| “ | You guys know what Greasers are? White trash with long hair. | „ |
| ~ Bob Sheldon taunts Ponyboy and Johnny. |
| “ | You could use a bath, greaser. And a good working over. And we've got all night to do it. Give the kid a bath, David. | „ |
| ~ Bob ordering one of his fellow Socs to drown Ponyboy |
Robert "Bob" Sheldon is the main antagonist in S.E. Hinton's 1967 novel The Outsiders, its 1983 film adaptation of the same name, and the overarching antagonist of the 1990 sequel TV series. He is the leader of the group, the Socs until he is stabbed to death by Johnny Cade after he and his fellow Socs try to drown Ponyboy in a nearby fountain.
He was portrayed by Leif Garrett
Description and Personality[]
Bob has dark brown curly hair. Like all Socs, he wears dress pants with a button-up shirt and button-up jacket. He wears three heavy rings on his right hand, and he also has a Mustang, like most Socs, meaning that he prides himself in his good looks and cars.
Four months before the story takes place, Bob and his fellow Socs jumped Johnny, and Bob cut up Johnny's face with the rings he was wearing on his hand, causing Johnny to have a permanent scar on his face.
At the movies, Bob shows up in his Mustang with his friends, including his best friend, Randy Anderson. They were drunk, and furious seeing Ponyboy, Johnny, and Two-Bit befriend their girlfriends, Cherry and Marcia. Cherry loses her temper with Bob, reminding him that she told him before, that she was never going out with him while he was drinking, and she meant it. When the Socs tried picking a fight with the Greasers, Cherry said she hated fights, and she and Marcia will ride home with them, leaving Ponyboy, Johnny, and Two-Bit shocked.
Later that night, Bob and his friends see Ponyboy and Johnny alone in the park. Bob calls the Greasers "white trash with long hair." Ponyboy retaliates by calling the Socs "white trash with Mustangs and madras." Bob tells one of his fellow Socs to give Ponyboy a bath, and Ponyboy and Johnny try to run away, but Ponyboy is caught, and his face is forced into a nearby fountain. After Ponyboy regains consciousness, he sees Johnny holding his switchblade, and Bob's lifeless body covered in blood on the ground. Johnny tells Ponyboy he killed him, and all the other Socs ran away.
A week later, while Ponyboy and Two-Bit were together, Randy talked to Ponyboy about Bob. He explained that Bob's parents never said no to him, and they even blamed themselves for his death. Cherry later told Ponyboy that she couldn't visit Johnny in the hospital, because he killed Bob. She also explained that when Bob was sober, he could also be "sweet and friendly."
Ponyboy later looked through Sodapop's old yearbook, and he saw a picture of Bob, and he eventually realized that Bob, along with the other Socs, were still human beings with needs and feelings, despite the fact that he, along with his fellow Greasers, saw only one side of Bob's personality - a reckless, hot-tempered boy, both cocky and scared stiff at the same time.
This storyline clearly shows that Bob was spoiled rotten as a child, and he was never taught responsibility. As a result, he was selfish, and he didn't care if he hurt anyone, even if it meant killing someone to get his own way. Why his girlfriend, Cherry never broke up with him permanently is unknown.
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Template:S.E. Hinton Villains
 Villains
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