Flashback Fridays

As we approach the end of Banned Books Week, it seemed apt to tie it in with Flashback Fridays. So I’ve decided to feature one of my favorite books: The Outsiders.

 

Back in the early 1980s, The Outsiders was HUGE! A lot of that had to do with the 1983 release of the Francis Ford Coppola movie, which was based on the book.

 

First published in 1967 by then eighteen-year-old S.E. Hinton, the book is about two rival gangs who are deeply divided by their socioeconomic status. Thematically, it touches on what it is like to be on the outside of things from both a personal and a larger social scale.

But the book has always been controversial. According to BannedBooks Awareness , the book has been challenged numerous times. In 1986, it was challenged in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin for its inclusion on an eighth grade reading list because “drug and alcohol abuse was common and virtually all the characters were from broken homes.” And it has been banned from some schools and libraries because of its portrayal of gang violence, underage smoking and drinking, strong language, slang usage, and exposé on family dysfunction.

I carried this book around with me in my southeastern Wisconsin Catholic School because it was so amazing! It wasn’t part of the curriculum. But, also, I was never told to put it away or keep it at home. More so, I am extremely grateful to my parents for never censoring what I read. They gave me a great gift by allowing me to read freely in my youth. Although watching Speed Racer was an entirely different subject. But that’s for another post.

So I leave you with this clip, which features Robert Frost’s poem. 

I had a huge crush on C. Thomas Howell when I was 13!