Expository Essay: Conflicts in Ch.1-6 of the Outsiders
MAN-VS-MAN
Choose 3 conflicts for your 1st Body Paragraph.
1. Socs vs Greasers
a) "And you can't win against them no matter how hard you try, because they've got all the
breaks and even whipping them isn't going to change that fact" (11).
b) “Why did the Socs hate us so much? We left them alone” (17).
c) Dally says about the upcoming rumble that, “if [the Socs] win, things go on as usual. If we
do they stay outa our territory but good” (84).
2. Johnny vs His Parents
a) “If it hadn’t been for the gang, Johnny would never have known what love and affection are”
(12).
b) “...his father clobbered him around a lot, and although it made us madder than heck, we
couldn’t do anything about it” (32).
c) “Johnny was high-strung anyway, a nervous wreck from getting belted every time he turned
around and from hearing his parents fight all the time” (33).
3. Ponyboy vs Darry
a) "He's as hard as a rock and about as human...he thinks I'm a pain in the neck. He likes
Soda--everybody likes Soda--but he can't stand me" (42).
b) "It was my house as much as Darry's, and if he wanted to pretend I wasn't alive, that was
just fine with me" (52).
c) “Darry did care about me, maybe as much as he cared about Soda, and because he care he
was trying too hard to make something of me” (98).
4. Cherry vs Dallas
a) “After you wash your mouth and learn to talk and act decent, I might cool off, too” (24).
b) "Fiery, huh? Well that’s the way I like'em." He started to put his arm around her, but Johnny
reached over and stopped him” (24)
5. Cherry vs Ponyboy
a) “Ponyboy…if I see you in the hall at school or someplace and don’t say hi, well, it’s not
personal or anything, but…” (45).
b) “It’s okay… We aren’t in the same class. Just don’t forget that some of us watch the sunset
too” (46).
MAN-VS-SOCIETY
Choose 3 conflicts for your 2nd Body Paragraph.
1. Greasers vs Society
a) “…but here, organized gangs are rarities—there are just small bunches of friends who stick
together, and the warfare is between the social classes” (11).
b) "And you can't win against them no matter how hard you try, because they've got all the
breaks and even whipping them isn't going to change that fact" (11).
c) “It ain’t fair that we have all the rough breaks!” (43).
d) “It seems like there’s gotta be someplace without greasers or Socs, with just people. Plain
ordinary people” (48).
2. Dally vs Society
a) “…but Dally hated to do things the legal way. He liked to show that he didn’t care whether
there was a law or not. He went around trying to break laws” (20).
b) “Yet in [Dally’s] face there was character, pride, and a savage defiance of the world” (76).
c) “Dally didn’t give a Yankee dime about anyone but himself, and he was cold and hard and
mean…And I suddenly thought of Dally …in jail at the age of ten…Dally growing up in the
streets…” (90).
3. Greaser Society vs Society in General
a) “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” (3).
b) “A fair fight isn’t rough, Blades are rough. So are chains and heaters and pool sticks and
rumbles. Socs are rough. They gang up on one or two, or they rumble each other with their
social clubs. Us greasers usually stick together” (29).
c) “Our one rule, besides Stick together, is Don’t get caught. [Dally] might get beat up, he might
not. Either way there’s not going to be any blood feud between our outfit and Shepard’s” (29).
d) “Our hair labeled us greasers too…Maybe we couldn’t have Corvairs or madras shirts, but
we could have hair” (71).
4. Socs vs Society
a) “We’re always going and going and going, and never asking where” (38).
b) “Socs were always behind a wall of aloofness, careful not to let their real selves show
through” (38).
c) "So Cherry Valance, the cheerleader, Bob's girl, the Soc, was trying to help us. No, it wasn't
Cherry the Soc who was helping us, it was Cherry the dreamer who watched sunsets and
couldn't stand fights" (86).
MAN-VS-SELF
Choose 3 conflicts for your 3rd Body Paragraph.
1. Ponyboy (self image)
a) "They were the only kind of girls that would look at us, I thought. Tough, loud girls who wore
too much eye makeup and giggled and swore too much" (15).
b) “We deserve our trouble, I thought. Dallas deserves everything he gets, and should get
worse, if you want to know the truth” (16).
2. Ponyboy (powerlessness)
a) "I never have gotten over that. I could hardly stand it when he left school" (17).
b) “It wasn’t fair for the Socs to have everything…I couldn’t just take it or leave it…I felt the
tension growing inside of me and I knew something had to happen or I would explode” (47).
c) “Maybe Dally had been killed in a car wreck or something and no one would ever know
where I was, and I’d just die up here, alone, and turn into a skeleton. My over-active
imagination was running away with me again” (69).
3. Cherry (conformity)
a) "It's not just money...We're sophisticated to the point of not feeling anything. Nothing is real
with us" (38).
b) “It seems like we’re always searching for something to satisfy us, and never finding it.
Maybe if we could lose our cool we could” (38).
c) “Socs were always behind a wall of aloofness, careful not to let their real selves show
through” (38).
4. Cherry (forbidden relationships)
a) "I could fall in love with Dallas Winston. I hope I never see him again, or I will" (46).
b) “She said she felt that the whole mess was her fault…and would testify that the Socs were
drunk” (86).
5. Johnny (guilt, self worth)
a) "I had to. They were drowning you, Pony. They might have killed you" (57).
b) “I killed a kid last night…How’d you like to live like that?” (74).
c) “I don’t guess my parents are worried about me or anything?” (87).
d) “That was the only time I can think of when I saw him without that defeated, suspicious look
in his eyes" (92).
Instructions for the format of the body paragraphs:
1. State the main type of conflict in your topic sentence.
S. E. Hinton not only shows how the internal social rules of the Socs and greasers
differ, but she also shows how each group is in conflict with society in general.
2. State the example and back it up with a quote, including its parenthetical citation.
One example of the greasers’ conflict with society is that they believed that “you can't win
against [the Socs] no matter how hard you try, because they've got all the breaks” (11).
3. Follow the quote with two commentary thoughts.
The Socs never seemed to stay in trouble but were easily forgiven, whereas the greasers were
expected to be bad. Furthermore, the greasers didn’t receive fair treatment by the police or
other people in authority, so they tended not to care.
4. Transition to the next example and
back it up with a quote, including its parenthetical citation.
Even though the Socs seemed to have the perfect life, they had conflicts with society too. They
couldn’t be themselves but had to hide “behind a wall of aloofness, careful not to let their real
selves show through” (38).
5. Follow the quote with two commentary thoughts.
6. Transition to the next example and back it up with a quote,
including its parenthetical citation.
7. Follow the quote with two commentary thoughts.
8. Sum up with a concluding sentence (Similarities? Resolutions? Insights?)
EXAMPLE of the 1st half of ONE paragraph:
S. E. Hinton not only shows how the internal social rules of the Socs and greasers
differ, but she also shows how each group is in conflict with society in general. One example of the
greasers’ conflict with society is that they believed that “you can't win against [the Socs] no matter
how hard you try, because they've got all the breaks” (11). The Socs never seemed to stay in trouble
but were easily forgiven, whereas the greasers were expected to be bad. Furthermore, the greasers
didn’t receive fair treatment by the police or other people in authority, so they tended no to care.
Even though the Socs seemed to have the perfect life, they had conflicts with society too. They
couldn’t be themselves but had to hide “behind a wall of aloofness, careful not to let their real selves
show through” (38).