" The Outsiders " At the start of the novel a main event that starts his change is when he is walking home from the movies he is thinking about the differences between Socs and Greasers, while hoping he doesn’t get jumped walking home all alone. A red Covair is following him and then Socs get out and surround Ponyboy. They cut him a couple times and threaten to kill him. “How’d you like that haircut to begin just below the chin?” Ponyboy isn’t sure if he is gonna live until The Socs run off and Darry picks him up. “I’m okay. Quit shaking me, Darry, I’m okay.” This is the first major experience that starts the major change in Ponyboys personality. He is still a bit shy and wanting a different life to the typical Greaser lifestyle and is hoping he can get out of it and do what he likes without all the violence like what he had just experienced. To show that Ponyboys first apperance is a shy and scared one. His life starts to change from this part on, so does his opinion on life. ln the middle of the novel, he goes through another big event that effects his personality. This change is a very important part as it changes the way Ponyboy and Johnny look at life. When Johnny and Ponyboy are at a fountain in a park and a blue mustang approaches them. A bunch of socs get our and one of them is the one that hurt Johnny …show more content…
Ponyboy one of the main characters experiences one of the most life changing events that shapes his character from being shy, kind, and confused about life to being confident, less afraid, wiser and many other different qualities. That you should be able to choose who you want to be. Ponyboy starts off as a young kid being brought up in the life of a typical greaser. More so towards the middle of the novel he experiences some dramatic events that starts shaping and changing his personality as he has new opinions on life. By the end he is a changed man and has a larger understanding of
First, the beginnings are quite different. In the book, the story begins with Ponyboy leaving the theater, thinking to himself while walking home. He chose to walk alone, which in this story, is beyond being a bad idea! This results in Ponyboy getting jumped by the wealthier kids, known as the “Soc's”.
Ponyboy was a bad kid, he fought against Socs and he even smoked a weed, which is a cigarette. Later on he got into worse trouble and had to hide. He wanted to change and be a different person. While he hid he was scared and frightened and was beginning to think of how he was doing in life, and his thoughts were not very well. After the church incident, he began to change a little.
In chapter one we are introduced to our narrator, Ponyboy. Ponyboy is raised by his two older brothers Darry and Soda. They’re all apart of a gang called the “greasers” which is joined by Dally, Johnny, Two-bit, and Steve. There is another group called “ socs” which stands for socials, and everyone in that group is very wealthy. One day Ponyboy got jumped by a socs group, but luckily Darry was there to help before anything too serious happened. The first element of literature is characterization. Ponyboy is a keen observer, trying to make sense of the complexities of those around him. At the beginning of the story, he stops and spends several pages giving us brief character description on Steve, Two-Bit, Dally, and Johnny. This is also known as direct characterization. He tells us that Steve is "cocky and smart" ( Hinton 9). Two-Bit can 't stop joking around and goes to school for "kicks" (Hinton 10) rather than to learn. Dallas, he says, is "tougher, colder, meaner" ( Hinton 10) than the rest of them.
Her early leafs a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, so dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay,”” (Hinton 77) S.E. Hinton use this to show that you’re innocent when you’re a child and everything is new and when you get used to everything it’s like old. Getting close to the end of the book Johnny is dying so he sends Ponyboy a letter in his book “Gone with the Wind” telling Ponyboy not to change how he acts and not to grow up.Then, at the middle of the story the readers see the difference in characterization in Ponyboy and the rest of his gang after pony said “nobody in our gang digs movies and books the way I do,” (Hinton 3). In these lines, we see how Ponyboy is the only one in their gang that wants to read and doesn’t find it dumb or hard to understand. Ponyboy also said “when I was
By looking at the incidents happened around Ponyboy and the changes of Ponyboy’s attitudes towards reality, we can see that Ponyboy has matured and learned the essence of solving problems, which most readers don’t see; this is important because it reveals the relationship between dreams and reality, that is cocooning from the world is not going to solve any problems, instead, only through facing the reality could we regain lost courage and break the obstacles.
the beginning of the book chapter 1 Ponyboy went to the movies alone on the way home some greasers jump him and in the right moment his group members save him from getting beat.
Ponyboy talks about him as having ", an elfish face with high cheekbones and a pointed chin, small, sharp animal teeth, and ears like a lynx. His hair was so blond, and he didn't like haircuts, or hair oil either, so it fell over his forehead in wisps and kicked out in the back in tufts and curled behind his ears and along the nape of his neck. His eyes were blue, blazing ice, cold with a hatred of the whole world. “He works as a jockey, and funnily doesn't rig his races; it's "the only thing Dally did honestly." Even though he is only seventeen years old, "the fight for self-preservation had hardened him beyond caring." He set the stereotype for the greasers its scary to the others how scary he is. In the events when Johnny killed Bob dally helped out the boys and gifted them one handgun and $100. Ponyboy realizes the truth after Johnny's death. When he tries to make sense of Dally's reaction to Johnny's death, it dawns on him, "Johnny was the only thing that Dally
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 be put through. Yet he stands his ground.
You don’t often think of heroism when you think of Greasers, but there are a few exceptions. I think that the character I have picked are very heroic, brave, and just overall great people.
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
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
After the church fire Ponyboy comes to the realization of many things. Two-Bit and Ponyboy are eating at a restaurant known as Tasty Freeze when Randy asks to speak with him. Ponyboy tells Randy, ¨Maybe you would have done the same thing, maybe a friend of yours wouldn’t have. It’s the individual¨(115). He finds out that you cannot define someone based on of they are part of the Socs or the greasers. Furthermore, he finds out that every one is a individual and that means that just because he is a part of a certain group it does not mean that they are all going to react or perceive a situation in the same exact way. In addition, he say this to Randy because when there was a fire in the church Dally was not willing to risk his life to save someone else's when Johnny and Ponyboy were more than willing to help the kids. This shows event shows how all Greasers and Socs are not the same. In the beginning of the novel Ponyboy believed Darry disliked him and thought he was a nuisance. However, later on at the hospital Ponyboy tells Darry, “I’m sorry” (98). Ponyboy’s words expose how he feels bad for thinking Darry disliked him all along when in truth he loved him more than words could describe. He realizes that Darry fears losing another family member that is why he is so overprotective of Ponyboy. Hence, proving Ponyboy is clearly a dynamic character.
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
He realizes that he had an identity that he can communicate and be like a greaser, but doesn’t devote to the greaser way of life. In the scene, Ponyboy has an advanced way of life that includes both the Soc and greaser style, “Socs are just guys after all...Thing are rough all over.” Ponyboy at this time, understands how a Soc and a Greaser are similar and are of the same kind, human, yet are also different. He establishes an idea that the identity of a person is important because it describes who you are. As a result, Pony learns to look between the lines of people, not just at the extremes. The evidence that supports this is also “On the Sidewalk Bleeding” as I stated before. Andy says, “I’m Andy, he screamed wordlessly, I’m Andy.” When Andy’s death was coming close, the only thing we wanted in the end, was an identity. Similar to Ponyboy who is different from the gang and has a distinct personality. He is disparate because in the gang, Pony was the only one who ever thought about the sky, clouds, and books, which proves him exclusively in the group. This proves that Andy and Ponyboy are different from their gang and have a personality different from the group, and they both actually want to be different and be known not as a Royal or a Greaser, but as Andy and