Hinton makes great use of the literary technique of "point of view," that is, the point from which a story is told.

Hinton always uses the first-person narrative in which the story is told through the eyes and experiences of a central character; only what he has seen or has been told can be related to the readers. Thus the presence of the author is removed almost entirely from the storytelling. This point of view is, in fact, a brilliant choice by Hinton, given the themes and concerns of her novels. Ponyboy is an engaging and intelligent creation; the reader tends to like him almost immediately for his complete honesty and for his growing self-awareness of the life he leads. His teen-age voice captures the speech rhythms of modern youth. Many critics believe that Hinton's ability in this area is unusually masterful. She has a gift for the...