The Outsiders

Background Information

The Setting

Oklahoma

Hairstyles of the Fifties and Sixties

Women wore their hair either soft and curled or pulled into a ponytail and secured by a colorful scarf.

Men often wore their hair in a buzz cut or flat top.

The Duck Tail

To accomplish this look, lots of hair grease was required. This is where the term “greasers” was first established.

There were no blow dryers to create a look. To make hair stay in a certain style, you had to either spray or grease.

Fashion of the Early 1960s

This look was made popular in the 1950s and continued through the early 60s. A poodle skirt is a wide swing skirt with a poodle appliquéd or transferred onto the fabric.

Girls usually wore flared skirts, but the pencil skirt became popular in the late ‘50s. All dresses and skirts came to or below the knee.

Men’s Fashion For casual dress, men often wore cardigans (sweaters) over their dress shirts.

The cardigan sweater seen here was a popular style which was used for the "letter" sweater-popular among the younger men and athletes.

Madras

The Coolest of the Cool

The “coolest” of the young men often wore leather jackets over T-shirts with jeans and loafers. Often, this outfit would make people think that the wearer was a “hood.”

Drive-In Movies

Allusion

a reference to a person, event, thing or to a part of another text

Allusions in The Outsiders

Paul Newman Great Expectations Gone With the Wind The Beatles Elvis

Paul Newman

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

The Hustler The Long, Hot Summer

More recently…

“Doc”

and you may have even seen him at the store!

Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens

This is the story of Pip, an orphan boy adopted by a blacksmith’s family. Pip learns how to find happiness. He learns the meaning of friendship and the meaning of love and he becomes a better person for it.

Gone With The Wind

American classic in which a manipulative woman and a roguish man carry on a turbulent love affair in the American south during the Civil War

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music.

Elvis

Elvis Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King".