At one point in a person’s life, they will feel like an outsider. Everyone has experienced feeling this way.In The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton displays two characters that truly experience being different from the rest of the group. Ponyboy and Johnny are both greasers (people that are more poor) and are in the same gang. They both feel out of place at different times, disconnected even. Through the characters Ponyboy and Johnny, Hinton reveals to readers what it genuinely means to be an outsider. 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 …show more content…
was demanding a lot from Ponyboy - who is only fourteen - and they often get into big fights about how Pony is not being responsible or thinking things through. Although Darry just wants him to succeed, Pony doesn’t realize this and assumes that Darry hates him. He doesn’t feel related to Darry, and thinks that Darry just wants to kick him out. He feels as if he is not a part of his family, and that he doesn’t belong with his oldest brother. He doesn’t feel loved by Darry, who has taken on a fatherly role as he is now the caretaker of his two younger brothers. Ponyboy can’t help but feel like an outsider even in his own family. While Ponyboy has a rough relationship with his brother, his home is perfect compared to Johnny’s home life. Johnny has a father who beats him constantly, and a mother who is a drunk, and ignores him besides the times she verbally abuses him. Even though Johnny is merely sixteen, he has to deal with parents who are abusive, and don’t care for him. Johnny’s mother would often yell at him, and sometimes it was so bad that Johnny, “... hated that worse than getting whipped… he would have run away a million times… If it hadn’t been for the gang…” (12 Hinton). Johnny doesn’t have anyone in his family that he can trust or relate to. He can’t talk to his mother or father about things that he needs to because if he tries to, they will beat and scream at him for things that he supposedly has done wrong, and how he was such a disappointment. He never felt a connection with his own family, and he had to rely on the gang for family. He doesn’t feel a strong connection with his own family, and even though he tries to put up with his parents, He experiences being the odd one out of the group first hand through his excruciating home experience. Johnny and Ponyboy don’t feel connected to their family, but they also feel like an outsider in their own gang. Johnny accidentally kills someone to save Pony’s life, so the two of them run away to Windrixville, a small town far away. They find an abandoned church to hide out in. They both woke up early one morning and saw a sunrise together, and Pony recites a beautiful poem to Johnny. They talk about the beauty of the sunrise and the poem by Robert Frost when Ponyboy says, “‘...you ain’t like any of the gang … I couldn’t tell Two-Bit or Steve or even Darry about the sunrise and clouds and stuff” (Hinton 78). Friends are like your chosen family, and since Johnny and Pony don’t relate with their family at times, one would think that they would choose friends that they could talk to and connect with, yet Pony just talked about how they both are different from the rest of the gang, and how he couldn’t talk about certain things to them. He recognizes that even in their own gang, they are both outsiders. How even though they are together and united by being in the same gang, he and Johnny are separated from them on an emotional level. They both interpret things more, and put an emotional attachment to it, such as the poem. They are both different from their friends because although they all support each other, Johnny and Pony are the only ones who emotionally connect themselves, and think about things such as poems in such a complicated way. Members of the gang think of Pony not like themselves, but almost as an innocent child, but not innocent in the way that he hasn’t seen things, innocent in the way that he hasn’t been turned cold by the world yet.
Johnny dies from rescuing kids from the burning church that used to be their hideout. After this happens a group of rich kids jump out of their car and threaten Pony. Ponyboy breaks the end off of his soda bottle, and threatens to cut them up. Pony realizes how aghast Two-Bit - a member of the gang - is at his actions, and Two bit tells him, “Ponyboy, listen, don’t get tough. You’re not like the rest of us and don’t try to be” (Hinton 171). Two-Bit wouldn’t have cared if anyone else had threatened to cut up someone, but when Ponyboy does, Two-Bit is aghast, and tells him off. He tells Pony that he isn’t like the rest of the gang, and hints that he doesn’t want him to be. Even the gang knows how different Ponyboy is from the rest of them, and they almost become like older brothers to Ponyboy in the way that they protect him. They are all reckless and carefree, but they know Pony well enough to know that he’s not like that. He is quieter, and his experiences of his parent’s and various friend’s deaths has not turned him cold yet. The gang knows this, and they want him to stay that way: good and
pure. Many people are an outsider at one time or another in their life. Hinton reveals the meaning of what it means to be an outsider and how people can feel separated from things in different ways. These two characters embody the true meaning of being an outsider. Readers everywhere connect with the book because they too have felt separated from the world. Hinton uses the characters Johnny and Ponyboy to show readers what it truly means to be an outsider.
Poney does not want to be in a boys home, due to his parents death all three boys should be in a boys home. He mentions both in the book and the movie he has to be careful with getting into huge trouble because if the cops found him they would put him in a boys home since he has no parent. Cherry is very kind hearted in both the movies she tells Ponyboy about how you can’t assume if one person from this group is like that, then that must mean everyone else there is the same. She finds a way to figure someone out, if they are a certain way it's because of their past because they've gone through tough stuff she says “Things are rough all over”(S.E. Hinton). In both Cherry spills soda on Dally for trying to hit on her and tells him “get lost hood” (S.E. Hinton), but then tells Pony that if she sees Dally she's afraid she will fall for him, because she sees the good in him. Poney boy also talks to Johnny about the poem Nothing Gold Can Stay in both while watching the sunset about losing your innocence and views in life. When Johnny passes away he tells Ponyboy Stay
A very important comparison Dally and Johnny have is their parents. Johnny’s parents do not care about him. Johnny parents fight or just ignore each other. Ponyboy says,
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.
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
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 put through. Yet he stands on his ground.
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
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
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.
“Since Mom and Dad were killed in an auto wreck, the three of us get to stay together only as long as we behave (2).” This explains why Ponyboy, Dally and Sodapop did not have parents. In the novel, this really effected their life and character. "…It was Darry. He hit me. I don't know what happened, but I couldn't take him hollering at me and hitting me too... He didn't use to be like that... we used to get along okay... before Mom and Dad died. Now he just can't stand me (2)." This shows that not having their parents anymore effected Darry’s character and how he treated Ponyboy, which in return effected how Ponyboy felt about himself in comparison to how he was treated. This illustrates that Ponyboy believes that Darry picks on him all the time. This shows that Darry was like a caring parent in a tough way,
2. The title of this book relates to the story, because in the book, Ponyboy and Johnny are “outsiders.” They can be thought of as Outsiders because they are labeled Greasers although they do not act like hoodlums, like the rest of the Greasers. They are thought of as Greasers just because they live on the East Side of town, and because they slick back their hair. But Ponyboy and Johnny are different then all of the other Greasers because they show their emotions, and are sensitive.
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.
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…
Ponyboy Curtis struggles growing up as a poor youth with his two brothers. One night while he is out with Johnny, Ponyboy is attacked by the Socs. Johnny ends up killing one of the Socs. They both flee from the scene before the news gets out. They are caught in a fire and Johnny and Ponyboy become heroes for saving some children. The story has a tragic end for Johnny but Ponyboy realises that he is fortunate, having family and friends that love him
The Outsiders written by S.E. Hinton is a book about two different groups that don’t get along, the Socs and the Greasers. The two unions may act like they are tough and have no emotion on the outside, but on the inside, they are full with feelings and are very caring people. After Johnny was hurt, Ponyboy says to himself “A pain was growing in my throat and I wanted to cry, but greasers don’t cry in front of strangers”(Hinton 102). The 2 social classes may put on a front in public, but deep inside they care about others and have
This started to happen when he was in the church trying to hide away from the police because of the murder of one of the Soc’s. “I was trembling, and it wasn’t all from cold” (Hilton p.57). This shows that Ponyboy was scared, starting to break, and noticed that maybe this “hard bad boy” life isn't for him. Ponyboy put more and more thought about what it takes to be a greaser, which made him realize that maybe the gang life wasn’t good for him. “We were good fighters and could play cool, but we were sensitive and that isn’t a good way to be when you’re a greaser” (Hinton, p.88). Ponyboy is expressing that it is hard to be as strong as the other boys and sometimes he just couldn't or he couldn't be ok with what they were doing. “It drives my brother Darry nuts when I do stuff like that, ‘cause I’m supposed to be smart’ I make good grades and have a high IQ and everything, but I don't use my head” (Hinton, p.4). Ponyboy knows he has the potential to be something else and while being in hiding in the church it helps him realize that if he really wanted to he could be whatever he puts his mind