The Outsiders is a book, written by S.E. Hinton set in the 1960s in the town of Tulsa, Oklahoma. In the story there are two rival gangs, the Socs and the Greasers. The Socs are a gang of rich west side kids and the Greasers are a gang of poor west side kids. Ponyboy, a fourteen year old, super smart, and athletic boy is stuck in the middle of the conflict between the Greasers and the Socs. Ponyboy lives with his two older brothers in one of the poorer neighborhoods. Pony goes through many troubles that many kids should not face, like being beat up by kids much bigger and older and having to always be worried about being put into a boys home away from him family. Through these events, Ponyboy changes from being a kid mentally to an adult who …show more content…
has grown out of childish ways. In the beginning of the book, Pony is a happy, content kid who couldn't want his life to be much different.
Besides losing his parent in a car accident and the trouble with Socs, Pony likes his life. Pony is in high school when he should be in middle school and loves doing his school work. He excels and is smarter than many other kids and has his family's support through it all. Pony likes to hang out with the older Greasers and they treat him like he is an older kid. They let Pony do everything with them like fight, throw party's, smoke (even though he is way to young,) and just hang. The Greasers also always stick up for him. In the beginning of the …show more content…
book, Rudder 2 Pony is walking home from the movies when he gets jumped. The other Greasers are not far behind the Socs who jumped him and they chase the Socs away and save Ponyboy (pg. 4-6). Pony loves his family especially his brother Soda. They take care of Pony and want the best for him even though Darry, his older brother, yells at him sometimes. Pony has a pretty decent life in the beginning of the book. In the middle of the book, things start getting rough. One night Pony and Johnny, another Greaser, were walking home from a movie when they stopped in an empty lot and fell asleep. Pony woke up at about two in the morning and rushed home because he was way past curfew. Pony walked in the door and almost instantly, Darry was yelling at him, “Where the heck have you been! Do you know what time it is?” (pg. 49-50). Ponyboy said that Darry was madder than he had seen him in a long time. Sodapop tried to get Darry to calm down and Darry told him to shut up. That made Pony mad. He told Darry not to yell at Soda and Darry turned around and slapped Pony in the face. Pony ran out of the house, to the lot to get Johnny, and to the park. At the park, things did not get any better. A group of drunk Socs come around to pick a fight on Johnny and Ponyboy. They grab Pony and dunk him in the fountain at the center of the park. They almost drowned him when Johnny snuck up behind a Socs and killed him with a knife. Pony and Johnny are now on the run. They go to a fellow Greaser for help and he tells them to leave town. Ponyboy is now scared for his life and has been abused by his own brother. In the end of the book, Pony changes dramatically from a juvenile delinquent to a hero who understands what life is about and how to live it. Pony and Johnny end up in in abandoned church. The only things they have to do are read and play cards. Through that, Pony has time to Rudder 3 get to know Johnny better.
Pony starts to understand, through talking to Johnny and learning about his life, he has it better off than some people. A few days later, Dally, the Greaser who helped them, shows up at the church. He takes Johnny and Pony to a Dairy Queen to get a bite to eat. On their way back from the Dairy Queen, the boys notice that the church is on fire. Pony and Johnny instantly jump out of the car after they hear the screams of some children inside. They rush into the church and run to the back rooms to rescue the children. When the last of the kids are out, a burning timber crashes down into Johnny. They rush him to the hospital in a very bad condition. A few days later, when Johnny is about to die, Johnny tells Ponyboy that it was worth saving the kids and that everyone has a purpose in life no matter how bad it is. Johnny said that his purpose may have been saving those kids, but Pony should keep living life to its fullest. Johnny dies not long after. Pony can't get over his death and the fact that Pony thinks it was his fault. Pony ends up not wanting to “chill” and mess around with his other Greasers. He stops wanting to do his best at his school work and just sit around. The child in Ponyboy is gone. It went with Johnny. Ponyboy is no longer scared of the Socs or fighting. At the end of the book, some Socs come up to him and threaten him. Pony breaks off the end of his bottle and chases them away (pg. 171). Pony is now a man who will stick up for
himself and not goof around. As you can see, Pony changes in many ways. He goes from being a young kid who plays around to a hero and then to an adult who has made it through some of the hardest parts of life. Pony realizes that there is still good in the world and he has so much to live for. How have you changed in your life? Are they good or bad changes?
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.
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.
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
His parents died when he was young. He was nurtured by his older brothers. Pony has to struggle at the bottom of the social ladder. Like the people around him, he has to fight, steal and scare little kids. However, Pony remained a pure heart, a golden heart. He only fights when he has to defend himself. He kept his heart of sympathy, understanding of others and think for the others. Like in when the church was burned, he understands the situation of the teacher and children. So he risked his life to safe the kids. The most straight forward example and conclusion of Pony’s good heart is the word of Johnny, “Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold…” 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 hero.
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
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…
The Outsiders was written by Susan Eloise Hinton. It is one of her most popular books about foolish gang rivalry existing between the Socs, the rich kids from the west side of town, and the Greasers, the poor kids from the east side.
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.
The Outsiders is about the life of a 14-year-old boy. The book tells the story of Ponyboy “Curtis” and his struggles with right and wrong in a society in which he believes that he is an outsider. Ponyboy and his two brothers, Darrel (Darry), who is 20, and Sodapop, who is 16, have recently lost their parents in an automobile accident. Pony and Soda are allowed to stay under Darry's guardianship as long as they all behave themselves. The boys are greasers, a class term that refers to the young men on the East Side, the poor side of town. The greasers' rivals are the Socs, short for Socials, who are the "West-side rich kids."
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
Leaving the greasers behind was not an easy choice, but Ponyboy’s willingness to sacrifice led him to realize this was the right choice to make to help Johnny. This is shown when Ponyboy says, "We gotta get outta here. Get somewhere. Runaway...” (Hinton 50). Ponyboy’s clearly struggling with the consequences of leaving and his fear of the police possible catching them, but he has to sacrifice staying and run away so they do not get caught despite leaving the greasers behind. Ponyboy later rethinks his choice when he says, I was beginning to relax and wonder if running away was such a great idea,” (Hinton 46). Even Tho Ponyboy thought the choice of running away as a bad idea he still stayed with his friend, therefore, showing ponyboys willingness to