Chapters 1 Ponyboy Curtis is walking home one afternoon after watching a film, and his mind starts to wander. Ponyboy steps back from his wandering imagination to explain that walking alone is unsafe for greasers, the East Side gang of friends to which he belongs. When they walk by themselves, greasers attract the harassment of Socials, or Socs, the rich West Side crowd. Ponyboy says greasers are poorer and wilder than the Socs, whom the newspapers condemn one day for throwing parties and praise the next day for good citizenship. Greasers wear their hair long and put grease in it. They dress tough, steal, and get into gang fights. They often carry switchblades, mainly to help them stand their ground against the Socs. Ponyboy says he does not participate in typical greaser mischief because his oldest brother, Darrel (known as “Darry”), would kill him if he got into trouble. Ponyboy’s parents died in a car crash, so the three Curtis brothers live together by themselves, an arrangement possible only as long as they stay out of trouble. Twenty-year-old Darry acts as head of the family. He is strict with Ponyboy and often yells at him. Despite his intelligence, Ponyboy lacks common sense, which frustrates Darry. Ponyboy feels great affection for his sixteen-year-old brother, Sodapop, whose charm and cheerfulness he admires. Ponyboy returns to the story of his solitary walk after the movies. As he walks, he notices a red Corvair trailing him. He quickens his pace as he remembers how badly the Socs beat his friend Johnny Cade. The Corvair pulls up beside Ponyboy and five Socs climb out and surround him. One of them asks, “Need a haircut, greaser?” and pulls out a blade. The Socs begin to beat up Ponyboy, who screams for help. Ponyboy’s brothers and the rest of their group appear on the scene and chase away the Socs. Darry starts to scold Ponyboy for walking home alone instead of calling for a ride, but Sodapop tells him to stop nagging.
The brothers and the other greasers make plans for the following night. Ponyboy decides he and Johnny will go to a double feature at the drive-in with their friend Dally. Dally begins to talk about his ex-girlfriend, Sylvia, and Ponyboy thinks about the girls that socialize with the
The entire book is about Ponyboy against other greasers and Socs. The terms greaser and Soc are used for the kids who live on the east and west side. “Ponyboy . . . I mean . . . if I see you in the hall at school or someplace and don’t say hi, well, it’s not personal or anything, but . .(Hilton 45).” Cherry didn’t want to say hi to Ponyboy if she saw him because she is a Soc and he is a greaser. In fact none of the greasers or Socs said hi to each other. Society played a large role in this book by separating the Socs and the greasers.
An important character in the novel “The Outsiders” is Ponyboy Curtis. He is the main character and narrator of the novel. Ponyboy is an orphaned, 14 year old boy who is bright, but according to his oldest brother and guardian, Darry, he sometimes doesn’t have any common sense. He also admits himself: “I'm supposed to be smart; I make good grades and have a high IQ and everything, but I don't use my head.” This quote confirms that at times, Ponyboy tends to not use his intelligence to it’s full potential. Ponyboy also belongs to a lower social class, otherwise known as ‘Greasers.’ Greasers is a slang term for people (mainly boys) who style their longish hair with a lot of hair grease, wear leather jackets, and belong to less financially stable families. They are also known to cause chaos and carry knives around. Ponyboy is aware throughout the novel that Greasers like him are negatively looked down upon by others in society and tries to prove himself as not a bad person. The author is trying to share the idea of prejudice. In society, people often discriminate against others due to social status and appearance. However, Ponyboy realises that
S.E Hinton the author of The Outsiders wrote an astounding book that remains popular to this day, a story that has influenced people for almost fifty years and will continue to be a classic for years to come. We follow ponyboy a 14 year old boy from Oklahoma, who lives with his two brothers Darry and Sodapop and their “gang” the greasers as they deal with rumbles, run ins with the “fuzz”, the Socs, and the realization that problems occur no matter who you are.. In the city that they call home the division between two “ gangs” the Socs who live on the west side and the Greasers who live on the east is the most problematic conflict in the story . Although the two groups don’t seem to get along, they soon discover that they are more alike than
Smart and Mysterious. Those are the two words that I would use to describe Ponyboy Curtis. Ponyboy is a brother to Sodapop and Darryl , together they are the Curtis brothers. During Ponyboy’s childhood, he became fine friends with the other kids in and around his neighbourhood. All the boys, including Ponyboys older brothers made a gang labeled the greasers. The term “Greaser” originated from the boys using grease to slick back their long hair. The Greaser’s include Johnny, who is Ponyboys best friend, Dallas, Darry , Sodapop, Two-bit, Steve and of course Ponyboy who is now fourteen years old.The Socs are the other bunch of youngsters on the opposite side of town who repeatedly jump the greasers because they believe the greasers are better off. Sadly Ponyboy’s parents died in a car crash so that influences his sensitivity and characteristics, especially since he is the youngest.
In the book, The Outsiders, Ponyboy Curtis is part of the Greaser’s, a gang of boys who are in the lower class in 1965. Their arch rival, the Socs, are the more privileged, upper class boys from across town. Throughout the book, the two gang have many conflicts. Darry, Ponyboy’s oldest brother acts as a parent figure for him since both of his parents were killed in a car crash. Other member of the Greasers are Dally, Two-Bit, Steve, Sodapop, and Johnny. After getting in a fight with his brother, Ponyboy flees to the park where he runs into a group of Socs. The Socs attack Ponyboy and hold his head under the water in the fountain, trying to kill him. Ponyboy blacks out, and later wakes up to see on the Soc boys dead body next to him. Johnny then tells Ponyboy that he killed the boys because they were trying to kill Ponyboy. The boys are afraid, and desperately try to find Dally Winston, who gives them a gun and sends them to the abandoned church to hide. The two boys stay at the church for a while until they decide to go back into town. As they are leaving
Ponyboy Curtis in the fourteen-year-old boy that explains the story in both the book and the movie, and also the youngest of the greasers. Ponyboy is very intelligent compared to the rest of the gang he is most defenatly the smartest to them all. Because his parents have died in a car accident, Ponyboy lives with his two brothers Darry and Sodapop in both the book and movie. Darry repeatedly accuses Ponyboy of lacking common sense in the book more so then in the movie, but Ponyboy is a much brighter then his brother takes him for. Throughout the novel, Ponyboy struggles with class division, violence, innocence, and familial love but in the movie they dont focus on his school as much. He matures over the course of the book and the movie both.
This theme really fits this book because this book has a lot of prejudice, the socs think the greasers are so gross and inferior and the greasers think the socs are stuck up and think they’re better than everyone. This theme shows through Ponyboy because he thinks the socs are uptight and don’t have a soul, but later, when he meets Cherry he realizes maybe not all socs are how he imagined. Ponyboy is shy and a good student, he is being raised by his brothers after his parents died in a car crash. Ponyboy Curtis has gray-green eyes and light brown- red long hair.
Ponyboy Curtis - The novel's fourteen-year-old narrator and protagonist, and the youngest of the greasers. Ponyboy's literary interests and academic accomplishments set him apart from the rest of his gang. Because his parents have died in a car accident, Ponyboy lives with his brothers Darry and Sodapop. Darry repeatedly accuses Ponyboy of lacking common sense, but Ponyboy is a reliable and observant narrator. Throughout the novel, Ponyboy struggles with class division, violence, innocence, and familial love. He matures over the course of the novel, eventually realizing the importance of strength in the face of class bias.
In The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Ponyboy is introduced and develops as a curious person through his actions. The Outsiders is a novel about a group of boys that are trying to prove that being a greaser means nothing. One part of the novel that shows when Ponyboy was walking home from the movies is when a blue mustang pulls up and out popped a couple of soces and they threatened to cut Ponyboy's throat. Hinton writes, “do you need a haircut greaser” (Hinton 5). In this moment, Ponyboy’s emotions show us that he is scared. Because of this, we can see that part of his personality is his fear of getting jumped by the soces like they did to his friend Johnny. Another part of the novel that shows Ponyboy‘s emotion occurs when Hinton writes, “The
he was not with them, because they know that it is not right to talk badly about someone,
They began arguments impulsively, and not always as part of their feud with the Socs. One example of this occurred when Dally robbed a grocery store in a period of despair after a Greaser named Johnny died. Dally notified his fellow Greasers after the crime and they responded in panic, feeling that they “gotta hide him” (page 153). The other Greasers encouraged Dally’s evasion of the cops, becoming accomplices to the crime. The cops pursued and shot Dally, fatally, when he acted as if he was about to shoot them. This part of the downward spiral of events in the book began with Dally’s impulsiveness in the grocery store, not with the feud or with fury. Ponyboy even admitted that Dally was an unstable person, saying, “he died violent and young and desperate, just like we all knew he’d die someday” (page 154). This proves that even the Greasers see that they are liable to cause turmoil in any
When Ponyboy Curtis was walking home from watching a Paul Newman movie, he went on and introduced himself and his gang. Afterwards, while he was walking he got jumped by a group of Socials where they accident harmed him with a knife when his older brother Darrel saved him. Chapter Two: Ponyboy Curtis, Johnny Cade, and Dallas Winston meets two Social cheerleader girls named Sherri “Cherry” Valance, and Marcia. (Last name unknown)
Ponyboy, the protagonist, states that “Greasers…have long hair” and that Darry’s was conversely “short and clean”. Hinton utilises the development of stereotypes and visual imagery to construct a juxtaposing image in the reader’s mind between the oily, unkempt appearance of a Greaser and the stark cleanliness of Darry. Hinton insinuates that a Greaser’s outward appearance, namely hair, reflects directly on their identity, an exhibition of pride as Greasers to society. Darry’s clean hair is symbolic of his comparative maturity to the rest of the gang, emphasising his defiance the Greaser lifestyle of poverty that has invaded his life. Hinton portrays that Darry is an ‘outsider’ in his society as he doesn’t abide by the stereotypical standards and physical identifiers of his gang, consequently feeling isolated. Like Darry, Skeeter is isolated from her Caucasian society as she is the only unmarried lady in her social group, Junior League. Her mother explains to her the “guide to Husband-Hunting, Rule Number One: a pretty, petite girl…accentuate with makeup and good posture”, and acknowledges that she is conversely “a tall one”. Similarly, Stockett engages stereotypes through visual imagery to help portray Skeeter as an ‘outsider’. Stockett paints a picture in the audience’s mind of the
Ponyboy, Johnny, Sodapop, Darry are all a part of the unruly gang, the Greasers. S.E Hinton is writing these characters as rebellious young men, with a harsh background, who takes their anger and hardship out on gang fighting. These roles play an important part in this book because it shows that even though they nothing physically, they have a heart stronger than gold for each other and others mentally. Hinton use these characters to show prejudice leads to wrong conclusions, violence and oppression because these “poor” young men are getting beat up by the rich Socs who have never felt the feeling of being in poverty. “ You take up for your buddies, no matter what they do. When you’re in a gang, you stick up for the members. If you don’t stick up for them, stick together, make
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton is a book about Ponyboy and the Greasers. Ponyboy has two brothers Sodapop and Darry. Sodapop is a 16 year old dropout, and Darry is the oldest brother and doesn’t interact with Ponyboy. Ponyboy and his brothers enlist in a gang. The gang is the closest family to Ponyboy and his brother, even though they are not actually family by blood. But the Greasers live in the bad part of the town. The Socs however, are not like family to the Greasers. The Socs are people who are rich and snobby. The Socs always like to jump the Greaser for fun. The author believes that there will be rough steps throughout your life, but you should fight through them and stay strong.