Reading Log 2
Title: The outsiders
Text type: Extended written text
Author: S.E. Hinton
The outsiders is an extended written text about 2 gangs, "the greasers" and "the socs" the socs are from the west side which is a very rich area and the greasers come from the east side which is the very poor are. The greasers and the socs have always hated each other and not cared for each other as well as tried to kill each other. Since the socs are the rich ones, they tend to have lots of cars and weapons, the socs like watch and then jump the greasers when they are walking home and they would threaten them as well and give them a brutal beating. The greasers always stayed on the east side, but the socs would come to the east side territory to beat them rather than staying on their sod of town.
I can relate to this because, in the 21st century these days, anyone in the word can turn the TV on for the news, and almost every time there is something gang related happening somewhere in the word, even if it happens to be the bloods and crips. Since I'm growing up with this it has become a normal part of everyday life for me in this world and the same with a lot of other people. In my opinion gangs are stupid. The one thing that people don't know these days is the fact that gangs were originally made to protect their neighborhoods, not to start fights. Now days each gang has its own set of symbols and terms to distinguish itself from other gangs and to identify allies and enemies. This can bee seen when one of the greasers says “They grew up on the outside of society. They weren't looking for a fight. They were looking to belong. In the movie barbershop 2 when two regular kids are threatened to join a gang and do dangerous missions causing neighborhood chaos and reports on the news.
Another thing that caught my attention in the text was the brotherhood bond between Pony Boy, Soda Pop, and Darry Curtis. With having no parents around Darry was under pressure of being the overprotective and mature oldest sibling. Pony Boy was always corrected for his decisions and mistakes while Pony Boy wanted to be free and live his own life, Darry wanted him to have a safe stable and simple life. Soda Pop having the motherly look, being easy on the poor Pony Boy and having to correct Darry is needed. However after seeing how hard Darry was committed to saving Pony Boys life to risk his own, Pony Boy learned that the oldest brother loved him dearly and only wanted him to be safe and live life happily, even if it meant not doing what Pony wanted. Even if Darry is hard and strong on the younger brother's he still cares about their life's. This is shown when Darry sets it straight with Pony Boy by saying "Listen, with your brains and grades, you could get a scholarship, and we could put you through college, ain't that right, Soda? But you're livin' in a vacuum, Pony, and you're gonna have to cut it out. You just don't stop living because you lose somebody. I thought you knew that. And anytime you don't like the way I'm running things around here, you can just get out, ALRIGHT?". This can also be shown in the film "Brother Bear" when Sitka risks his own life saving his younger brothers from a wild bear, by splitting the ice and pulling the bear away from his brothers to save them. Even after a hard day of them misbehaving he still puts them first before himself.
I recommend this book because it has a lot of meaning and and all the meaning towards society and peoples feelings
