The coming-of-age story of The Outsiders follows Ponyboy as he begins to understand himself as an adolescent boy and the trajectory of his life. Though the 1960s saw counterculture movements like the sexual revolution, the anti-war movement, civil rights activism, and the general surge against conservative norms by people who labeled themselves hippies, Hinton creates an insulated setting from which all of these external forces are largely absent. The greasers as a group are subversive to the norms of the Socs, but traditional understandings of masculinity and strength apply to both sides of the class divide. 

Ponyboy is adamant about not being treated like a baby, despite being the youngest at 14. He frequently makes a clear distinction between acting “soft” and being “hard”—he tries to avoid crying in front of the other boys, knowing that being sensitive “isn’t a good way to be when you’re a greaser” (88). “The fight for self-preservation” (59), as Ponyboy calls it, has hardened some of the boys so much that they have not cried since they were children (102). Ponyboy understands this as a defense mechanism; life on the East side is so difficult for some of them that they cannot afford to feel emotional about their circumstances: “If you didn't [shut off your emotions], you would explode.