ly, an “out-group” is a group in which that same person does not belong and toward which the person may feel a sense of competitiveness or hostility. In “The Outsiders,” each group clearly views the opposing group as its out-group. It was considered a more in this teenage world for a member of one group to fraternize with one from another. These feelings of group superiority, or ethnocentrism, seem to be unshakable from parties in each faction, until the death of Bob occurs. After this earth-shattering event, members of both the greasers and the socs’ start to question their behaviors. They start to come to the realization that fighting is not going to solve anything; however, at the same time they realize that no matter what “a soc will still be a soc, and a greaser will still be a greaser.”Conformity is the process of maintaining or changing ones behavior to comply with the norms established by society or a group. Pressure to conform is a powerful thing, as demonstrated in Solomon Asch’s research (1955, 1956). In Asch’s experiment, his subjects were willing to contradict their own best judgment if the rest of the group disagreed with them. In discussing the experiment afterwards, most of the subjects who gave incorrect responses indicated that they had known the answers were wrong but decided to go along with the group in order to avoid ridicule or ostracism. This idea is prevalent in “The Outsiders” when a popular soc girl, Sherri Valence, who is known as “Cherry” because of her red hair, is seated next to Pony Boy and Johnny at the drive in theatre. Cherry and her friend, Marcia, start talking to Pony and Johnny, and start to realize that they are nice boys, at one point in the evening Cherry refers to Pony as “dreamy”. As the group is walking home from the drive in, some soc boys drive up next to Cherry, Marcia, Pony, Johnny, and 2b...
