The “Outsiders”, by S.E. Hinton, is a novel about a young boys journey through life after a horrible tragedy. When Ponyboy's parents died, he struggled with living alongside his two older brothers. Darry, Ponyboy’s older brother, was his legal guardian. Pony should stay with his older brothers, Sodapop and Darry, because they are all each other have. The only family Pony has left is his older brothers and the greasers. Taking him away from his family when he needs it most is wrong. It is understandable that people may think that Darry is too young to take care of a 14 year old boy, or that Ponyboy should be taken care of by someone he doesn’t fight with so much. People in a gang do have a greater tendency of getting in trouble, however putting Pony in a home could cause him to act out, which would …show more content…
get him into more trouble.
"He's as hard as a rock and about as human...he thinks I'm a pain in the neck. He likes Soda--everybody likes Soda--but he can't stand me” (42). This does show that Pony does not get along very well with Darry, however it shows that Ponyboy does get along well with Soda. Pony finds comfort in Soda when he fights with Darry. Sodapop helps tighten the three brother relationship.“ ‘We‘re all we got left. We ought to be able to stick together against everything. If we don‘t have each other, we don‘t have anything. If you don‘t have anything, you end up like Dallas . . . and I don‘t mean dead, either. I mean like he was before. And that‘s worse than dead. Please’ ”- he wiped his eyes on his arm- “ ‘don‘t fight anymore’ ” says Soda (176). “ ‘Sure... sure little buddy, we ain't goin' to fight anymore’ ” Darry answers (176). This demonstrates that eventually Ponyboy and Darry stop
fighting. The three brothers become closer than ever and realize that they need each other. Darry sees a bright future for Ponyboy. “Listen,with your brains and grades you could get a scholarship, and we could put you through college” (173). This proves that Darry only wants the best for Ponyboy. Darry wants Ponyboy to have what he never had, a future that involves college and job that he loves. The brothers do have their differences, but they know that they won’t survive without one another. Pony knows he has the gang to turn to when he needs to be with family. Johnny is proof of that. “If it hadn‘t been for the gang, Johnny would never have known what love and affection are” (12). This shows that the boys in the gang have each other when they need compassion. Most greasers have it rough at home, and look to each other for comfort. Greasers always had each others back. “You take up for you buddies, no matter what they do. When you‘re a gang, you stick up for the members. If you don‘t stick up for them, stick together, make like brothers, it isn‘t a gang any more. It‘s a pack. A snarling, distrustful, bickering pack like the Socs in their social club or the street gangs in New York or the wolves in the timber” (26). This illustrates that greasers believe that being in the gang, means you are brothers. When you start fighting and arguing with the people in your gang, you are not brothers anymore, you are acting like a Soc. The Socs brawl with other members, and dispute over many things. To a greaser, that is not how brothers in a gang should act against each other. Ponyboy has a big family, even if most of them are not related by blood. Ponyboy feels bad that Darry gave up everything so he could take care of Soda and him. Pony knows Darry could have had a better life and lived in a better neighborhood with a good job. “Darry didn‘t deserve to work like an old man when he was only twenty. He had been a real popular guy in school; he was captain of the football team and he had been voted Boy of the Year. But we just didn‘t have the money for him to go to college, even with the athletic scholarship he won. And now he didn‘t have time between jobs to even think about college. So he never went anywhere and never did anything anymore” (16). This proves that Pony knows that Darry has given up a lot for him. Ponyboy acknowledges and respects Darry for all he has done. It takes a long time, but Pony comes to realize that Darry does care for him. “Suddenly I realized, horrified, that Darry was crying. He didn‘t make a sound, but tears were running down his cheeks. I hadn‘t seen him cry in years, not even when Mom and Dad had been killed... In that second what Soda and Dally and Two-Bit had been trying to tell me came through. Darry did care about me, maybe as much as he cared about Soda, and because he cared he was trying too hard to make something of me” (98). “That was his silent fear then—of losing another person he loved” (98). This indicates that Pony realizes why Darry is so strict on him. Darry was hurt when his parents died, just like Soda and Pony were. Darry couldn't bare to be deprived of one more person that he cared for. All in all, the three brothers have come together in a time they needed each other the most. In conclusion, Ponyboy needs to stay with his brothers because his parents death was hard on him, and he needs to be with family. Both brothers are dedicated to ensure Ponyboy gets good grades and goes to college. All Darry and Soda want if for Pony to have future neither of them were able to have. The two older brothers will do anything for Ponyboy, and that is what family is. In the end, Darry, Sodapop, and Ponyboy have been through more than people go through in their whole life. They brothers can’t afford to lose each other after losing their parents. They need to stay together and take of each other in this hard time of their lives.
A choice made by Ponyboy affects Darry by making Darry think that Ponyboy doesn’t trust Darry or is not comfortable around him.”Where’s Soda?” I asked, and then I could have kicked myself.”Why can’t you talk to Darry, you idiot?”
Ponyboy has good grades and he likes to be on the track team and that keeps him in good health. In the end Ponyboy realizes that Darry cared about him as much as Sodapop. Darry is rough on Ponyboy because he want’s the best for him. Clearly Ponyboy does good in school and likes to do track and this keeps him in shape. All in all Ponyboy should stay with Darry because Darry tries too hard to keep Ponyboy in school so that he would have a better life. Darry has high expectations for Ponyboy and these expectations keep Ponyboy with good grades. Ponyboy also does track and this keeps him healthy and in shape. Ponyboy might be a star track runner. This is why Ponyboy should stay with
Conflicts are present in everyday life, whether they are at work, school, or at home. Some people may have worse conflicts than others depending on their environment and surroundings. In “The Outsiders” by S. E. Hinton, Ponyboy and his friends face many different types of conflicts because of who other people think they are and their position in society. They are from the East Side of New York and are called “greasers”, or poor, by the wealthier people. The characters in “The Outsiders” overcome conflicts that are out of their control, like “Man vs. Society”, “Man vs. Self” and “Man vs. Man”.
Can some people so different be so a like? Can some people so alike be so different? Dally and Johnny are those two who are so different, but yet they are similar. In the book S.E. Hinton writes The Outsiders, Johnny Cade and Dally Winston come from two completely different backgrounds, and have completely different scruples. Yet, at the same time they are alike. Dally and Johnny’s parents both repudiate them, making Johnny and Dally mentally tough, and the boys do not value their lives. At the same time though they are different, Dally is stronger than Johnny. Though, Johnny has a soft heart and Dally would not even pay any attention if someone is dying right next to him.
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
Ponyboy is attacked by stereotype threat several times throughout the book. One example is the beginning when he is jumped by four Socs“I about decided I didn’t like it so much ,though, when I spotted that red Corvair trailing me.” Hinton 4. Ponyboy was cornered by four Socs who proceeded to punch and beat up Ponyboy. The four kids only beat up Ponyboy because he is a Greaser and he is the enemy of their gang, the Socs. Beating up Ponyboy is what is expected of them. This shows that these Socs are trapped by stereotype because they embraced that stereotype and made it a part of their identity. Ponyboy does show signs of
They argued and fought a lot, and never had a good brotherly connection. After Ponyboy and Johnny ran away from home and saved the kids from the burning building, Ponyboy and his brothers were reunited at the hospital. Just then was it when Ponyboy realized how much he had missed not only Soda Pop, but Darry too. Ponyboy said "'Darry!' [he] screamed, and the next thing [ he] knew [ he] had him around the waist and was squeezing the daylights out of him."(page 98). After the two expressed and revealed their love for each other, they build a stronger brotherly relationship and grew closer as a
Ponyboy doesn’t act like any regular greaser who is tough and likes to pick fights. Ponyboy cares about other people and will do things to benefit others. “I didn’t know what he was talking about, so I just went on picking up the glass from the bottle end and put it in the trash can. I didn’t want anyone to get a flat tire.” (pg. 172) Instead of leaving the
He knows that Ponyboy has a chance because he is very smart. How they both reacted to not having parents shaped and effected who they are. “Johnny was high-strung anyway, a nervous wreck from getting belted every time he turned around and from hearing his parents fight all the time(2).” This explains how Johnny was effected by his parents. His parents constantly fighting and beating him made him who he was. A part of him was effected by all the chaos and pain he had to go through every day. “We're poorer than the Socs and the middle class. I reckon we're wilder, too. Not like the Socs, who jump greasers and wreck houses and throw beer blasts for kicks, and get editorials in the paper for being a public disgrace one day and an asset to society the next. Greasers are almost like hoods; we steal things and drive old souped-up cars and hold up gas stations and have a gang fight once in a while. I don't mean I do things like that. Darry would kill me if I got into trouble with the police.” Social roles are a part of self-image that makes a person who they are. In the novel Ponyboy explains the groups that the Greasers and Sochs were split into. This
How do animals survive in hostile environments? Do they sacrifice their lives for others of their kind, or do they sacrifice other members of their species for a chance to live? Sometimes, adapting to life may mean sacrificing your humanity and getting tough. For example, coming to somebody’s aid may seem like the brave, honourable thing to do, but it may end up costing you your life. The previous statement is an important theme in the novel titled The Outsiders. For two gangs, the Greasers and the Socs, humanity means different things. The Greasers are emotional and try their hardest to keep out of the west side of town, Soc territory, whereas Socs are always looking for trouble, robbing Greasers in their own territory. Most Greasers would
He is told “you’re too young” to be smoking by Jerry. Ponyboy doesn’t realise that he’s too young because he’s use to seeing all of his peers smoking, provoking him to think that it’s normal. Another example would be that all his mates had a reason to fight in the rumble, this caused him to wonde why he fought in the first place if it wasn’t for self defense. Sometimes the problem with having a peer group, can be that those around the individual can start to cause peer pressure.
(Hinton Pg 3) Ponyboy is saying that he wants to stay with his brothers and he deserves to, as long as he does not do anything stupid and gets caught when he shouldn’t be doing something. Pony really wants to stay with his family, but he has to go through major events to make sure that he is not going to get into enough trouble that he will get sent to a boys home. When the boys are all in the hospital, Darry says something extraordinary and completely out of the ordinary that is very captivating to the reader.
In the beginning of the book Ponyboy said, “Greasers can’t walk home alone too much or they’ll get jumped, or someone will come by and scream ‘Greaser’ at them, but I liked walking alone after movies” (Hinton, p. 2). Ponyboy was not afraid of walking home alone or of the Socs because he knew he had the gang and he was tough enough to act like he wasn’t scared of the Socs. Ponyboy is always smoking cigarettes even though he is only 14. “Jerry stared at me for a second. ‘You shouldn’t be smoking.’ I was startled. ’How come?’ Jerry stammered, ‘Uh you’re too young.’ ‘i am?’ Everyone in the neighborhood smoke, even the girls, smoked” (Hinton, p.97). This shows that he breaks rules whether he wants to or not he does what makes him tough in the
He lives with his two older brothers, Sodapop and Darry, and on occasion, he hangs out with the Greasers (Johnny, Dally, Two-Bit, etc.) Along with the gang, Ponyboy must compete with the consequences of their violent lifestyle. S.E Hinton wrote The Outsiders, a realistic fiction story, although the story is written by a teenager who touches every person who reads it, because the emotions and struggles the character face are universal.
Ever since their parents died the Curtis boys have been living on their own. “Since Mom and Dad killed in an auto wreck, the three of us get to stay together only as long as we behave.”(pg 6) This is proof that Ponyboy should not be taken away because this says that Darry and Sodapop loves Ponyboy a lot and cares about Ponyboy. “Listen kiddo, when Darry hollers at you… he don’t mean nothin’. He just got more worries than somebody his age ought to. Don’t take him serious… you dig Pony? Don’t let him bug you. He’s really proud of you ‘cause you’re so brainy. It’s just because you’re the baby-I mean, he loves you a lot Savvy?”(pg 18) Most people Ponyboy should stay with Darry because he cares about Ponyboy and he is a good guardian. The other