Plot Development in S.E. Hinton’s “The Outsiders” By Jeff Olson Buffalo State College

In observing his own children, pioneer psychologist Jean Piaget used the term “schema” to describe the building block nature of knowledge, where encounters with new knowledge are added to or built upon prior knowledge. Novelists use written language similarly, taking first letters to build words, words to build sentences, and sentences to describe characters and action. The reader starts with 0 (zero) knowledge and gradually builds, sentence by sentence, chapter by chapter, a schema or knowledge of the plot up to, and including, the book’s final words.

This plot sequencing exercise illustrates Piaget’s knowledge building theory. The left column is numbered 1-20. In the right column, arrange the 20 events described in their order of occurrence in “The Outsiders”. Assign the earliest plot event listed to #1, the last to #20.