped-up cars and
hold up gas stations and have a gang fight once in a while.”
In Ponyboy’s world, there are no ordinary people, there are only
Socials and Greasers. And being a Greaser means that you have it
rougher than others – or at least, that’s what Ponyboy thinks.
When the story begins, Ponyboy and his two older brothers, Darry
and Sodapop, have been orphaned less than a year ago, when both
their parents were killed in a car accident. As Darry strives to hold two
jobs to support his underaged brothers and Sodapop drops out of high
school to help him, Ponyboy is going through a mental crisis. He is
painfully aware of the barriers his social status puts in his way and
which any amount of hard work and study fails to eradicate.
The Story
In the course of one evening, Ponyboy’s life takes a tragic turn,
when his friend, Johnny, inadvertently kills a Soc in self-defense.
The two boys have to go in hiding, and this is the beginning of an
avalanche of events, that finally leads to Ponyboy’s writing of his
life’s story.
”It was too vast a problem to be just a personal thing. There should be some
help, someone should tell them before it was too late. Someone should tell their side
of the story, and maybe people would understand then and wouldn’t be so quick to
judge a boy by the amount of hair oil he wore.”
Language
• The story is narrated by Ponyboy, and the language in
the novel reflects the way Greasers speak and think.
Ponyboy is more educated than most of his friends, and
his writing is likewise more literary. However, in
describing his everyday life, Ponyboy uses everyday
vocabulary, and this makes his writing a bit more
speech-like than in novels in general.
• In the following slides, we will cover the book’s
vocabulary (arranged thematically), syntactic structures
(for example Adjective in place of adverb) and other points
of interest.
• The page numbers given refer to the HarperCollins
edition, thirty-fourth impression of The Outsiders from
1991.
Language - Vocabulary
• Words relating to violence
slug (sb)
10
”--the one on my chest slugged me a couple of times.”
hit
belt (sb)
23
”--Dally had turned around and belted him so hard it
knocked a tooth loose.”
hit
bang (up)
29
”We were used to seeing Johnny banged up.”
beat (up)
clobber
67
”I'd like as not get clobbered over the head.”
hit
rumble (also:
to rumble)
14
”A rumble, when it's called, is usually born of a grudge
fight--”
gang fight
skin rumble
97
”Nobody ever gets really hurt in a skin rumble.”
whip
20
”--who could whip who--”
gang fight without
weapons
beat, take on
stomp
81
”When we stomp the Socies good--”
beat
bopper,
rumbler
bop-action
101
”He a pretty good bopper?”
fighter
101
”--you take a guy that calls a rumble 'bop-action'--”
fight
Language - Vocabulary
• Words relating to drinking and smoking
cancer stick
crocked
61
31
soused
pickled
stoned
38
43
82
”Gotta cancer stick, Johnnycake?”
”--Two-Bit was half-crocked when he gave me the
lecture.”
”I think I'm a little soused.”
”--I figured they were reeling pickled.”
”--everybody can get stoned.”
cigarette
drunk
drunk
drunk
drunk
• Some words have gained additional meaning over the years or else have
changed their meaning.
• For example, the word weed would nowadays mean marihuana rather than
cigarette. Also, the word stoned now refers more often to drugs than to
alcohol, as in the book.
Language - Vocabulary
• Words relating to gangster life
hood(lum),
JD
14
”The shade of difference that separates a greaser from a
hood wasn't present in Dally.”
cooler
tuff
15
15
swipe
fuzz
17
20
heater
outfit
63
43
”I didn't know you where out of the cooler yet, Dally.”
”Tuff means cool, sharp – like a tuff-looking Mustang or a
tuff record.”
”He doesn't need half the thing he swipes from stores.”
”--nobody in his right mind wants to be around when the
fuzz show.”
”I started carryin' a heater...”
”--the Shepard outfit liked the alleys down by the tracks.”
turf
mop
78
78
mug
79
”--(he was) far from his own turf--”
”What little squaw's got that tuff-lookin' mop of yours,
Ponyboy?”
”They'd never believe that a little greasy-lookin- mug could
be a hero.”
gangster, thug,
juvenile
delinquent
jail
cool
steal
police
gun
gang
territory
hair
hood
Language - Vocabulary
• Other words
yell, shout,
scream
boy, man (term
familiar
of two,
all of
you
you
mouth
attractive person
holler (at sb)
7
”Like he's never hollering at me the way Darry is--”
bub
y'all
15
24
”No sirree, bub.”
”Y'all sit up here with us.”
trap
doll
21
22
”Take your feet off my chair and shut your trap.”
”Man, your brother is one doll.”
broad
24
”Not any greasy broads for us, but real Socs.”
corn-poney
51
”He sounded as corn-poney as Hank Williams.”
girl (often
offensive)
unsophisticated
beef
67
”If something beefed him, he didn't keep quiet about it.”
annoy, bug
peel out
109
”He vroomed the motor and peeled out.”
drive off
Language – Syntactic structures
Adjective in place of adverb
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
”I sweated something fierce.” (9)
”I was scared so bad.” (10)
”I kept my mouth shut good.” (12)
”I liked Sandy just fine.” (17)
”Don't take him serious.” (18)
”He's been hurt bad sometime.” (28)
”Darry is awful sorry he hit you.” (62)
”You sure can cuss good.” (62)
Language – Syntactic structures
Double negative
•
•
•
•
”He don't mean nothin'.” (18)
”I ain't got nobody.” (42)
”Dally won't tell me nothing.” (62)
”I ain't never been in the country before.” (65)
Leaving out the verb
• ”You cold, Ponyboy?” (18)
• ”You in love with Sandy?” (18)
• ”Where you headed?” (38)
Language – Other
Lonesome, lone it
• ”What were you doin', walking by your lonesome?” (15)
• ”I've stayed by my lonesome before.” (82)
• ”I usually lone it anyway.” (7)
Make
• ”Make like a farm boy taking a walk.”
• ”You don't need to make like every mouthful's your last.”
Language – Other
Exclamations
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Glory!
Gosh!
Golly!
Gee!
Boy-howdy!
Shoot!
Welup!
Language – Names
•
Many of the Greasers have unusual given names in the book - given either by parents
in the birth certificate or given by friends as better fitted than the official name. The
Curtis boys - Ponyboy, Sodapop and Darrel Shaynne - were named by their father,
"an original person", as Ponyboy describes him. And Sodapop's petname is, of course,
Pepsi-Cola.
•
Keith "Two-Bit" Mathews is never called by his real name: Ponyboy thinks even his
teachers have forgotten what it is. His name gives the reader an insight into his
personality. "You couldn't shut up that guy," Ponyboy writes, "he always had to get
his two-bits worth in." Among the East Side characters are also Dallas and Curly, as
opposed to Bob, Randy and Paul of the Socials.
•
Johnny Cade, Ponyboy's best friend and the unofficial little brother of the whole
gang, is often called Johnnycake or Johnnykid by his friends - a marker of affection.
Some kind of abbreviation of the official name is used for nearly every member of the
gang: Pony, Soda, Darry and Dally.
References
• Hinton, S.E. The Outsiders. London: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd,
1991.
• Biography. 21 November 2007. URL: www.sehinton.com/bio.html
On this YouTube clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T1Cx2JbTEg
you will find a sample of the language as used in the Coppola
movie The Outsiders (1983).

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