Conflicts in the Outsiders: Exploring Conflicts and Themes

Introduction

Kate Milford was born in 1976 in Napolis, Maryland. Milford currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. She lives with her spouse, Nathan, her two children, and her dog. Her first novel is The Boneshaker. Her most successful novel is Greenglass House. It won the Edgar Award for Juvenile Literature. It has also been long-listed for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature and is a nominee for the Andre Norton Award and the Agatha Award for children and young Adults.

Kate Milford writes scholarly articles for Nagspeake.com. These can vary from political history to How to Make Candy in a Fantastical Kitchen.
The author writes this novel to continue this story and add additional information to her series.

Character Analysis and Themes

The genre is shown in the novel by the circumstances and the writing style. The book is a fantasy story. In the story, there are events and dialogue that make the plot of the story. They hint to the reader. The way the writer writes the dialogue and thoughts makes it fictional.
"And yet, he thought with a glimmer of excitement twitching to life in his gut, this is how it started last year" (Milford, 17).
"As Negret, he had played a sort of real-world version of Odd Trails last year, a campaign waged within Greenglass House itself, and in the course of that campaign, he'd worked out the secrets that had brought eight unexpected guests to his home" (Milford, 17).

The setting of this novel is Greenglass House. Greenglass House is a smuggler's hotel on the top of Whilforber Hill. This story takes place around winter break. The inn is located in a smuggler's town called Nagspeake. Nagspeake is closed off or surrounded by an abundance of colossal trees. It has four floors, and each floor displays a pulchritudinous stained-glass window. Each guest room also exhibits a green glass window. The house is run by Mr. Pine and Mrs. Pine. They have an adopted son named Milo.

There are two main conflicts in this book. One is the internal conflict that Milo faces. This is Man vs. Self. Another conflict presented in this story is the friendship conflict between Milo, Meddy, Clem, and Georgie. They face many bumps in the road as the story goes on in this book. One minor conflict is the problems they face with the inn and all of the guests at the inn. There is an "encounter" with ghosts in the "safe" hotel.
Milo is a Chinese adopted orphan. He often, and sometimes always, gets teased and bullied because of his race compared to his parents. He often is expected to know how to speak or read Chinese. He does not, as he is not growing up in a Chinese household. He is very shy. Milo's character is very much similar to that of Ponyboy's character in The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. He is very introverted but opens up to people that he is close to. He is very artistic. Milo also loves to read and has a dreamy and meaningful attitude towards life.

The theme of this book is friendship and teamwork. The characters in the story work together. They unravel the mysteries of all the unexpected guests at the inn. They also find out the secret behind the ghosts in the hotel.

Conclusion

I related to the part at the beginning of the book where Milo doesn't feel that amazing feeling when you come home on the last day before the break. I sometimes don't feel that sensation. This is normally because I had a lousy day, or it could be because there is so much to do that I don't feel relaxed.

References

1. "Rumble Fish" by S.E. Hinton

2. "Tex" by S.E. Hinton

3. "That Was Then, This Is Now" by S.E. Hinton

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