At one point in a person’s life, they will feel like an outsider. Everyone has experienced feeling this way.In The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton displays two characters that truly experience being different from the rest of the group. Ponyboy and Johnny are both greasers (people that are more poor) and are in the same gang. They both feel out of place at different times, disconnected even. Through the characters Ponyboy and Johnny, Hinton reveals to readers what it genuinely means to be an outsider. Pony and Johnny have difficult home lives, and don’t sense strong connections with people in their own family. Ponyboy has a difficult time with his home life. His oldest brother, Darry has been turned tough after their parents died in a car crash. Darry …show more content…
Johnny dies from rescuing kids from the burning church that used to be their hideout. After this happens a group of rich kids jump out of their car and threaten Pony. Ponyboy breaks the end off of his soda bottle, and threatens to cut them up. Pony realizes how aghast Two-Bit - a member of the gang - is at his actions, and Two bit tells him, “Ponyboy, listen, don’t get tough. You’re not like the rest of us and don’t try to be” (Hinton 171). Two-Bit wouldn’t have cared if anyone else had threatened to cut up someone, but when Ponyboy does, Two-Bit is aghast, and tells him off. He tells Pony that he isn’t like the rest of the gang, and hints that he doesn’t want him to be. Even the gang knows how different Ponyboy is from the rest of them, and they almost become like older brothers to Ponyboy in the way that they protect him. They are all reckless and carefree, but they know Pony well enough to know that he’s not like that. He is quieter, and his experiences of his parent’s and various friend’s deaths has not turned him cold yet. The gang knows this, and they want him to stay that way: good and
A very important comparison Dally and Johnny have is their parents. Johnny’s parents do not care about him. Johnny parents fight or just ignore each other. Ponyboy says,
With his long greasy hair and baggy worn out clothes he looked likes a bad kid, but the way he talked and the way he thought it was a whole different person inside of him. The Outsiders is about two rival gangs that fight and go through so much stuff to just to call the territory their own. It is the Socs versus Greasers. They always have their back up because you can't trust anyone, but at the end of the day is all the rubbles and fighting worth it? Ponyboy one of the greasers has a big character change during the book. In the beginning of the book Ponyboy was getting jumped by the Socs and he was acting all tough and defending himself, in the middle of the book he starts to break while he is in the church, and when the kids were stuck in
Poney does not want to be in a boys home, due to his parents death all three boys should be in a boys home. He mentions both in the book and the movie he has to be careful with getting into huge trouble because if the cops found him they would put him in a boys home since he has no parent. Cherry is very kind hearted in both the movies she tells Ponyboy about how you can’t assume if one person from this group is like that, then that must mean everyone else there is the same. She finds a way to figure someone out, if they are a certain way it's because of their past because they've gone through tough stuff she says “Things are rough all over”(S.E. Hinton). In both Cherry spills soda on Dally for trying to hit on her and tells him “get lost hood” (S.E. Hinton), but then tells Pony that if she sees Dally she's afraid she will fall for him, because she sees the good in him. Poney boy also talks to Johnny about the poem Nothing Gold Can Stay in both while watching the sunset about losing your innocence and views in life. When Johnny passes away he tells Ponyboy Stay
Johnny and Ponyboy are good friends and this friendship really shined when Johnny saved Ponyboy by killing Bob. They were jumped by 5 Socs and Ponyboy spat in Bob’s face and one of the Socs stuck his face in the fountain. He would’ve drowned if Johnny had not done what he did. Before all this happened, we must talk about when Johnny agreed to run away with Pony without hesitation. Darry had slapped Pony for coming home late and the pair ran away shortly after. Johnny and Ponyboy ran away with the help of Dally, which we will get into later, and got to an abandoned church that caught fire by one of their cigarettes. There were kids inside the church and they jumped inside to save them. Johnny told Pony to jump out before him and in the process Johnny broke his back and got severally burned. To cut things short I think Johnny is a real hero and I hope he does not die from his injuries from the
Many would say that the character Ponyboy should be the main hero of our story, but that’s just not the case. Ponyboy was easily pushed down, letting things get to him and letting his emotions take complete control. One push or slap from his brother and he runs away, like a cowardly lion scrambling into the tall grass of the savannah. Johnny, on the other hand, is forced against abuse that no one should be able to put through. Yet he stands on his ground.
The Outsiders, an enthralling novel by S.E Hinton, is an excellent story about the hardships and triumphs experienced by the Greasers and the Socs two rival gangs. S.E Hinton tells a thrilling tale about the Socs and the Greasers that are two gangs and she characterize how they live. Ponyboy, his brother and his friends have to deal with the challenges relating to their environment. The three most important topics of The Outsiders are survival, social class and family support.
In the book The Outsiders, written by S.E. Hinton, the lower-class, known as the Greasers, and the upper-class, known as Socs, deal with the animosity and daily struggles they have with each other. The novel focuses on the struggles and experiences with being an outsider to society and coping with the rich side of town through Ponyboy’s eyes. His life changes when tensions rise and many tragic things happen to the Greasers and Socs that will create agony in many but heroes in a few. The three topics addressed in this compelling novel are the fight between the rich and the poor, the power of friendship, and what it means to be a hero.
“Since Mom and Dad were killed in an auto wreck, the three of us get to stay together only as long as we behave (2).” This explains why Ponyboy, Dally and Sodapop did not have parents. In the novel, this really effected their life and character. "…It was Darry. He hit me. I don't know what happened, but I couldn't take him hollering at me and hitting me too... He didn't use to be like that... we used to get along okay... before Mom and Dad died. Now he just can't stand me (2)." This shows that not having their parents anymore effected Darry’s character and how he treated Ponyboy, which in return effected how Ponyboy felt about himself in comparison to how he was treated. This illustrates that Ponyboy believes that Darry picks on him all the time. This shows that Darry was like a caring parent in a tough way,
The only people Johnny and Dally have are each other because their families do not care about what they do or notice where they go. Ponyboy states, “Johnny was the only thing Dally loved” (152). Johnny is Dally's family and Dally watches out for Johnny as his own. Similarly to Dally, “Johnny worshiped the ground Dally walked on” (25). Johnny may not have been as rebellious and defensive as Dally, but he watches out for Dally too. Dally understands how Johnny feels and Johnny understands how Dally feels through their troubling times. Johnny and Dally care a lot about one another and they both have abusive parents, but they are very different
Out of all of the members of the gang Johnny and Ponyboy were the closest, because they were the youngest and also they were not as tough as the other boys. After Ponyboy got in a fight with Darry about being late at getting home, Ponyboy ran to the lot and told Johnny that they were running away. Without hesitation the two boys took off running. Johnny needed no explanation. He had a rough life at home and without the support from the gang he may have already killed himself. Johnny just wanted to be there and support his friend like they had been supporting him through everything. At many points throughout the novel Ponyboy teaches or shows Johnny something new. “You know Johnny said slowly “I never noticed colors and clouds and stuff until you kept, reminding me about them. It seems like they were never there before” (Hinton,78). When Johnny says that to Ponyboy is gives readers a glimpse of how Johnny having Ponyboy in his life makes it better. Another key point of their friendship in the novel is after Johnny kills the Soc. This is a key point because they run off to Jay Mountain to hide from the police and while they are there they discover more about each other and themselves. The boys are at that church for about a week before Dally came to check in on them and while they were inside that church they read Gone with the Wind. As they read Gone with the Wind they started to make connections
The Outsiders is a novel by S.E Hinton, that follows a young boy named Ponyboy who grows up in a gang. Johnny, Sodapop and Darry help him find how he fits into the world and without them he would have a hard time finding his own identity. Without having a close group of friends he would have a tough way of life, especially with the Socs. Being in a group that you associate with, that have different values to yourself can lead you to disregard your own ethics and do things you wouldn’t normally do, but at the same time this can assist and reinforce your own values…
Johnny saw that Pony was unhappy because he missed his brothers that were back home. Johnny thought that the only reason Pony was still there in the church with him was because he was the one who wanted to run away in the first place . Johnny finally decided to turn himself in because Pony hadn’t committed a crime and Johnny would be let of easy for saving the kids . Johnny would do anything for his buddies but he has a limit and I think that limit is girls. I don’t think that Johnny would of yelled at Dally if he wouldn’t of disrespected those girls the way he did. Although he yelled at his buddy he was the hero of those two Socs that Dally was disrespecting and he got a complement from them and they let him and Pony sit with
Through the development of the story impression of belonging seems to lack however despite these challenges through perseverance and support from other members of the gang they expand their grasp on belonging. At the start of the outsiders Ponyboy mentions “I lie to myself all the time but i never believe me” In this extract it is clearly displayed through the tone of disbelief that ponyboy being the youngest of the gang and his family he often feels removed and does not realize that later the people closest and the friendships you make are where you belong the highest. Subsequent to this event a metaphor used to describe Johnny “a little dark puppy kicked too many times” exposes that after his parents abused him he did not feel as though he had a family, nevertheless through friendship Johnny promptly discovered that he belonged and that was with the Greasers as they made him feel needed. Remarkably at the introduction of the story most gang members didn't feel as though they belonged but since The Outsiders coveys a bildungsroman it demonstrates that the characters are continually developing and maturing throughout the story.
2. The title of this book relates to the story, because in the book, Ponyboy and Johnny are “outsiders.” They can be thought of as Outsiders because they are labeled Greasers although they do not act like hoodlums, like the rest of the Greasers. They are thought of as Greasers just because they live on the East Side of town, and because they slick back their hair. But Ponyboy and Johnny are different then all of the other Greasers because they show their emotions, and are sensitive.
The Outsiders written by S.E. Hinton is a book about two different groups that don’t get along, the Socs and the Greasers. The two unions may act like they are tough and have no emotion on the outside, but on the inside, they are full with feelings and are very caring people. After Johnny was hurt, Ponyboy says to himself “A pain was growing in my throat and I wanted to cry, but greasers don’t cry in front of strangers”(Hinton 102). The 2 social classes may put on a front in public, but deep inside they care about others and have