Should The Outsiders Be Banned?

               
                              The Outsiders is a book written by S.E Hilton. The Outsiders is about a boy named Ponyboy, who talks about his life and the lives of Greasers and Socs. In which they are opposing sides, as Socs are rich and carefree as Greasers are poor and are stuck in trouble a lot based off of assumptions and other information. The Outsiders is a controversial book, as some people believe it is not age appropriate for schools and library's as it talks about gangs, has drugs and other issues in which are very touchy with people.

     However, I believe The Outsiders should be allowed in todays youth. The issues in which Ponyboy talks about helps kids understand and comprehend other peoples lives, as they may not have to deal with some of his issues. The book helps kids connect to issues of society in a way a person may not of seen before. It opens up the student to the life of poverty, adolescents, and the scenes of home issues (such as family dysfunctions). It helps them learn to not judge people just by how they act, as the Soc Cherry Valance tells Ponyboy "Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren't so different. We saw the same sunset." and that "Things are rough all over." Saying in which everyone has issues no matter what part they live in, just issues are different. And even with everything different they are not so far unalike. They all aren't determined based off of "Greaser" or being a "Soc" and that is a important moral people need to learn and live based off of.

        People say that the book contains "drugs", however, the only drugs that are used are cigarettes and maybe a little bit about drinking. In which people of society are exposed to, as there are posters all over saying no smoking, places that sell alcohol, and schools talk about how drugs are negative and shouldn't be used off a young age in which is implanted in our youths brains today. They also say the book uses excessive violence and obscenities. However, the movies that are made for kids have an equal amount of violence in cartoons, and other stuff in which youth own today. The obscenities is barely any, in which they use innocent terms to make the book more appropriate for youth to read. The book gives a lot of life lessons in which kids can learn off of, and should be able to read this book without adults objecting the book over smaller parts of the book instead of not seeing the bigger picture of the book. Even at the end of the book, when Johnny accidently killed someone, he still went in a church in a self sacrifice to save children from a fire. He became paralyzed of a broken back, and had not long to live. He had a life full of abuse and other situations, but yet tells the narrator to "Stay gold,"  telling him to stay pure and don't turn cold because of the societies of the world. These are lessons children of todays society need to learn. This is why the book shouldn't be banned.