Both The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet present characters struggling with violence in their environments. Ponyboy and the Greasers in The Outsiders must deal with constant conflict with the Socs. When Bob is killed, Johnny and Pony leave town to protect Johnny. Similarly, Romeo and Juliet's families are in constant dispute with each other. When Tybalt is killed, Romeo is banished and therefore leaves town. In his act of violence, Romeo establishes the foundation of a series of events which will lead him to his own death.
There is also a similarity when it comes to the idea of protecting your friends—at whatever cost. When Mercutio perceives that Romeo is not defending himself as he should against Tybalt, he goes to bat for Romeo. These actions taken to defend his friend's honor actually cost him his life. In The Outsiders, Ponyboy escapes to the church to help protect Johnny. Dally, a tough character who is often in trouble with the law, also comes to see the boys and protect them during their hideout. The Greasers stick together as a group, always showing up when it counts to have each member's back, and this is evidenced in numerous places in the novel.
There is also a similarity in the conflicts that arise between parents and their children. In Romeo and Juliet, the Capulets and Montagues are in constant tension, and this drives their children to have their own private marriage. Without this friction, the two young lovers would never have hidden their feelings from their parents and would thus have never died. Johnny in The Outsiders suffers in an abusive household, reminding the gang of a sad little puppy. When he first awakens in the hospital, he asks if his mother has come to visit. (She has not.) When she does show up, she is threatening and confrontational.
Both works deal with the idea of what it means to be a "man." In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo faces this idea when his new wife's cousin insists on fighting him. He really struggles with avoiding confrontation with Tybalt; he doesn't want to kill Juliet's family. In the end, he does kill Tybalt, and then he has to determine how to proceed next, as a man. Although he is banished, he must make decisions about if and when to reunite with his very new bride. When forced with her loss, he must decide if he can live without her. (He can't.)
Similarly, in The Outsiders, Johnny and Pony must decide what to do after Johnny kills Bob. After living in isolation for a while, Johnny tells Pony that they need to return home so that he can turn himself in. He says, "It ain't fair for Ponyboy to have to stay up in that church with Soda and Darry worryin' about him all the time." Later, he decides to risk his own life in order to save the children trapped in a burning church. Darry also struggles with how to be the "man of the house" in his parents' absence, especially in his efforts to guide Pony.
There is also an overlapping theme of deception in both works. In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet deceives her parents by not telling them she has been married in secret. She deceives them again by drinking the sleeping potion and allowing them to think she has died. Consequently, Romeo is deceived into thinking Juliet is dead, which makes him take his own life. In The Outsiders, Soda learns that Sandy has been deceiving him once she becomes pregnant with another man's baby. Johnny is deceitful when he kills Bob and doesn't immediately go to the police.
Although on the surface these stories seem to be vastly different, they do share some of the same fundamental struggles and plot details.
This is an interesting question. There are definitely some similarities between Romeo and Juliet and The Outsiders. Probably the most immediate parallel between the two stories is that both stories focus on young, teenaged protagonists. In act 1, scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet, Paris asks Capulet for permission to marry Juliet. Capulet does not say “no” outright, but he does tell Paris to wait because Juliet is not even fourteen yet.
My child is yet a stranger in the world.
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years.
Similarly, Ponyboy is also a young teenager. He is fourteen and one of the younger Greasers, but the rest of them are also fairly young individuals. Sodapop is 16 and Darry is only 20.
Another strong similarity between both stories is the antagonism that exists between two groups. Romeo and Juliet has the feuding Capulets and Montagues, and The Outsiders has the feuding Socs and Greasers. Both stories, as a consequence of the pervasive animosity, share a great deal of violence. There are multiple fights in both stories. Finally, important characters are killed in both stories. In The Outsiders, Dally, Johnny, and Bob all are dead by the story's conclusion. Similarly, Tybalt, Paris, Mercutio, Romeo, and Juliet all die by the conclusion of Romeo and Juliet.
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