Having recently revisited several of S.E. Hinton's books, namely Rumblefish, The Outsiders, Tex and That was Then, This is now; these were books I read and re-read in my pre-teens.I still feel the urgency of Hinton's debut The Outsiders; a raw yet almost dream-like account of the lives of a young gang from the wrong side of the tracks and set against the urban jungle of 1963 New York's gangland subculture. This essay is my opine to The Outsiders, focusing on its idealism; the main protagonist's (and other characters in the gang's) behaviour, feelings and thoughts based on what and how they wish themselves to be, focusing on the main protagonists tendency to use imagination to protect himself from the gritty world he and his friends inhabit.