The Three Deaths in Hinton's The Outsiders

During the course of the novel “The Outsiders” there are three linked deaths that change the relationships between the Curtis brothers in many different ways. The soc, Bob Sheldon, dies first. When Ponyboy and Johnny flee after Darry hit Ponyboy they run into their rivals Bob and his best friend Randy Adderson. Bob takes Ponyboy and starts drowning him until Johnny gets his switchblade out and kills Bob. After this, Johnny dies. Dally (a greaser with a criminal record) sends Ponyboy and Johnny to an abandoned church so they can hide after what they did. When they go to leave after a few days, the church catches on fire with a few elementary school kids trapped inside, so they go into the church to save them. When Johnny gets the last kid out, a piece of the roof falls on his back, breaking it. The last death is Dally. After Johnny dies, Dally goes crazy and robs a store. The police chase him and shoot him down because he pulled out a gun at them. As you can see at the beginning of the novel, the brothers are constantly getting into arguments about stupid little things, but after Darry hits Ponyboy, things change. After these deaths, Ponyboy’s grades start dropping and he starts to lose sight of himself. Him and Darry get into many more arguments until Sodapop Curtis tells them to promise to stop arguing because it’s tearing him apart. They both agree and it makes their relationship really strong at the end of the novel. Although the Curtis brothers do not have a close relationship at the beginning of the novel, after experiencing the deaths of Bob, Johnny, and Dally, it makes their relationship stronger.

The first death that occurs is of Bob Sheldon. After Ponyboy comes home from a late light with some of the soc girls, Darry ...

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...n they are in the hospital when Johnny, Ponyboy and Dally return from Windrixville and Johnny is dying. Ponyboy realizes that Darry does actually care about him; he is just strict because he wants him to be better. At that point Ponyboy thinks that everything is going to be all right because he understands Darry now, but it just goes back to normal with all of the arguing. Finally Sodapop steps in after Dally dies and everyone is sad and feeling helpless. He tells Darry and Ponyboy to promise to never argue again because he doesn’t like it, and they agree. All of these conflicts in the novel “The Outsiders” started with Darry hitting Ponyboy in the face. This lead to many different relationship problems between the Curtis brothers and three deaths that made the relationship very strong.

Work Cited

Hinton, S. E. The Outsiders. Puffin: New York, 1997. Print.