The Outsiders: Theme The Outsiders, an enthralling tale by S.E. Hinton, is an excellent story about the hardships and triumphs experienced by the Greasers and the Socs, two rival gangs. This novel suggests the stories' content because the Greasers are a gang of social outcasts and misfits. This novel's theme is very specific; people, no matter what their social background, strive for the same goals and experience the same disappointments. This novel shows this theme throughout a detailed story line. The fictional novel is set in a moderate-size city, possibly near Texas, in the late 1960's. Po