The way that the outsiders novel By S.E Hinton is portrayed through the eyes of a character is a great idea.The reader is taking on the role of Ponyboy Curtis and being apart of a gang using First person Point of view. For example the book open with “ I stepped into the sunlight from the darkened movie house with two things on my mind, Paul Newman and a ride home.” so instantly we can see we are seeing the book through a main character because of the of language, E.g I, My. This shows that even though we are a separate entity we are still able to connect with character on a personal level through the P.O.V used and how it it used in novels compared to films. S.E Hinton’s purpose of this was to connect us to the main character and teach us about how life is when you are apart of a gang, And to show us that Without caring parents there is always someone there for you. S.E Hinton’s purpose of this was to connect us to the main character and teach us about how life is when you are apart of a gang, And to show us that Without caring parents there is always someone there for you.
The way symbolism was used had quite a good impact on the way I now think of things. For instance, The Windrixville church. This symbolises what Ponyboy and his family used to do before the incident. Symbolism is shown to help people represent other things and important messages in the text like the family, violence and many more. This technique can create a great impact when you see it and realise what is being implied/ Read between the lines. The Author put this in to help keep the attention of the reader and make them theorise on what the symbol means to the main character and why they have it/found it. This can be linked to the movie where it is easier to see and theorise what is happening and why the character has/ found this symbol and what it means to them as well as we can see in the movie exactly what the symbol looks like and then hear the character explain it themselves which makes the symbol more important and relevant.
When reading the book It was interesting to read and pick up on some hidden meanings. I.E when Ponyboy tells Darry that he is fine and will fight even though he is sick and not in good condition to be fighting. Or when Darry is being “Mean”. He is really only looking out for Ponyboy and wanting to take care of him. This makes the story more repeatable because humans will say something while they mean something else. This also helps us understand that without some hidden meaning the story wouldn’t keep the reader's attention as easy. For instance if i was to write that i’m OK when I stated earlier on in the page that i’m not, would you keep reading to see why I said it. See what i mean it urges the reader to find out why this happened. The purpose of this to to make the story believable and interesting while still getting your point across, Something that S.E Hinton did Phenomenally well at the age of 15-17. The technique was used very well and has been used in multiple different stories like in kids books. Fiction and nonfiction. This technique is a very interesting choice but works well in stories, movies and in real life. Which brings me to my next point of Word-Choice.
Word-Choice is a great aspect of a story and was an amazing feature of the Novel. For Instance, When Ponyboy says he is fine when he is sick and doesn't want to bother Darry. Or when Darry tells Ponyboy to start “Using his head”, so instead of Darry telling pony to think about things He says “Learn to use your Head”. This shows that gang life can be hard and have different slang/terms for things like Thinking,Fighting Etc. They generally mean the same thing as what we say, But it is a way for them to communicate. Hinton put this in to give us a little taste of slang other countries and gangs use compared to how us kiwis say things. It also helps us connect to the characters on more of a personal level if we know their lingo. This connects with reality quite well because we all live in different countries and have different ways of portraying messages to one another, so it shows us that people in the novel's settings speak differently and it’s normal to find it weird and/or interesting.
The Important techniques used in the written texts can create impact and possibly make us think about life and humanity more than before.
