Repetition in The Outsiders

Repetition is employed to clarify a point or to underline a point raised earlier in the text. It might also be utilized to reinforce the novel’s main concept. Furthermore, it is utilized to persuade or convince readers as to why the character or author selected a particular viewpoint. The story is about two organized adolescent gangs, one made up of kids from wealthy households and the other of youngsters from low-income homes. When the narrator is implicated in a murder, he and several youths seek refuge in an abandoned church. The old church catches fire, and several children are rescued. “WHEN I STEPPED OUT into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home”, is the repeated sentence (Hinton 3). This can be taken to mean changing from bad to good, where darkness is the bad while bright is the good. This is the central idea in the novel and therefore need for emphasizing it through repetition.

One of the sentences describing the antagonist and hatred between the two groups is: “The silence grew heavier, and I could hear the harsh heavy breathing of the boys around me” (Hinton 122). Members of one gang had to work hard as they came from a poor background while the other came from a rich background. This was the first cause of rivalry between members of the two group which then led to development of the story. As an individual sentence, silence could mean that the boys were reflecting on their past and how they used to be friends. Harsh heavy breathing of the boys could mean that boys were angry due to rage or irritability. This could have been due to immediate response to threat.

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Works Cited

Hinton, S. E. The Outsiders. N.p., 2007. Print.