Honor In The Outsiders Essay

Honor is shown in real life everyday. Sometimes it’s shown when you do something really great in your community, or it can even be shown when you get an important award in school. The Outsiders is a book written by S.E. Hinton and is about about a couple of social gangs called the Greasers and the Socials with many conflicts between the two. Throughout the story there are examples of honor when one of the characters does something amazing and dishonor when one gang tries to dishonor the other. Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing is a play about love and tragedy. Honor is shown throughout the play by the use of dishonor. The villain Don Jon makes up a rumor about how Hero who is the bride dishonored her husband. Claudio who is the husband freaks

out on Hero and doesn’t want to marry her anymore. Then she fakes her death and Hero’s dad Leonato tricks Claudio into marrying her again, because they find out the rumors were all fake. The poem Charge of The Light Brigade written by Alfred Tennyson is a poem about the Crimean War. The Crimean War took place in the 1850’s. The Russian Empire was defeated by an army of British and Sardinian soldiers even though the Russians had many more soldiers than the British alliance. When the British leader makes a mistake going into the war the warriors don’t question him. They still go on and fight, although they are greatly outnumbered by the Russians. The authors in Much Ado About Nothing, The Charge of the Light Brigade, and The Outsiders incorporate the use of dishonor and honor to develop the theme.
The author of The Outsiders and The Charge of the Light Brigade use honor to develop their themes in each story.

Most importantly, in The Outsiders the author shows how at the end of the story Johnny, Dally and Ponyboy were honored for saving the kids in the church. At the end of the story the newswriters write articles honoring Johnny. The writers said that Johnny was “sent from heaven.” Also at the end Johnny says that saving the children was worth dying because he said that their lives were more important than his, and he felt honored to save them. Similarly, in The Charge of The Light Brigade the warriors died accomplishing something important. In the poem,it says how at the end the warriors were honored because of their courageous effort to defeat the Russian even though they were greatly outnumbered. The poem says, “Honour the charge they made!” That line shows how the warriors were honored because of their charge on the Russians. Another reason they were honored is because they knew their leader made a mistake, but they were determined to accomplish something important, even if it meant dying. This can be see in these famous lines, “Someone had blundered. Theirs not to make reply Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die.” Lastly, honor is shown in The Outsiders when the Greasers beat the Socials in the rumble. The Greasers and the Socials are very big rivals and when they win the rumble, all of the Greasers are honored because they finally show the Socials

who’s boss. The essay that Ponyboy wrote, which is the actual story, honors his friends Dally and Johnny who died. Ponyboy is able to honor them by telling the reader what courageous things they did and the contributions they made.
The authors in The Outsiders and Much Ado about Nothing develop a theme of honor by showing how bad dishonor.

Most importantly, we can see how important honor is whenever Leonato and Claudio hear the rumor about Hero dihononing Claudio. During Shakespeare’s time a woman dishonoring or cheating on a man was just about the worst thing you could do. That is why Shakespeare makes such a big deal about how Claudio gets dishonored. By him showing Leonato and Claudio abusing Hero when the find out about the rumor, the reader can see how important honor really was especially to the men at that time. Another scene where you could see the importance of honor was when Beatrice asks Benedick to kill Claudio for publicly humiliating Hero. Claudio basically ruined Hero’s life by exposing her in front of everyone, so Beatrice wanted Claudio’s life to be ruined by him getting killed. Also, honor is shown through the use of dishonor with the events of the plot in Much Ado About Nothing. In each event of the plot they have to do with the theme of dishonor. The largest conflict and the climax of the plot revolves around the use of dishonor. By Shakespeare using dishonor in every aspect of the plot, he is easily able to develop the theme. The turning point of the story is actually when the rumor of Hero dishonoring Claudio goes around, and when this goes around every event from then on has to do with resolving the conflict of dishonor. Lastly, the use of honor can be seen as the theme with the

use of dishonor in The Outsiders. The Socials try to dishonor the Greasers by making fun of them, bullying them, and always jumping them. It wasn’t until the very end when the Greasers were honored to be that way because that is what made them special. At the end of the story they realize that that’s what makes them special, and by the Socials dishonoring them it just made them realize even more that that’s what they felt honored for. They are honored for having greasy hair, not being rich and just being a part of the Greasers. As can be seen, the use of dishonor shows how honor is the theme in those stories.
The authors in Much Ado About Nothing, The Charge of the Light Brigade, and The Outsiders incorporate the use of dishonor and honor to develop the theme. Honor is shown as a theme in The Outsiders when Johnny felt honored to have saved the kids from the church. Honor is also shown with how Ponyboy writes the story to memorate what all of his friends did in their lives. Honor is also shown in The Charge of The Light Brigade when the warriors kept fighting even when they know their leader made a mistake. They are honored because they died accomplishing something important even when they knew someone made a mistake. Honor is shown through the use of dishonor in Much ado About Nothing. Dishonor is shown whenever Don John makes up the rumor about Hero dishonoring Claudio, and it incorporates to the main conflict and climax. So just think whenever you win an important award or do something good in your community how good you feel and think how good the characters in the story felt to be honored.