CLASS

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            The social economic status of these two groups of teens plays a big part in the novel. It seems to be one of the main reasons why these two groups can’t get along. One of the groups is higher on the social economic ladder than the other and it effects how the two groups act toward one another. This is explained in the book when Cherry (a Soc cheerleader) talked with Ponyboy at a drive in. They are talking because Dallas, a friend of Ponyboy was bugging Cherry and her friend and Ponyboy stepped in to stop it. The two begin talking, even though they get a number of different looks from their fellow classmates. Cherry goes into explanation of what it’s really like to be a Soc, and how it’s not as easy as it seems. She tells Ponyboy, “I’ll bet you think the Socs have it made. The rich kids, the West-side Socs. We have troubles you’ve never heard of. You want to know something? Things are rough all over” (Hinton 34). This shows Ponyboy’s stereotyping of the Socials isn’t always as accurate as he thought it was in the first place. This is also explained in the article, “Shhh, Don’t Say ‘Poverty’” by Bob Herbert. This article talks about how there are problems with all different kinds of people happening around the world but it’s not something that is talked about often. Herbert explains that how this issue isn’t being talked about because “hunger is associated with poverty, and poverty is not even close to becoming part of our national conversation” (Herbert 323). This shows that even those these issues are going, probably more so in the time frame of the novel then now that people just don’t talk about them. They have their stereotyped ideas about what’s going on and keep that in their minds instead of actually finding out about what is really going on.