Guest Post by Andrew, ENTJ

The Outsiders, S. E. Hinton

Extroverted Sensing (Se): Sodapop is a pleasure-seeker who just loves a good adrenaline rush.  He fights, not because he hates the people he’s fighting or because everybody else is doing it, but for fun.  His penchant for physical activity led him to horseback riding in his younger years.  He did not have the discipline to finish high school, preparing to entertain himself in the present rather than prepare for his future.  He never let his life in poverty bother him; he was having too much fun to care.  Sodapop is also a huge flirt who is a big hit with the girls.  He doesn’t often consider the consequences of his actions; He gets his girlfriend pregnant, causing her to be sent to stay with her relatives in Texas and ending their relationship.

Introverted Thinking (Ti): Though Soda lacked the motivation to finish high school, he’s not stupid. In fact, he’s quite smart. Of the three Curtis brothers, it is Sodapop who best understands the situation they are in.  As the middle child, he is caught between Darry’s often harsh protectiveness and Ponyboy’s feelings of being unloved.  He can see where each of his brothers is coming from, and he has served to bridge the chasm between the two of them.  Through his whole experience, he can see that Darry and Ponyboy are drifting apart when they should be staying close to each other.

Extroverted Feeling (Fe): His role as the middleman between Darry and Ponyboy is extremely painful for Sodapop.  He often has to take sides between his brothers, something which he never likes to do.  He does so anyway for a while, just for the sake of placating the two of them and keeping the peace in their house.  Similarly, Sodapop has a need to be accepted by others as well.  He will smoke cigarettes (something which he does not otherwise do unless upset or stressed out) to put up a macho front for people he doesn’t know.

Introverted Intuition (Ni): Sodapop displays a patience in dealing with his brothers that he does not show in any other area of his life.  In the stress of being caught between his two brothers, he starts to think of the larger implications of their constant friction.  He sees that it could lead to the breakdown of the family bonds between them, and that that could only lead to disaster; united they stand, divided they fall.