The Outsiders

is the violence in the novel shocking boring or melodramatic .

use 2 examples. does the violence in the novel have a different effect on readers now than it did when the book was first published? use 2 examples.

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That is an interesting question. The Outsiders is a book that has been around since 1967. I read it when I was in grade eight (I'm not saying when that was!) Back then I didn't find the violence shocking. I suspect that today kids are even more used to graphic violence on TV than when I went to school. It's been a few years since I taught this book but certainly the violence in the Outsiders seems like an episode of Sponge Bob compared to what kids are seeing these days (movies like Saw or Hostel....) At the same time the book never gets melodramatic. The reason is how Hinton treats her characters. They are colourful and they are real. You believe in them so the violence merely becomes an extension of their struggle. So I would say the violence is believable. This is much better than being shocked or overly sad. When Ponyboy is being drowned in the fountain, I can still feel the anxiety that I felt back in grade eight; I can still feel Johnny's desperation, and my satisfaction, when he kills the Soc. The rumble seen had to be the best thing I read all year! All the boys did exactly what Hinton had developed them as. Dary was a one man fighting machine and, in the end, the Socs ran away like the rich cowards I thought them to be. So, the violence was believable which is the best kind of violence to have in any story. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!