Joshua Furnell

11.4.15

Dear Parents/Guardians:

We are reading The Outsiders this month. Our focus will center on social divide, friendship, loyalty and brotherly love.

Please assist your child with one of the three homework options listed below.

Our lesson today focused on the following excerpt:

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 an 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. I don't mean I do things like that. Darry would kill me if I got into trouble with the police. Since Mom and Dad were killed in an auto wreck, the three of us get to stay together only as long as we behave. So Soda and I stay out of trouble as much as we can, and we're careful not to get caught when we can't. I only mean that most greasers do things like that, just like we wear our hair long and dress in blue jeans and T-shirts, or leave our shirttails out and wear leather jackets and tennis shoes or boots. I'm not saying that either Socs or greasers are better; that's just the way things are.

Option 1: According to the text: “Socs…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 an asset to society the next.”

Based on the text, why do you think the editorials “claim [that the Socs are an] asset to society?

Option 2: According to the text: “Soda and [Ponyboy] stay out of trouble as much as [they] can.”

Based on the text, why do you think staying out of trouble is important when it comes to what you want to do later in life?

Option 3: According to the text: “[Greasers] wear [their] hair long and dress in blue jeans and T-shirts, or leave [their] shirttails out and wear leather jackets and tennis shoes or boots.”

According to the text, what does a typical greaser look like?