What are the issues explored and techniques used in SE Hinton's "The Outsiders."

Nature's first green is gold Her hardest hue to hold Her early leaf's a flower But only so an hour Then leaf subsides to leaf So Eden sank to grief So dawn goes down to day Nothing gold can stay. By Robert Frost The message that this poem brings is that every beautiful thing will die, eventually. Nothing can stay perfect forever. The last sentence "Nothing gold can stay," implies that all good things must …

…individual characteristics. For instance, she introduces Ponyboy not as a tough street youth but as a boy who likes to read and watch sunsets. Darry is presented not as the natural leader of the gang, but as a struggling young man who has had to forego an education so that he can support and raise his two younger brothers. This is what makes these characters individuals; individuals in a community, the individual of a family.