A Must Read by Shayla

A Must Read by Shayla - February 2015 Scholarship Essay

High School is where most teenagers learn important things for life, some good and some bad. Some learn through experience, but others learn from lessons in class or stories from books. There is one book that has one of the best lessons that a high school student could use in the real world. The name of the book is called “The Outsiders”. This story teaches teens about judgment and how to be selfless.

The Outsiders is about two different social groups called the Greasers and the Socs. The Socs are a group of upper-class kids that think they are better than everyone and hate Greasers. The Greasers are a group of guys that dress up like bikers and have grease all through their hair and think the Socs are snobs. Both social groups judge each other by their appearances and the way they act toward each other. Getting deeper into the story the social groups of the Greasers and the Socs become more detailed. The Greasers start to show themselves as being more of a family and treat each other like brothers, they show their compassionate side. The Socs show that they really have problems just like everyone else, and they try to hide that with their tough attitude. The main situation that puts the story in motion is when the main character, a Greaser named Ponyboy, falls in love with a Socs named Cherry. At first nobody accepted this, but later on in the book Ponyboy realizes that they were not as different as everyone thought. In one part he makes a comment about how during the day they both seem so different, but at the end of the day both he and Cherry were looking at the same sunset. He sees that they are not so different at all. This teaches teens to not judge a book by its cover because you really don’t know anything about their life, and they might even be judging you right back.

Along with teaching about judgment, this story teaches teens how to be selfless. In the book Ponyboy and his friends Johnny and Dallas had to runaway and hide because of a problem. They end up being in the same area when a building caught on fire. They all selflessly jumped into the building and saved all the kids that were trapped. Johnny ended up getting burned all over his body and died. Dallas got burned as well. Even in the face of danger these boys put others before themselves and did what was right. Before he died, Johnny told Ponyboy, “Stay gold Ponyboy, stay gold.” He wanted him to stay the way he was and not ever change. This book teaches teens how to stay gold in life and treat others with respect no matter what they look like. It is a very important book for a high school student to read before they graduate.