Outsiders Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. Which two social groups drive the novel’s central conflict?
The Brumly boys and the Shepard gang
The East Side students and the West Side teachers
The Curtis family and the Cade family
The Greasers and the Socs
2. Why is cutting and bleaching Ponyboy’s hair especially difficult for him?
His hair is tied to his identity and pride as a Greaser
He had promised Darry that he would never change it
Long hair is required for his role on the track team
It makes him look more like Bob, whom he fears resembling
3. Why does Randy decide not to participate in the rumble?
He believes the fighting will not truly change anything
Cherry asks him to take Bob’s place at home
He has been ordered to leave town by the police
He plans to join the Greasers instead
4. When the abandoned church catches fire, why do Ponyboy and Johnny enter it?
They need to retrieve the money and gun Dally gave them
They want to destroy evidence that they hid there
They believe Dally is unconscious in the building
They realize that children are trapped inside
5. After Johnny dies, Dally confronts the police while holding an unloaded gun. What does Ponyboy understand about Dally’s behavior?
Dally thinks the gun is loaded and expects to escape
Dally wants the police to arrest him for Bob’s death
Overwhelmed by Johnny’s death, Dally intends the confrontation to be fatal
Dally is trying to protect Ponyboy from being questioned
6. When Johnny tells Ponyboy to “stay gold,” what is he urging Ponyboy to preserve?
His loyalty to Greaser rules above everything else
His determination to defeat the Socs
His sensitivity, wonder, and ability to see goodness
His plan to hide from the police permanently
7. Who wrote the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” which Ponyboy recites to Johnny?
William Blake
Walt Whitman
Robert Frost
Edgar Allan Poe
8. How does Ponyboy’s English assignment connect to the structure of the novel?
His assignment is a biography of Johnny written by Darry
The story itself becomes the theme he writes for his class
The assignment reveals that the church rescue was fictional
His teacher asks him to compare the Greasers with Civil War soldiers
9. At the park, Ponyboy is being held underwater by Socs. What action changes the course of the story?
Dally arrives and frightens the Socs away
Ponyboy escapes and reports the attack to Darry
Johnny kills Bob while defending Ponyboy
Randy turns against Bob and stops the attack
10. Ponyboy initially experiences Darry’s strictness as coldness. What does he gradually come to understand?
Darry resents being associated with the Greasers
Darry’s pressure is connected to love, fear, and the responsibility of keeping the family together
Darry treats him strictly because their parents demanded it
Darry intends to send both younger brothers away
11. Which novel does Ponyboy read aloud to Johnny while they hide in the church?
Gone with the Wind
A Tale of Two Cities
The Call of the Wild
Great Expectations
12. What causes Johnny’s most serious injuries during the church fire?
He falls while climbing through a window
Dally accidentally pushes him into the flames
He is struck by the arriving fire truck
A burning timber falls on him
13. Who narrates The Outsiders?
Ponyboy Curtis
Johnny Cade
Sodapop Curtis
Dallas Winston
14. Ponyboy and Cherry discover that they both watch sunsets. What does this detail mainly suggest?
They both hope to leave Tulsa for the countryside
People divided by social groups can still share human experiences
Cherry secretly wants to become a Greaser
Ponyboy believes sunsets predict approaching danger
15. Where do Johnny and Ponyboy hide after Bob’s death?
In Buck Merril’s apartment
At the Curtis brothers’ house
Inside an abandoned train car
In an abandoned church near Windrixville
16. How does Cherry help the Greasers after her early conversation with Ponyboy?
She hides Johnny in her family’s house
She provides information about the Socs and the planned rumble
She persuades Bob to apologize to Johnny
She gives Ponyboy testimony that immediately clears him