Character Analysis: Ponyboy Should Be In The System

Ponyboy is gold. He is helpful and smart, but he’s a greaser and well that’s fine to some people...to others it’s just not acceptable. Even though Ponyboy and Johnny hit the road after Bob was killed he still deserved better. Ponyboy had potential and he is going places, I can tell. Ponyboy has had many losses in his life, Mom, Dad, Johnny, and Dally, but he is strong. That’s all he is going to need to be.

After running for a while they stopped in another parking lot with a fountain in the middle. While in the parking lot a blue mustang that belonged to the Socs that beat up Johnny a long time ago pulled up. They stepped out and started to insult Johnny and Ponyboy, Ponyboy snapped back and they grabbed him and shoved his head in the found as stated, “They grabbed my arm and twisted it behind my back, and shoved my face into the fountain. I fought, but the hand at the back of my neck was strong and I had to hold my breath. I’m dying, I thought, and wondered what was happening to Johnny.” This showed that those Socs were even going to kill them just because they talked back, but they were also drunk which also shows how dangerous drunk Socs are. To save Ponyboy Johnny had to kill the Soc and afterwards they both had to run out of town to avoid being arrested. This changed Ponyboys identity into a outlaw.

When Ponyboy returns home at 2 a.m. in the morning, Darry is agitated and begins to yell at Pony and Soda, all in a fit of rage. Darry slaps Ponyboy, causing him to run away with Johnny. Later after Ponyboy calms down, he begins wondering whether running away from all this was a good idea. When these boys wander into a park within the neighborhood, the Socs’ Randy, Bob, and three others confront them, and after they exchange derogatory remarks, the tension intensifies after Ponyboy spits at the rival gang. The Socs grab Ponyboy and attempt to drown him in a fountain. His gang member Johnny, feeling anxious and terrified because Bob had brutally jumped him on a previous occasion, spontaneously stabs Bob, causing his accidental death (Coppola 11.30). Johnny and Ponyboy, now feeling frightened and without a clue of what to do next for they are well aware that those who take life in Oklahoma face execution on the electric chair, decide to seek the counsel of Dally, who gives them some cash and a loaded gun and asks them to hide inside an abandoned church in Windrixville. While staying there, Pony decides to cut and dye his hair to disguise.

Why does Darry care about Ponyboy. Maybe to make sure he doesn’t have the life that Darry had. He shows this by checking Pony’s grades and makes sure he does his homework right, or he protects Pony. Another way is that he works 2 jobs just so that he can go to school.

Ponyboy is in this state because he is devastated that his two friends, Johnny and Dally died. Johnny was a young nice kid who was the guinea pig of the group and Dally is this real tough boy that has been through a lot of hard times including prison. In the book, Ponyboy says “I had it. I stopped him. He was looking at me strangely. I had the knife. I killed Bob” (Hinton 165) and as the readers know, Ponyboy didn’t kill Bob. This shows that Ponyboy is really confused and is trying to think that Johnny isn’t dead. Then in the movie it didn’t show Ponyboy in this terrible mental state at all. Since the book mentioned Ponyboy in this state, the readers got to see that Ponyboy really cared about Johnny. Then with the movie the audience didn’t get to see how much Ponyboy cared about Johnny, so that could change their perspective on Ponyboy. Therefore this was a good thing that the book mentioned because it showed that Johnny was really important to Ponyboy and Ponyboy didn’t want to think that Johnny was

Later, Johnny conveys his guilt to Ponyboy when he says: “‘There sure is a lot of blood in people.’”(Hinton 74), nearly quoting Shakespeare in Macbeth. In a later conversation with Johnny, Ponyboy gets thinking about this new world he has been thrust into. In the text he says: “I liked my books and clouds and sunsets. Dally was so real he scared me.”(Hinton 76) This shows how Ponyboy likes when the hero can beat the villain and get a pretty sunset at the end. But now Ponyboy has to deal with the real-world effects of violence, and he doesn’t like it. This marks one of Ponyboy’s first major changes of his mindset on violence.

Finally, Johnny is not justified in what he did and is guilty because Johnny killed Bob, who didn’t cause any physical harm in the fight. Johnny stated that “‘I killed that boy.’ Bob, the handsome Soc, was lying there in the moonlight, doubled up and still” (56). This states that Johnny killed Bob instead of David, who was the one harming Ponyboy. This means that Johnny must have wanted to harm Bob for what he has done in the past.

The movie comes to an end and the group decides to walk over to Two-Bit's house to get his car to take the girls home. Two-Bit and Marcia are continuing to get along, and as they walk Ponyboy and Cherry amaze themselves as they divulge insights as confidants. Cherry shares her philosophy on what separates the two gangs — not only money but passion as well. The Socs lack strong emotions; they are cool almost to the point of not feeling. Ponyboy is amazed, though, at how similar the two gangs really are. Pony boy is confused on why there was ever a wall between the two gangs, because they are both drastically similar. Ponyboy's character continues to grow as his perspective changes, and he realizes the many similarities that he and Cherry share.

I think that pony boy should go into foster care because being around the greasers is messing with his life because they were always getting in fights or jail on the other hand they also look out for him based on my prior knowledge pony boy needs the guidance of adults and not the guidance of the reckless violent group of boys that get into jail every other day .

Johnny and Ponyboy would have gone to jail if they would have reported themselves to the police. This would be very bad because many things in their life would change. They would not be able to live a normal

Ponyboy has no parents and Darry is the eldest brother, therefore, Darry must be responsible for Ponyboy and make sure he is safe. Ponyboy doesn’t always understand the way Darry protect him. One night Jonny and Ponyboy went out and didn’t

On page 8 it says,” Not unless you’re hurt like Johnny had been that day we found him. Compared to Johnny I wasn’t hurt at all.” This backs up Ponyboy living in a bad neighborhood. With this kind of neighborhood, Darry can’t protect him of every danger that comes his way. On page 131, it says ,’ The rumble was set for seven,...” This shouldn’t be the kind of Neighborhood Ponyboy should be living in. If Darry really cared about Ponyboy, he wouldn’t let Ponyboy be part of the rumble. Ponyboy will end up getting injured if he lives in this

a very handy pacifier for him such as: When he thought he might go to

Pony should live in the system because his eating choices are unhealthy. On page 105 the book states, “All three of us eat chocolate cake for breakfast.” Eating chocolate cake every day for breakfast is unhealthy because of the amount of sugar in cake. the main ingredient in chocolate cake is sugar. There are two cups of sugar required in many recipes. Also, on page 105 the book states,”... Sodapop always puts too much sugar in the icing.” This adds to the unhealthiness of chocolate cake stating that there is even more than two cups of sugar in the cake. large amounts of sugar can be very unhealthy and life changing. the amount of sugar Pony consumes can lead to rotten teeth and

Case closed. It has been decided that it would be best for Ponyboy to go into foster care. It is documented that he has been given multiple weapons including a loaded gun and a switchblade. The child's old residence has been deemed inadequate for the needs of a growing teenager such as him.