S. E. Hinton wrote about the struggles of poverty and the experience of those who were born on the other side of the tracks. In this module we will be looking at the experience of adolescence - the transition from child to adult - and how this is influenced by our peers and our environment.
Key questions:
- Nature vs nurture - how much of a person is determined by their genes versus their environment
- Identity - what are the different factors that make up someone's identity
- Values - how do we form our values? Is this determined by the individual or by the group they belong to?
Tuff Time:
Every day after reading you should be spending 20 minutes (or more) writing a journal response. All of your journal responses will be collected and published in a portfolio by the end of this module so please be consistent and diligent in working on this every day. Your journal entries are entirely up to you - what do you feel about certain characters, events, what do you think is going to happen next, who do you identify with, etc.
The 1960s:
The Outsiders is set in 1965 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Do some research and find out everything you can about the setting. What kind of clothes did people wear back then? What bands were popular? What was considered 'cool' back then? What does Tulsa look like? What other important events were happening in this time?