The Outsiders: Main Characters

pony boy he's a teenager in tulsa oklahoma in the

nineteen sixties and his friends are members of his gang [Gang members appear]

the greasers So in this novel we learn about characters

in two different ways One is direct characterization and one

is indirect characterization and that's a principle that applies to

Any novel or story Indirect characterization is when you find

out about a character by observing what they do and [Man holding a knife]

what they say They're not being described to you Ah

direct characterization as you might guess is when the narrator

or the character directly tells you something about himself or

another character So in this instance we have scenes where

ponyboy describes his hair which is longer than most boys

in this town But we also have scenes where ponyboy [Ponyboy stroking his hair]

is just observing other people or thinking about what he's

doing And we get a sense of his personality that

way So pony boy's friends We also learn about their

personalities through direct and indirect characterization on dh One of

the direct pieces of characterization we get is their name

So his friend keith is known as a two bit [Keith appears]

because he talks a lot So that's like If i

said to you what are your two cents Can i

have your two cents Keith has two cents and then [Keith on a pile of 2 cents]

some so they call him to bits Um and likewise

their friends Soda pop It is as you might expect

very sweet and bubbly And it's interesting that these characters [Boy holding soda can]

are all named in these nontraditional ways Do you think

that the fact that they go by these nicknames is

important It is in a lot of different ways It's

true to the setting it's very realistic They're in a

gang and they all have nicknames for each other and

it's also a way of capturing teenage identity Ah your

identity as a teenager comes from what your friends think [Ponyboy's facebook page appears]

of you and how you act in the world Yeah

who are the characters And how do we learn more

about them Our nicknames important to the characters and the