Random Outsiders Thingies

When Does The Outsiders Take Place?

So I'm sure a lot of you have wondered 'when does The Outsiders take place'? At least I have. So, here we go!

We know it obviously takes place in the year 1965. Although this wasn't in the book, S.E. Hinton said so herself (and you can kinda tell with all their weird [and adorable] slang). We also know that it's set in Tulsa, Oklahoma (and how would we know this, again? It's not stated in the books at all...)

But what month? Well, we know it's in the fall by the use of these quotes:

"The park was about two blocks square, with a fountain in the middle and a small swimming pool for the little kids. The pool was empty now in the fall, but the fountain was going merrily. Tall elm trees made the park shadowy and dark, and it would have been a good hangout, but we preferred our vacant lot, and the Shepard outfit liked the alleys down by the tracks, so the park was left to lovers and little kids."

And...

"No," I said slowly. "Darry, I'm not ever going to be able to make up the school I've missed."

So it's a fall month, and a school month. Not to early in the fall, since the kiddy-pool is already shut down for the winter. A few more hints are in Sodapop and Ponyboy's dialogue.

"Seventeen," Soda said softly. "I'll be seventeen in a couple of weeks."

This should give us the answer: Sodapop's birthday is October 8th, so obviously the book is set in late September, right? Well...not exactly. This quote from Ponyboy throws us off:

"This is my fault," Johnny said in a miserable voice. He had stopped crying when I started. "For bringin' a little thirteen-year-old kid along. You ought to go home. You can't get into any trouble. You didn't kill him."
"No!" I screamed at him. "I'm fourteen! I've been fourteen for a month! And I'm in it as much as you are. I'll stop crying in a minute . . . I can't help it."

So Ponyboy has been fourteen for a month by the time The Outsiders takes place. But Ponyboy's birthday is July 22nd.

So I'd say, since Ponyboy's birthday is late, and Sodapop's birthday is early, (and because they were probably giving rough estimates of when their birthdays were, not the actual amount of time,) that The Outsiders takes places round late August to early September (probably the later, though).

So yeah.

A/N: Not like anyone would really care or anything, but just incase you were curious! ;)

Stay Gold, Tucker, Stay Gold.

~Orange_Elephant a.k.a. SCR