Richard Burns (Arkansas State Universityemeritus,)
Consistent with this year’s meeting, this presentation focuses on S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, specifically, socs and greasers, whose antics the folklorist recall from his own experiences as a young teenager living in the Tulsa Boys Home. Negotiating the stigma associated with involuntary institutionalization, he hid to avoid connections to the Home as the TBH bus unloaded residents each morning at Horace Mann Junior High School. He observed violent incidents between rival gangs engaged in knife fights as well as other kinds of rumbles. The sting of social marginalization helped provide insight when characterizing the customs and world of outsiders.
Part of 05-09 Social Histories In and Through Oklahoma, Friday, October 14, 10:30 am–12:30 pm