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The Outsiders is a novel about the impacts of forced societal differences has on young kids as they grow up. It focuses on Ponyboy Curtis and his family and found family, depicting the ways they survive in their world under constant pressure and outside violence from a rival group of higher social class, the Socs. In one of said events, a Soc jumps Ponyboy and in defense, a member of his found family, Johnny, kills the Soc, leading the pair to have to flee and hide away. While hiding, a nearby church burns down, leading to Johnny and Ponyboy to help save kids remaining inside. Johnny gets trapped in the church and burned to the point of hospitalization. While he is receiving care, the Socs try to harass the Greasers, Johnny's found family once again, but this time the Greasers "win". When sharing the news, however Johnny dies in the hospital which leads to the mental health decline of another member of the found family, Dally, who then dies by suicide by pulling an unloaded gun on some police officers. The entire novel is told through Ponyboys journal-like narration, which we find out at the end is due to one of his English class projects.

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Generational societal pressures leading to generations of violence

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Generational societal pressures leading to generations of violence

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How does the systemic pressures of growing up in a divided society impact the mental health and actions of younger generations growing up in it?

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How does the systemic pressures of growing up in a divided society impact the mental health and actions of younger generations growing up in it?

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Something that has been going on for so long that it is fully engrained in all aspects of "the system", so society, because it has become part of the belief and practices system of that society.

Typically used to refer to Systemic Racism--the idea that racism has been interwoven into different aspects of our society, not just in individuals.

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A negative belief formed about someone else based on parts of their identity, like race, gender, or social class.

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The psychological concept that trauma, so negative events within a life or more complex traumas like systemic prejudices and their effects, experienced by one generation continue to impact their children and so on throughout the generations

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This video goes into the definitions of all aspects of prejudice, discrimination, and their systemic qualities, and their related words, describes them in depth with examples, and then even goes into sociological theories about the "why" these exist and how that shows up in society. This would be used in the discussion about these words to begin their demystification and serve as a backing for students to be able to fully understand the context of the essential question and topic.

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Racial/Ethnic Prejudice & Discrimination: Crash Course Sociology #35

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This video goes into the scientific explanations for how generational trauma works, provides an example of a family that this has happened to, and explains some ways we can begin to try to combat this cycle and begin to try to end it.

By having a scientific backing, it helps destigmatize the general idea that that trauma "doesn't exist" and people are just too "sensitive" and need to "man-up". It provides factual backing to the complex topic that can be used as a stepping stone to get into the more emotional aspects of the topic.

The video then provides an example of a family whose mother is a drug addict and now the kids are acting out in delayed and violent ways. I think pausing the video here and then going in to a discussion about how systemic systems could have led to that drug addiction, tying it in to the previous words and getting deeper into the essential topic by proposing the discussion question "What parts of society could have led to that drug addiction, and what did that drug addiction do for this new generation?".

Additionally, I personally think one of the solutions she proposes for "fixing" generational trauma in this video is juvenile and naive. She implies toward the end that getting enough sleep and eating well is one of the key steps, which lacks a lot of nuance on the mental health aspects that make those basic steps extremely difficult. I would propose this idea to students and get their thoughts on it. This would lead to a deeper discussion on mental health, which connects both to the essential question and the vast majority of the supplemental texts here. This will be a discussion we can keep coming back to each time a new text is introduced, making this video a key resource for both demystification and serving as its own multimodal text.

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Breaking the Cycle of  Generational Trauma | Candice Jones | TEDxLSSC

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Romeo and Juliet is a tragic play that explores the idea of how generations of conflict between two families has led to the perpetual violence and death of the younger generations within it. It follows Romeo, a Montague, and Juliet, a Capulet, as they fall in love and have to navigate that through secrecy to avoid familial disapproval, though they eventually get found out. During this, many acts of violence take place, such as the murder of Romeo's friend, Mercutio, and the murder of Juliet's cousin Tybalt by Romeo for revenge. This leads to Romeo's banishment and in a series of unfortunate miscommunications, the double suicide of Romeo and Juliet.

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Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, Illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff

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This graphic novel adaptation puts visual to the original young adult novel about a young man coping with grief, anger, and want for revenge due to an established set of family "rules" passed down throughout the generations. The story begins when the main character Will's brother gets killed due to gang violence and then Will deciding he has to get revenge due to a set of three rules taught to their entire family. On the way to enact this revenge by killing his brother's killer, he meets the ghost of his brother and other people who have been killed due to the same generational violence that then go into their stories, leaving Will to have to rethink his decision and decide to continue or break that cycle of violence.

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On the surface, this is a song about an individual who murders someone else and has to flee because they believe they will be unable to be forgiven for their crimes. This general plot line in lyrics tie into the general plot of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and Johnny in The Outsiders, but it gets even deeper than that.

With lyrics like "Did that full moon force my hand? / Or that unmarked hundred grand?", the song poses questions that suggest that the choice to murder was not one made by an individual but had outside factors. This ties into the general idea of systemic actions and generational traumas leading people into actions. This is further backed by a line at the beginning of the song saying "It's not Alabama clay / That Gives my Trembling hands away". Alabama is a state known for its lower socioeconomic population as well as a long, long history of racism. With this background, and the idea of "hundred grand" being one of the potential factors, this song can be used in a discussion both about how systemic racism and long standing social class systems have effected new generations, with a heavy focus on violence like most of these novels have had.

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Based on the poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost, this song talks about wondering if struggling will ever end or if everything is destined to not work out.

First, this poem serves as a great link to The Outsiders because of the new, expanded ideas of the poem featured in the text it provides. Additionally, it serves as a way to get deeper into the poem itself, which is another one of the supplemental texts featured in this unit.

Additionally, the lyrics provide an in to the essential theme of all of these texts: a past creating a future with struggles. Toward the end, they sing "All of my dreams, they fall and form a bridge / Of memories where I can't get back". Memories, which are things of the past, come from dreams ending, creating this "bridge" for others to walk on. The chorus itself features a list of existential questions that all have the same general idea--What if we put in all of this work but none of it pans out because of the inevitability that something will go wrong because it always does?

This would also be a great place to re-bring up the video about generational trauma that talks about ways to step away from it. What if we put in all that work and our work still "ends in despair"? "What if to love and be loved is not enough"?.

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Additional Words to Demystify and Destigmatize

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Additional Words to Demystify and Destigmatize

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Toxic Masculinity

Suicide

Social Isolation

Segregation

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Who's Afraid of Little Old Me? by Taylor Swift

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Who's Afraid of Little Old Me? by Taylor Swift

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This entire song is talking about a woman who has been pressured to be "tamed" in her raising, leading to her later lashing out in a violent fashion, threatening to take her revenge.

The lyrics have many different mentions of a past where she was raised in a restrictive way, such as "I was tame, I was gentle / Til the circus life made me mean", "You wouldn't last an hour / In the asylum where they raised me", and "You caged me / And then you called me crazy / I am what I am cause you trained me". This is a great way to explore specifically Juliet's behavior in Romeo and Juliet, and the ways she was raised because she was a woman, just like the speaker of the song. This is a great way to tie in the gender aspect of societal oppression and its generational effects, creating a unit that now uses social class, race, and gender to analyze societal oppression and generational outcomes, such as violence.

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This poem is one referenced in The Outsiders itself, so it is important to discuss what it means to understand the novel itself even more. One of the meanings of the poem is how things always start out new, golden, but inevitably time passes to lose that goldenness. Based on the events in all of the texts, students can talk about what is happening that is causing the "grief" and whether or not it is inevitable and why. This inevitability can be tied back to systemic ideas in place in our society that lead to grief, and how that is affecting the youth, our "golden"s.

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Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost | Poetry Foundation

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if only i had a pencil by Jordan Kaitapu (YBRJordan)

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if only i had a pencil by Jordan Kaitapu (YBRJordan)

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This poem gets deep into the intersectionality of race, social class, and even briefly gender and the years of oppressional buildup and its outcomes. It talks about violence in black communities and at the end discusses that because of that violence and withholding of resources due to the racist systems in place, he was forced to "take" the pencil to make change, implying a need to adhere to a cycle in order to break it, which would be an interesting debate topic for students to consider.

This also ties into the part referenced in Quote 2 of The Outsiders where Ponyboy writes his own story to try to make change.

That aside, I think it serves as a great way to get deeper into just how deeply woven oppression is in society and how small things, like not having a pencil, is a reflection of this much larger, generational issue.

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if only i had a pencil,

i could write my way out of the ghetto.

if only i had a pencil,

i could explain the voices in my head that scream in falsetto.

if only i had a pencil,

angry black kids in the hood wouldn't have to come face to face with a militarized tank.

if only i had a pencil,

i would explain these hunger pains of these angry black kids to the bank.

if only i had a pencil,

i would tell the president; if he'd listen; how my people are being treated.

if only i had a pencil,

give hope to people it's much needed.

if only she had a pencil,

as she was sitting on the ledge she could've wrote her family goodbye.

if only she had a pencil,

maybe she could find a better way to escape instead of getting high.

if only she had a pencil,

she could tell people about the man that raped her.

if only she had a pencil,

she could explain how that trauma changed her.

if only he had a pencil,

he could tell his teachers why he goes to sleep in class.

if only he had a pencil,

he could release the anger he has built up from things that hurt him in the past.

if only he had a pencil,

he could write a new narrative.

if only he had a pencil,

he could write a story of how playing sports and entertaining the white man isn't lucrative.

i wrote this with a pencil.

not one i was given but one i took.

i wrote this with a pencil.

this ole lightskin bitch will have massa all shook.

i wrote this with a pencil,

to explain the resources that are being withheld.

i wrote this with a pencil,

because a little white boy told my black brother go to hell.

i wrote this with a pencil,

because someone else can't write their story.

i wrote this with a pencil,

because legality doesn't determine morality.

i wrote this with a pencil,

because i simply can't talk anymore.

i wrote this with a pencil,

because with all these gun shots and bullet wounds it feels like we're at war.

i wrote this with a pencil,

so no other child has to get hit by patrol cars.

i wrote this with a pencil,

so no other kid would be held at gun point by cops over a "false alarm."

i wrote this with a pencil,

so no other kid has to lose their father because he was shot down in grandmas back yard.

i wrote this with a pencil,

so no other kid has to watch their father reach out for help just to end up dead, leaving the whole family scarred.

i wrote this with a pencil i took by force.

i wrote this with a pencil yet i feel no remorse.

i wrote this with a pencil because it needs to be said.

i wrote this with a pencil so no black or brown child... has to spend another moment with a cops gun to their head.

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if only i had a pencil,i could write my way out of the ghetto.

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Signe Ralkov is a Gen Z Danish Artist who, according to her website, creates art that explores mental states, transformation, and identity formation.

There are many ways that this image can be analyzed, but most come back to the same general idea: an animal inside of a child. This leads to many different discussions--the stereotypical connection of animals to violence and to race, the connection of youth to this violence, and what has led to that. Blue also typically represents sadness, so it would be interesting to discuss that color as opposed to the typical red of anger. Any which way it is discussed can be in some ways tied in to all of these texts and the essential theme due to the youth aspect and the animal being able to be linked to many aspects of society such as violence and its hidden nature in the image being able to be tied to oppressing an identity.

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Redlining

The History of Gang Violence

Generational Trauma with each subcategory of: general psychology, poverty, race (can be broken up into different races and the differences in the trauma and the experiences faced), and gender

The different social theories of prejudice: Scapegoat theory, Authoritarian Personality Theory, Culture Theory, Social Distance, etc

Interaction Patterns; Pluralism, Assimilation, Segregation, and Genocide

Marxism

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Sociology--Social Theories of Prejudice, interaction patterns, societal changes over time, societal stereotypes, social deviance theory, Marxism

Psychology--Generational Trauma, Trauma Responses

History--Redlining, history of gang wars, Marxism

Science--Generational Trauma

Civics--What can we do to make change?

Fine Arts--Song and Art analysis

Film Studies--Comparing the film of The Outsiders to its movie adaptations. What changes were made and what significance does that hold? How does the visual aspect change understanding?

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Having a the movie adaptation as a companion to the original book serves as a way for students to visualize the content and in turn, the context, of the novel far deeper. Being able to see how young the actors who play Johnny and Ponyboy are really emphasize the youth aspect of these generational cycle, and seeing the violence live allows for students to consider its deeper implications and origins. We can also talk about the visual symbolisms of social class depictions and the stereotypes that create.

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"'And Tonight...people get hurt in rumbles, maybe killed. I'm sick of it because it doesn't do any good. You can't win, you know that, don't you?' And when I remained silent he went on: 'You can't win, even if you whip us. You'll still be where you were before--at the bottom. And we'll still be the lucky ones with all the breaks. So it doesn't do any good, the fighting and the killing. It doesn't prove a thing. We'll forget it if you win, or if you don't. Greasers will still be greasers and Socs will still be Socs.'" (pg. 116-117)

This quote is said by Randy, a Soc, during chapter 7 of the novel when he is telling Ponyboy he won't be fighting in the big Greasers vs Socs rumble. This quote hits many of the different aspects of the essential theme all in one. It highlights the differences between the two groups, highlighting that the Greasers, the lower social class, will always be seen as lesser while the Socs, the higher social class, will always get breaks. Then it goes on to say this is never ending, there is no winning, the cycle will continue no matter what, and that cycle is violence. They can fight all they want but there is no winning because the societal divide between the two groups will just always lead to more violence.

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"Suddenly it wasn't only a personal thing to me. I could picture hundreds and hundreds of boys living on the wrong sides of cities, boys with black eyes who jumped at their own shadows. Hundreds of boys who maybe watched sunsets and looked at stars and ached for something better. I could see boys going down under street lights because they were mean and tough and hated the world, and it was too late to tell them that there was still good in it, and they wouldn't believe you if you did. It was too vast a problem to be just a personal thing. There should be some help, someone should tell them before it was too late. Someone should tell their side of the story, and maybe people would understand then and wouldn’t be so quick to judge a boy by the amount of hair oil he wore." (pg 179).

This quote is from the inner monologue of Ponyboy after reading Johnny's letter in the hospital reminding him to find the good in the world, to stay gold. This quote reveals this idea that even Ponyboy himself is aware that this isn't a person to person problem, its more than a "personal thing", its systemic, its generational, and it is going to keep going if someone doesn't say something, if something doesn't change.

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"I exploded. 'You don't yell at him!' I shouted. Darry wheeled around and slapped me so hard that it knocked me against the door.

Suddenly it was deathly quiet. We had all frozen. Nobody in my family had ever hit me. Nobody. Soda was wide-eyed. Darry looked at the palm of his hand where it had turned red and looked back at me. His eyes were huge" (pg. 50).

This quote is after Ponyboy comes home after falling asleep in a lot with Johnny and coming home really late. Darry says he was really worried about him and blows up about the stress of having to worry about Ponyboy. This stress is due to having to be Ponyboy's primary care giver after their parents died and having to work so much to do so. This stress because of economic needs led to the violence, and it shocks them because they didn't think it was possible. This quote ties in the theme of violence and how it can come from many different parts of life because of different traumas.

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"Two households, both alike in dignity

(In fair Verona, where we lay our scene),

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;

Whose misadventured piteous overthrows

Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.

The fearful passage of their death-marked love

And the continuance of their parents’ rage,

Which, but their children’s end, naught could remove,

Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;

The which, if you with patient ears attend,

What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend." (The Prologue)

This is the prologue of the play where it set the scene of everything that is going to come. It talks about this history of issues within these families and how it is making the younger generation shed new blood--old pasts creating a cycle of violence. It then says that an example of this violence is two kids dying by suicide because of the cycle of their parents rage and how it takes that violence to make any change. In a past of violence, it is saying only more violence can solve it, which is an interesting stance to discuss the nuance of.

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"A plague a both your houses! / They have made worms' meat of me. I have it, / And soundly too. Your Houses!" (3.1.105-07).

Mercutio calls this out when he is dying because of his fight with Tybalt--The Montague vs Capulet fight. While it can come across as Mercutio cursing them because of his death, it can also be read that he is announcing that it is this curse that is the reason he is dying. The generational violence and divide between the families led to the violence of his death.

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"O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, / From the battlements of any tower" (4.1.77-78)

Here, Juliet has been informed she is required to marry Paris and announces she would rather die by suicide than marry him. She would rather lose her life than to have to conform to the expectations society is putting on her, once again showing that the constrictions of society lead to violence.

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Through all of these texts, this unit creates a picture of how the deeper innerworkings of society affects the people within it. As people within the society, especially the younger generation who still has a chance to break free from patterns, it is crucial for students to understand what those patterns are, the causes of those patterns, and ways to think about how to end those patterns in their generation. It is naive and insensitive to say that this unit would end systemic prejudices, but it is reasonable to say it can end complacency and acceptance of it.

Through each of these texts, a new part of the system is revealed to students. The Outsiders reveals how divides, specifically ones in regards to social class, lead to violence. More so, however, it reveals to students that there is more to it. We can choose to write out own fate once we acknowledge the strings attached, just as Ponyboy and Jordan Kitapu describe in the ending monologue and poem, respectively. Romeo and Juliet address the familial generational trauma aspect of this system and tied with Taylor Swift's song, we can begin to see some of the gendered aspects of restriction and violence. We see how being separated and restricted leads to lashing out and until we are reunited, the violence just keeps going. With Long Way Down, we can see how both of those lens come together with the additional intersection of race to create this image of long standing violent patterns being created not because of want, but because of "need" to conform to familial expectations that are ingrained because of societal ones.

Through all of these texts, students begin to be able to see the patterns they are forced to live through and begin to think of ways the can force themselves out before they get forced to continue. Through talks of mental health, intersectionality, and coming of age, The Outsiders and all of its supplemental material creates a unit that teachers students that just because they grow up in this system doesn't mean they have to grow within its mold.

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All of the images above come from the graphic novel and make reference to the "rules" that the main character is forced to live by because they have been passed down throughout so many men in his life. These rules consist of don't cry, don't snitch, and always get revenge. This creates a cycle of violence that continues to get passed down because of the violence that society has created for them due to "turf wars" and police brutality, which are both mentioned in the novel. It adds visuals of the generational cycle of violence that is being created, and it then goes through each cycle to show how the compound on each other until the origin itself is lost.

This ties into The Outsiders because of the constant rumbles that are taking place between the Greasers and Socs for no real reason other than territory and a cycle of violence which also ties in to Romeo and Juliet because of the constant fighting with no real reason other than a divide between families, a divide between groups.