Outsiders: SE Hinton Ponyboy Curtis belongs to a lower-class group of Oklahoma boys who call themselves greasers because of their long, greasy hair. While walking home from a movie, he is attacked by a group of Socs, rivals of the Greaters, who are upper-class youth from the city's West Side. The Socs, short for Socials, gang up on Ponyboy and threaten to slit his throat. A group of greasers arrive and chase the Socs away, saving Ponyboy from being killed. Ponyboy was saved by his brother Sodapop and Darry, his older brother and the rest of the greasers, Johnny, Dally, Steve and Two-bit. The next night Johnny and Ponyboy meet two girls named Cherry and Marcia. They were friends with the Socs. The anointed discover they have a lot in common with them and Socs Bob and Randy become jealous and threaten the two. This is what started it all. That night Soda and Johnny were walking home and were attacked by the Socs while they were drunk. The two plague spreaders had no way to defend themselves, so Johnny stabbed Bob. When Ponyboy woke up after being beaten, Johnny told him that he stabbed Bob. They get scared and run away. They go to another greaser for help named Dallas Winston. He gave them a gun and told them to leave and they went into hiding. They went to an abandoned church and accidentally set it on fire. Johnny and Pony enter the burning church to save the children who were on a field trip and are seriously injured. They both end up in the hospital and Johnny ends up dying. The spreaders and the Socs ask for respect. They are all fighting and the Socs escape and the plague spreaders win. When Pony wakes up after being kicked in the head, he sees Dallas being chased by the police and shot dead. Now two of his closest friends are dead and he is left with his two brothers and decides to put his whole story in an English newspaper. The two main characters in the story are Ponyboy Curtis and Johnny. They are both greasers. Ponyboy is the youngest member of the Greaters and narrates the novel. Although he is only fourteen, he understands the way his social group works and the role played by each member of the group. He is by far one of the smartest greasers of the bunch.