The Outsiders Test Review for Chapters One - Six
Prepare Students for Test on Hinton's The Outsiders Study Questions
Nov 14, 2009
Middle school teachers can use the novel, The Outsiders, to teach students about story elements, plot and characterization. The following review questions will help students prepare for a comprehension test on chapters one through six.
Characters in The Outsiders
Understanding the descriptions and motives of the many characters in The Outsiders is central to understanding this novel. On the test, students must identify the following characters by matching their names to their description. Students should keep in mind which characters are identified by their real names and which are known by their nicknames.
- Ponyboy Curtis: The narrator and protagonist of the story whose parents have died in a car accident
- Sodapop: Ponyboy's good-natured, good-looking older brother
- Darry: Ponyboy's oldest brother who is raising Ponyboy.
- Dally: a tough Greaser whose real name is Dallas Winston
- Two-Bit: A comical Greaser who is known for shoplifting
- Steve: A Greaser who works at a gas station and is best friends with Sodapop
- Johnny: a serious and sensitive Greaser who sees the Greasers as his only family
- Cherry: a Soc cheerleader who befriends Ponyboy
The Outsiders' Sample Questions About Characters
Here are some sample questions which students should be prepared to answer on the comprehension test.
- Who is Soda’s best friend and loves cars?
- Who protects Johnny Cade like a little brother?
- Who is abused by his parents?
- Why does Darry quit school even though he is smart?
Plot in The Outsiders
In chapters one through six, students will read the exposition and part of the rising action of the story. The exposition provides the background information of the story, including a description of setting and an introduction of characters. The rising action are the events which slowly lead up to the climax of the novel. Students should be prepared to select the best multiple choice answer regarding plot elements in chapters one through six. Even though several answer choices may be true, students must identify the choice which has the most support in the passage.
Questions About Plot in The Outsiders
- Why doesn’t Sodapop drink alcohol?
- What does it mean to “shanghai”?
- Who does Johnny worship? Why?
- What do Two-Bit and Marcia have in common?
- What was the name of the Soc that Johnny killed?
Literary Elements in The Outsiders
Students should be able to define and give examples of the following literary elements in The Outsiders.
- Point of view: This story is told in first person point of view. Students can easily identify that the narrator is also a central character in the story because he uses the pronoun "I."
- Narrator: the person who conveys the action of and often provides commentary about the story. Fourteen year old Ponyboy Curtis is the narrator of The Outsiders.
- Flashback: occurs when a story begins at one point and then transports readers back to an earlier time of the story. This novel flashes back to previous events in the story to help readers understand the characters.
- Symbolism: occurs when one concrete object represents itself as well as something else that is often more abstract, such as an emotion.
- Theme: this is a central purpose of a novel which often reveals a lesson or observation about life; an important theme in the story is that friendship can be as strong a bond as family.
- Foreshadowing: hints at future events in the story.
By answering the questions above related to characters, plot and literary elements, students will prepare to take a reading comprehension test about the first part of the novel, The Outsiders. Teachers can prepare a test containing matching, multiple choice, and true/false questions to assess middle school students' understanding of the story.
Hinton, S.E. The Outsiders. Bantam Doubleday. New York: New York. 1967.
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