When living sometimes we are faced with difficult decisions that affect our friendships. If you knew you were in a jam, what would you do? Who would you run to? Despite the greasers’ reputation as heartless young criminals, they live by a specific code of friendship and honour. In the novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, there are many instances in which the gang members make selfless choices by putting the needs of others ahead of their own. Three examples are, when the gang has each other’s back, Johnny and Ponyboy’s friendship, and Dally risking his life for Johnny. In the novel, the gang constantly shows readers how they have one another’s back. A reputable example of this is when Ponyboy was walking home from the movies and he got jumped …show more content…
by a group of Socs. “I could have gotten one of the gang to come along, one of the four boys Darry and Soda and I have grown up and consider family. We’re almost as close as brothers; when you grow up in a tight knit neighborhood like ours you get to know each other real well” (Hinton, 6). This shows the true relationship of the gang. As soon as the gang heard Ponyboy scream out their names they instantly ran to his rescue and chased away the group of Socs. By doing this the gang represents perfectly how making selfless choices that benefit others needs before their own may change their lives as well as the lives of others around them. It also represents the specific code of honor and friendship that the live by. A second example of friendship and honour is Johnny and Ponyboy’s friendship.
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
between their gang members and the characters in the book. The third and final example is when Dally risks his life for Johnny. This occurs close to the middle of the novel and it is a very important part. It was close to after Johnny had killed the Soc. What had happened was after Johnny committed the murder they ran to Dally because Johnny’s role model was Dally. In Johnny’s opinion he was a gallant knight. At times it may not have seemed like he truly was gallant and it really depended on what definition a person may look at, but if they took a moment they could see that Dally cared about Johnny more then he cared about anyone. Dally did not have a good life growing up just like Johnny. Dally was tossed in and out of juvey and jail and so on. He had no parental figure to support him or to give him the love and care he needed, so he turned to violence as the answer. Another reason why the ran to get Dally’s help out of all of the other members was because he had spent time in jail and juvey and so he would know what they should do in this type of situation. What dally did to help them was he gave Ponyboy a dry shirt and he gave the two boys money and a gun. Dally was also the one that instructed them to go to Jay Mountain and told them every step to get there. Dally and Johnny’s friendship was unique to say the least but if they hadn’t both have shared that friendship they would have died lost. In conclusion, the characters in The Outsiders by S.E Hinton have a strong friendship even after everything that they went through in this book. The gang helped Ponyboy before he could have been beaten badly, Johnny and Ponyboy’s friendship grew stronger before Johnny died, and Dally helped Johnny but was also a huge role model to him. All of these instances shows us about that specific code of friendship and honour that the greasers live by. Think about a time a time when you were in trouble and your friends stood by your side and helped you through. How has that made and impact on your life and, more importantly, do you think that it had any effect on their life?
He is smart, and gets good grades in school. This is purposefully mentioned several times within the story, and people tend to be surprised to learn that he is a Greaser. In addition, some Greasers are nicer than people tend to think. When the church burned down, Ponyboy and Johnny run in to save the children without a second thought. They acted with selflessness, putting the safety of the children above their own. In the ambulance on the way to the hospital, Ponyboy is asked if he and Johnny are "professional heroes". He responds by telling the entire story of how they're Greasers and Johnny is wanted for murder, shocking the man in the ambulance. It is difficult for him to believe that a group of Greasers would do something so heroic. Johnny dies as a direct result of their actions, but neither Ponyboy nor Johnny regretted what they
Showing that Ponyboy was very inexperienced and thought Mickey Mouse Sodas horse was just like Soda and they were brothers.Thirdly, we see how some actions Ponyboy’s gang does help show the need for childhood innocence like when pony says,” Darrel, who we call Darry, works too long and hard to be interested in a story or drawing a picture,” (Hinton 3). Darry is only 20 and he has a job working on roofs he works so hard so he can care for his brothers Soda and Ponyboy he has no time to be a kid himself he is working like a man when he is only a child.While some believe the main theme is brotherly love I argue its preserving childhood innocence. While this is a good point, because Ponyboy’s group definitely sticks up for one another in a brotherly fashion, it lays a strong foundation for preserving childhood innocence. Jonny had never been a coward he was a good man in a rumble, (Hinton 34) this shows how has Johnny loses his innocence, he becomes fearful of the Soc’s and begins to carry a switchblade to keep his gang safe, you might think this shows brotherly love, but it also shows preserving childhood innocence because when Johnny got used to being targeted by the Soc’s he lost his innocence, that’s why he would carry stuff like switch blades to keep him and others safe from the Soc’s. While the Greasers grew up they lost more and more of their innocence to rumbles and hatred of the Soc’s.
Dally did something to save one of his gang members too. It was Dally who pulled Johnny out from the burning church. Johnny would have died instantly if Dally did not get Johnny out of the church. When Dally was shot, Ponyboy remembered the things Dally had done for them.
They go to a park and get jumped by a gang of Socs they had conflict with earlier that day. Ponyboy is held under the water of a fountain and to save his friend, uncharacteristically, Johnny stabs the leader, Bob, with a knife. Bob ultimately ends up dying right there next to the fountain. To escape the police, they run away to an old abandoned church with the help from Dally, another in their gang. They spend days there with only baloney, cards, and a copy of Gone with the Wind. Ponyboy says, “The next four days were the longest days of my life” (75). They both had to sleep on the hard, stone floor (67) with no blankets. When they ran away, it insists that they believed they had no choice and soon realized what a ghastly experience it would be. Spending their days on repeat, doing the same thing, eating the same thing, can become redundant. For them it was hard to stay inside the church even though fear kept them
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
Moreover, Ponyboy is a thinker. He can think for the opposite side of his gang, the Socs. Although the Socs almost drowned him, he can still understand the Socs and didn’t be blinded by the hate. He in the chaos and impulsive world can see through the surface of the conflict and see the core of the world that people are the same. That is really amazing and Ponyboy does have the board mind of a
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.
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
One of the prevalent themes in The Outsiders is loyalty to oneself and others. Loyalty is everything for the Greasers. Whether it was right or wrong,
In the book The Outsiders, written by S.E. Hinton, Ponyboy, along with his brothers and friends, has to face the daily struggles of being a greaser among the Socs. This fiction book focused on Ponyboy’s life and the problems he ran into with the Socs. He and his gang of friends had fights with the Socs that happened often, and had to deal with a Soc being killed by one of the Greasers, though it was an act of self defense. The three topics addressed in this intriguing novel are the fight between rich and poor, the power of friendship, and what it means to be a hero.
In The Outsiders it is given that through faith and devotion to one another Ponyboy and the gang use their close friendship in troublesome situations for instance when Johnny tells Ponyboy “i had to” he does this as an act of loyalty to Ponyboy to show him that he can trust him no matter what situation they are in.Most of the story is told from first person or Ponies perspective which shows us without exception every aspect of the story. When Johnny dies at the end of the book Ponyboy only then realizes the importance of him, and the gangs need for someone like Johnny to give them a sense of purpose after mentioning “we couldn't get along without him . We needed Johnny as much as he needed the gang.” Throughout all of Ponyboys hardships Johnny was always there to support him even when Ponyboy wanted to run away after darry slapped him, he never asked any questions.To keep a strong friendship you need to stay loyal to one another just as much as Ponyboy and his brothers stay loyal to each other after stating in chapter twelve “If we don’t have each other, we don’t have anything.” Through passionate tone used by Sodapop throughout this quote we are shown that after everything they have been through that they trust each other and that staying together is all
“You take up for your 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 anymore. It's a pack. A snarling, distrustful, bickering park like the Socs in their social clubs or the street gangs in New York or the wolves in the timber.”- Ponyboy (chapter 2 page 26) The quote previously mentioned is from a novel called The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, which tells the story of conflict between the "greasers" and the "Socs." The Outsiders describes a young 14-year-old boy, Ponyboy Curtis, who grows up in the poor side of town with his two older brothers Darry and Sodapop Curtis. Ponyboy is a part hood group called “greasers” and for as long as he can remember the greasers have been at odds with the Socs, a group of kids from wealthy families. When greasers Ponyboy Curtis and Johnny
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…
Everybody, at one point or another, has done something for a friend or a group of friends that might have been inconsistent to their values. They might have lied to one friend for another, making them feel uncomfortable, or help them cheat on a test, which they wouldn’t ever have imagined him/herself doing. People in the book, The Outsiders, by S. E. Hinton, struggle in the theme that loyalty to friends can prevent individuals from showing their truest self.
Johnny's last words were "Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold..." Johnny meant these words even if they were his last. I believe this gave Johnny a way to say thank you to Ponyboy for being a great friend along with stay who you are because how good of a person Ponyboy was.The way they always got along and had many things in common. Also how they were always together no matter what the situation. For example Bob's death. So I think Johnny felt a real connection with Ponyboy especially out of everyone. In the text it states, “I barely heard him. I came closer and leaned over to hear what he was going to say.” To me I look at this and think out of everything Johnny could have said he chose to say that to Johnny. So this shows that Johnny really wanted