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In the novel by S.E Hinton develops the theme through, setting, characters and plot, but how does she do that? To develop theme through setting she changes it. First, we see Ponyboy in his hometown being attacked by soc's. His two brothers, Darry and Soda save him. Darry and Soda are his protectors and they take care of him. Later in the story, Ponyboy has run away from his home and he is no longer with his brothers. He has to take care of himself and he has no one looking out for him. When Ponyboy was with his brothers he was sheltered and innocent, but when he left his brothers he had to be independent. He had his brothers to take care of him but now he has to take care of himself. Part of losing innocence and becoming mature not relying on someone else to take care of you. When Ponyboy is no longer with his brothers. This signifies a change in his maturity. When the setting is changed it shows Ponyboy going from a sheltered child to a mature young adult. The way theme is developed through characters is the loss of them. One of the first characters we see that is close to Ponyboy is Johnny. Johnny and Ponyboy are close friends. It seems like they have known each other for a long time. We first meet him when Ponyboy is innocent, and see him last when Ponyboy is mature. In a way Johnny represents the change in Ponyboy. First, he is young and innocent, next he is in the grey area of innocence and maturity, and lastly, he an adult. This follows how Johnny is seen thought the story. First he is healthy, then he is hurt, and lastly he is dead. The death of Johnny is the end Ponyboys innocence, it completely cuts ties to his childhood and throws him into adulthood. Lastly, plot. The plot of the novel is about a greaser named Ponyboy that is dealing with his life after a friend of his murders a soc and they get into trouble. Ponyboy starts out as an innocent kid in the beginning of the book. As the story progresses and Ponyboy witnesses the murder and runs away from home and loses his friends he becomes harder. The plot of the story forces him out of his comfort zone and therefore makes him grow as a character. The beginning of the story contrasts a lot with the middle and end of the story. He was poor and living in a bad situation but he was comfortable with his brothers and friends. In the middle of the story hes alone in a place he doesn't like in a situation he doesn't want to be in, and at the end he is with his brothers but hes lost some of his friends and he is completely changed as a character. He was innocent, and now he mature. This is hoe S.E Hinton developed the theme of "The Outsiders" through setting, characters, and plot.

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"Nobody would write editorials praising Dally. Two friends of mine had died that night: one a hero, the other a hoodlum."
(Pg. 154)
Ponyboys change from innocent child too mature young man is finalized in this chapter. Watching another one of his friend die and realizing no one would remember him for all of the good he did completely changed him.

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When Ponyboy looses Johnny, his innocence is almost completely destroyed. At this point theirs no going back for Ponyboys innocence. He's been through too much. The only reason Ponyboy keeps some of his innocence is through Johnny telling him to "stay gold." (Pg.148)

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"I jerked loose and ran out. All I could think was: we started it. We started it. We started it!" (Pg. 91)
When Ponyboy arrives at the church and sees the church burning, he thinks its his fault. (It probably is)
When he realizes he started the fire and put those kids in danger he decides to save the children. In this chapter we see him take responsibility for his own actions. He messed up and now he's dealing with it. When you are a child you don't think about how your decisions might affect others, but as you mature you become more aware of what you do. This is a part of maturing and growing up.
When Ponyboy does this he lets go of more of his childlike qualities and therefore loses more of his innocence.

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When I talk about Ponyboy being in a different setting, I mean hes in the church. Also, I gave some extra evidence.

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"I killed him," he said slowly. "I killed that boy." Bob, the handsome soc, was lying there in the moonlight, doubled up and still." (Pg.56)
When Ponyboy and Johnny go to the park, soc's show up and attack them because they are drunk and angry about their earlier confrontation. Ponyboy almost drowns and Johnny kills a soc named Bob. This marks the start of when Ponyboy starts to lose his innocence. While he has not lost his childlike goodness completely, he can never go back to how he was before he saw this man dead.

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This 50s mustang represents where this all started. When Ponyboy and his friends drive two socs, Cherry and Marcia home. Their boyfriends see this and threaten the greasers. This is when Ponyboy is still innocent, he has not left his home or lost his childlike sense of goodness. He hasn't stopped dreaming a better wo
(See Ch.3)

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The Outsiders by S.E Hinton, is about the loss of innocence, and reveals that when people are innocent, they are good, but when they mature, they lose part of that childlike goodness.