The other night I was invited to a fundraiser for WITS Chicago. It was a delightful event. Outside of the inspirational stories and good company, my favorite part was their centerpiece: 10 books per table, 1 for each person sitting there, with each table having a different array. It was unusual not only because it generated literary conversation amongst attendees, but because of the discussion it generated amongst the banquet servers. At the end of the night, the employees of the venue were free to take any leftover books. As I walked out, I noticed a server who’d chosen SE Hinton’s The Outsiders. I praised her choice, and she smiled. It’s her favorite. She’d read the book 10 times, and wanted the copy so that she could gift the joy, that she’d experienced, to someone else. Just hearing that made me happy for the rest of the weekend.
Later, my friend wanted to know what the book was about. All I could say was that I loved it, and though I’ve forgotten the details and the plot, I remember how beautiful the book was. That prompted me to jog my memory. In the process, I ran across this synopsis. I’ve never looked at analysis and been struck by its beauty, but I did that night.
And I can’t help but share it:
“We all know what an outsider is, and we’ve all seen groups of people who are outsiders. In fact, we’re all outside of something.
At some point, perhaps daily, many of us feel separate from and different from others, to some degree or another. We can be isolated by lots of different things, including the politics and economics in our area, our states of mind, our physical conditions, things we’ve done and things that have been done to us, just to name a few.
But, these things can also connect us.”
Schmoop is right, that’s precisely what the book is about.