The Outsiders

The driving question: What can the Outsiders teach us about worldview?

This project began with reading a book called The Outsiders, by S.E Hinton. This book was about a boy named Ponyboy Curtis. It tells the tale of a group of friends who—. Oh, sorry, I thought I was going somewhere with that intro, but I’m not that good at describing books in a way that makes sense, so I’ll link a description of the book here.

So, everyday in Humanities, we would read a chapter of the book, come up with some questions we had, then share them with the group we were sitting with. I’ll put the questions below, but they  spoil the  book so  if you haven’t read it, don’t look.

Chapter 1

• What does this have to do with worldview?
• Why are their names ‘Ponyboy’ and ‘Sodapop’?

Chapter 2

• What’ll happen to Johnny?

Chapter 3

• Does Pony realize how hard it would be for Darry, being the oldest sibling, to support the family after their parents deaths?
• Why do Cherry and Marcia stay with their boyfriends?

Chapter 4

• Why was Dally so calm? 
• What’s the long-term plan for Pony and Johnny?
• What are Darry and Soda doing while Johnny and Pony are in the church?

Chapter 5

• Did the bleach they used for Pony’s hair hurt?
• Why do they call the police the ‘fuzz’?
• Why did Cherry agree to be a spy agains the socs?

Chapter 6

• Are we ever going to see Johnny’s parents?
• Did Pony and Johnny start the fire?
• Will Johnny be okay?
• Did Pony just say he smoked weed?

Chapter 7 

• Is Johnny going to die at the end?
• What is Pony dreaming about?

Chapter 8

• Why did Johnny’s mother come to see him?
• Why does Cherry still love Bob after all he did?

Chapter 9

• Why does everyone have that level of gymnastics skills?
• Why did the Socs run?

Chapter 10

• Will Ponyboy and his brothers get separated?
• What if Darry had never hit Pony?

Chapter 11

• Why did Darry call Pony ‘little buddy’, if he only usually calls Soda that?
• Does Pony feel guilty about what happen to Johnny?

Chapter 12

• Why did Soda hesitate before answering the question about Dally?
• What were the green pancakes like?

One of the first things we learned about was worldview. There are seven elements of worldview.

1. Geography 
2. Time
3. Beliefs
4. Society
5. Values
6. Economy
7. Knowledge

After we learned about the aspects of worldview, we had to make a Mindnode of our worldview. The first one that I made I didn’t elaborate on some of my points, so I added some more stuff.  

 

While we were reading through the book, we had to fill out a ‘character deck’. For each character, we had to put their age, physical description,  personality traits, and a significant event. 

*Note* this does contain spoilers for the book, so if you don’t want to ruin the book, don’t click the link below

Outsiders Character Deck

 

Oh, and at some point in this project, we got into groups. Here was my group:

Sofia

Owen

Charlie

Judah 

Magnus

We also made a couple of movie posters. The first one was an individual assignment, where we had to make a poster with yourself in it. I didn’t really want myself in the poster, but I found a way. 

Next we had to make group poster. This one had to have all members of the group in it. We each made our own poster, then we all got together and chose which one to use to make a poster with all of us helping. My poster was chosen, but I didn’t include two elements of worldview, like we were supposed to, but everything worked out fine. We then used it as a template for the final poster. 

 

Another thing we did was a ‘You vs Who’ character analysis. We picked a character [I got Dally], thought of some character traits, and then found evidence to support the character traits we chose. Here’s mine:

*contains spoilers*

Do not question the lobsters.

After we finished reading the book, we watched The Outsiders movie. But we couldn’t sit there and just watch the movie, so we did a book vs movie comparison. It definitely has spoilers for the book, but because my handwriting is terrible, it’s  hard to read even if you wanted to. If you don’t want to spoil the book, just don’t focus on it. 

As I’m writing this post, a few things have occurred to me. First, is that I should have finished this blog post earlier, because I don’t want to do it now. Second, is that I haven’t even explained about the tableau scene, and exhibition.

The Tableau and Exhibition:

Here is the definition of tableau because I can’t explain things well. 

I forget when, but every group was assigned a scene from the book. If you’re still oh-so worried about spoiling the book, I’d stop reading now because its getting rather tiresome for me to keep pointing out the fact that there’s a spoiler. 

The scene my group got was when Dally got shot to death by the police. 

First we had to think of how we could turn this into a tableau scene. After we figured that out we practiced a bunch of times, we figured out what costumes we could bring, and then wrote a script for the exhibition. 

We also had to come up with what we thought this scene in the Outsiders would look like in 2021. 

In the  first scene, Sofia and I were police officers, who shot Dally (a.k.a Judah) and were putting away our guns. In the second scene, instead of shooting Dally, Sofia and I tried to reason with Dally, because one of his close friends just died, and he was very upset. 

About the exhibition. 

It was December 15, 2021. 

The first half of the school day was normal.

During the last class of the day we started to get ready and start to set everything up, get the props together, and get into our costumes.

My costume was just a white button-up shirt, a police badge, and hat that said POLICE.

Soon all groups were set up in the library, props ready, scripts memorized, everything ready. The guest were set to start coming at 5:30, and to leave at 7:30. The guests would walk around the library watching all of us perform, clap afterwards, maybe ask a question or two, then leave the library, and look at all the other PLP students work. 

Our scene didn’t require that many props, we just needed a road, and then some stuff for the background. While we making the props,  Sofia and I decided to make a police car out some cardboard boxes I had brought from home. I think it is the greatest cardboard car that has ever existed. We put a lot of work into it, and I’m proud of what we achieved.  

Here are some photos from the exhibition:

 

Before I forget, here is the success criteria for this project. 

Success Criteria:

I can articulate how literature can teach us more about ourselves and the world around us.

I can explain how The Outsiders can teach us more about worldview.

————————————————————————————————————

I have come to a profound realization. I did not tell you the best part of exhibition day…

*Cue dramatic music*

We got pizza!  Little Caesars. It was fun. Anyway, have great day, and thank you for reading this. 

Just kidding. I still have to explain how the Outsiders can teach us about worldview. 

The Outsiders can teach us about worldview by presenting characters that each have their own view of the world and other people around them. Every character in The Outsiders had their own worldview, which influenced the decisions that they made, and the overall outcome of the story. If Johnny had been self centered or too concerned about himself, would he have ran into the church to save the kids? If Cherry thought the Socs were far superior to the Greasers, would she have ever talked to Ponyboy? If Dally was too much of a coward, would he have pulled Johnny out of the burning church? If Dally was untrusting of his friends would he have given Johnny and Pony the gun and money? Because of someone’s experiences, family, friends, social class, and more, we learned about how someone’s worldview influences the decisions that they make.