By this point, you've read a little over two-thirds of The Outsiders, and you've probably noticed some distinct differences between the characters' lives and yours. What was life like in the United States when S. E. Hinton published the first young adult novel? What aspects of society have stayed the same? What has changed?
The decade of the 1960s was filled with chaos and change. The Civil Rights movement was in full swing during this time with African Americans in the South staging sit-ins and boycotts. Then, in 1963, the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, was bombed, killing four young Black girls. Later that same year at a March on Washington that drew over 200,000 protesters, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. In November of this same year, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and Lyndon Johnson took over as president.
During his presidency, Lyndon Johnson signed a series of Civil Rights Acts that prohibited discrimination and overcame legal barriers to voting for African Americans. However, protests and violence involving the African American community continued unabated, including Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination in 1968.
Others protested the continuation of the Vietnam War, which had begun in the 1940s, but carried on without American involvement until the mid-1950s. The war did not officially end for the US until 1975.
While society at large was in turmoil, pop culture in the 1960s was thriving. Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, and The Beatles were just a few of the top musical talents of this time. In Hollywood, John Wayne, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and Paul Newman were all the rage. Black and white television sets across the US were gradually being replaced with color televisions, and people watched such shows as Bewitched, Andy Griffith, Green Acres, and The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Also, in the 1960s, automakers came out with many new car models, some of which are still popular today. Some of these included the Mustang, the Camaro, the Corvair, sedans, and station wagons.
Question
What is the most noticeable difference between your life and the lives of the characters in The Outsiders?
Answer
The most obvious difference is that they did not have the technology, such as cell phones and personal computers, that we have today.
