"Things are rough all over,"-Cherry Valance. Growing up in a not so good neighborhood is always tough but you can always find a way to fight through it. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton written in 1967 which tells a story through the perspective of a fourteen year old boy named Ponyboy Curtis who is a member a gang called Greasers; a term used to describe men on the East side. He lives with two brothers named Darry and Soda and is the youngest of the three. The rivals of the Greasers are the Socs, who are the rich kids of the West. Through the struggles of living in a tough city, the author shows that the life of a teenager is hard growing up with the troublesome people around them which influences them to do bad things.
Living in the stubble, the character are faced with traumatizing experiences at young ages.
When explaining the aftermath of one of his closest gang members named Johnny getting jumped he says, "Johnny never walked by himself after that…[he] now carried in his back pocket a six-inch switchblade…They scared him that much. He would kill the next person who jumped him."The fact that fact that Johnny is so scared that he can't walk in his own neighborhood alone shows you that its not very safe and you have to be aware of your surroundings. The fact that he would d actually kill the next person that jumped him shows that they hurt him really bad. When talking Cherry Valence, a Soc, he realizes, "Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren't so different. We saw the same sunset." Even though the Socs are a higher class than the low class Greasers, they also have just as many problems as they do. Even though they are a higher class they are all facing the same struggles as one another.
Living in a bad neighborhood causes them to do things that they wouldn't normally do things that they would never think to do. Moments after being jumpers by two Socs with Johnny Ponyboy says, "I realized what we were in for. Johnny had killed someone. Quiet, soft-spoken little Johnny, who wouldn't hurt a living thing on purpose, had taken a human life." Living in a bad neighborhood cause Johnny to do things that he would never ever think to do. It's to the point where it causes him to do such a major crime. Ponyboy also begins to say, "We were really running away, with the police after us for murder and a loaded gun by our side."At the age of fourteen, Ponyboy shouldn't be faced with these hefty problems like murder. At his age he shouldn't have to deal with something that teens usually don't face.
Living in a tough neighborhood is hard on teens because it's hard for them to resist from doing bad things. Some teens are faced with drugs, gun fights, mugging and many other bad circumstances. It's hard for a teen to not be involved in any of it living in tough neighborhoods and towns.
