S. E. Hinton’s young-adult novel The Outsiders is mainly set in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Hinton grew up in Tulsa, and the novel’s setting reflects the city she knew as a teenager. The story follows Ponyboy Curtis and his fellow Greasers as they clash with the wealthier Socs. Tulsa’s neighborhoods and social divisions provide the background for that conflict.
The book was published in 1967, when Hinton was still a teenager. Its realistic portrayal of class tension, family loyalty, violence, and adolescent identity helped establish modern young-adult literature as a major category.
Readers sometimes confuse the setting with another Oklahoma city because the novel focuses more on its fictional social groups than on landmarks. Tulsa is the real city identified with the story, while the Greasers’ and Socs’ neighborhoods are presented through the novel’s fictionalized perspective.