Author's Note: Reading this you will understand why I believe that the theme to this story is stereotypes.
Have you ever judged someone because of something you’ve heard about them? I know I have and then realized what I have heard was wrong. The person turned out to be a good friend. People would tell me this person was rude and a gossiper. It turns out the people, who told me this, were in fact just like what they described this person to be. Judging a person based on knowledge you either know or have been told to you is called stereotype. It’s not the best thing in the world, yet it exists.
Have you ever judged someone because of something you’ve heard about them? I know I have and then realized what I have heard was wrong. The person turned out to be a good friend. People would tell me this person was rude and a gossiper. It turns out the people, who told me this, were in fact just like what they described this person to be. Judging a person based on knowledge you either know or have been told to you is called stereotype. It’s not the best thing in the world, yet it exists.
In the book The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, you find that the Greasers have been stereotyped forever. Stereotypes is the theme of this book. Reason for that is the society around them thinks all of them are criminals with no heart. Which is only true for a few of them, but even those few do have a heart. All of the Greasers might not be the typical looking person, but they sure do act like it. They have family problems, money issues, and friend problems just like the rest of the world. Just because they don’t look like it on the outside, they are like everyone else on the inside. Even though the leader, Dallas Winston, went to jail at the age of 10 and grew up in the streets of New York with gangs, he is still a person who is just trying to live just like everyone else.
Some scenes in the book do tell you that the Greasers are judged by their society. For example, at the movies a man walked up to Cherry, Ponyboy, Johnny, and Marcia and asked where Dally was because he knew Dally had slashed his tires, even though there was no evidence that Dally had actually done it. This guy accused Dally because of his stereotyping of him.
When you are hearing stories about people and rumors on their life, don’t always believe it. You never know if it is true. If you do judge a person based upon the “knowledge” you have about them, you are stereotyping. This is not the best thing in the world. You never know, the person might turn out to be the coolest person you’ve ever met!
No comments:
Post a Comment