Choices In The Outsiders

In the beginning of the novel, Ponyboy is a marvelous student at school, however as the novel progresses, he becomes more rougher and experiences life transforming events. An example of this is an event when Johnny and Ponyboy rescue children trapped in a burning church. During this rescue, one of his best friends, Johnny Cade suffers harsh injuries resulting in his death. Around this time, Ponyboy opens his eyes to the real world and has emotions that indicate toughness and anger due to his friends’

A few days before Johnny dies, he tells Ponyboy how he feels about life, “ I used to talk about killing myself… [...] I don’t want to die now.” (pg. 148) Pony has always understood that suicide was not an option but because he knew that Johnny was close to death it is easier to relate to for Pony. This helps Pony become more mature, because even when the bad things overweigh the good, Pony can reflect on this moment and be encouraged to keep going. In the letter Johnny writes for Pony he says, “You still have lots of time to make yourself be what you want. There’s still lots of good in the world.” (pg. 216) This memory will make Pony cherish the good things in life but also remind him to keep going. It will also make him understand that he is not stuck in the social group “Greaser” and that he can choose his own values and appearance. Cherishing the good things in life and understanding that he is an individual makes Pony become more mature. These examples show Pony understanding that life is important, that he should always continue and remembering that he can change his path, making him more

Everyone has someone who has impacted them in a positive or negative way. In the book “The Outsiders” by S.E Hinton Johnny impacts Ponyboy. Jonny gets Pony out of his comfort zone, encourages him to do good things, last Jonny helps Pony take the right path in life.

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.

After Johnny’s death, Ponyboy finds a letter written by Johnny that reads, “When you’re a kid everything’s new, dawn. It’s just when you get used to everything that it’s day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That’s gold. Keep it that way, it’s a good way to be,” (178). Johnny urges Ponyboy to embrace his youth and innocence by not yielding to the greaser lifestyle. He insists on Ponyboy seeking his full potential. Ponyboy acknowledges that there are different stories beyond one’s appearance like himself because although the society previously consider him a nuisance to the community, they are proved wrong after he transforms into a hero after saving children from a church fire, which contributes to his dynamic change. Even the close-minded public are subject to their own change of mind. Johnny’s letter also leaves a lifelong impact on Ponyboy’s perspective on the importance of family because the absence of family in Johnny’s life makes Ponyboy treasure the atypical family he has, whether it may the greasers as a whole. In all, a number of people influence Pony to change his views on people and his

The choices people make, make up their identity. People's choices make up their life. One chooses what or what not to do, who or who not to love. The choices a person can make can even put their life or someone else's life in danger. In S.E. Hinton’s novel, The Outsiders although the choices Dally and Johnny make differ, they still look up to one another.

The two different social groups fight, but they only end up with the death of their friends. In the beginning of the book, Pony is just another greaser who is thoughtless and oblivious; however he learns that life should be cherished to the very best when he experiences the death of his friends and soon becomes knowledgeable. As the story begins, Ponyboy Michael Curtis is a

He also starts off as The Innocent, hopeful for a better future and seeing the good in everyone. On page 26 he says, “I didn’t get why we talk about girls in that way,’ which is showing how even though he’s tough he is still young and innocent and doesn’t get why his gang talks dirty about women’ Also like Dara, Ponyboy’s archetype changes to The Loner or Outcast and he loses his hope. After Johnny kills a Soc to protect him, they go on the run from the police. They hide out in an abandoned church away from their families and society. On page 63 it says “he must have been as homesick as I was” showing how Ponyboy wants to go back to his family. Again, this also shows the theme of The Outsiders. Even though he’s a greaser and on the bad side of society’s view, Ponyboy is really only an outsider when he is without his family and gang. Following Dara, after Johnny’s death, Ponyboy becomes The Hero. On page 145 the text states “ ‘Yessir,’ I said, ‘I'll try. What's the theme supposed to be on?’ ‘Anything you think is important enough to write about. And it isn't a reference theme; I want your own ideas and your own experiences’.” Ponyboy then writes a theme paper based on Johnny’s life, letting everyone know what they’ve gone through. He has an honorable purpose, allowing him to be The Hero. Ponyboy also faces a great deal of problems, although his are not the same as Dara’s. Like her, he is also driven from his home and placed in an intense war. Unlike her, his war is of the social classes and not countries. While Dara must overcome her fears, Ponyboy must discover who he is as a person and who he wants to

According to Keri Russell “Sometimes it’s the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.” This quote infers that small choices can make big changes in people's lives.This quote relates to The Outsiders because some of the small choices other character made made affected the protagonist greatly. In this novel choices that Johnny makes affects the protagonist, Ponyboy greatly.

Friendship is mandatory to be able to trust and rely on one another. Hinton writes about troubles that Ponyboy goes through and how his friends have a great impact on these experiences. For example, Johnny killed Bob who was a member of the Socs, because he saw that Bob along with other Socs were trying to drown Ponyboy. He knew that he’d be in trouble, and he could have just left then and there. Instead, he killed Bob because they were hurting Ponyboy. Another situation where the author shows the theme of friendship is when Ponyboy got jumped and his whole gang came to help him. They were always ready to help a member of their group. Also, the situation when the church was on fire and Dally went to try and save Johnny, shows friendship as well. In chapter 6, Jerry, who Ponyboy thinks is one of the school’s teachers, says, “We think the towheaded kid is going to be all right. He burned one arm pretty badly, though, trying to drag the other kid out of the window,” (pg. 95). This tells us that Dally, who at first wouldn’t help the children in the church, helped Johnny get out because he was his friend and he cared about him. This shows how Dally demonstrates his friendship.

However, Pony was the closest thing to a family that Johnny had because of the fact that his parents were always fighting. " [Teens] turns to peers for...security" (Hartwell-Walker).

John C. Maxwell once said “Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.” This means your life comes from your specific choices. You have agency to do what you want, but what you choose to do affects you personally . The book The Outsiders , S.E. Hinton, talks all about choices. All of the many choices affected the character’s lives. In this essay, there’s many examples of when Ponyboy took the time to get to know people who were different than him and changes his perspective on them. This book talks about the main theme of judging people. Just because someone doesn’t look, act ,or think like you, doesn’t mean you should judge them, especially if you don’t truly know them.

For example, when Ponyboy met Sherri, he felt like it was easy to talk to her and although he didn’t believe it yet, further into the story, he begins to believe that not all Socs are the same. After the boys meet Sherri and Marcia, their lives change completely as they need to go on the run after Johnny murders Bob - the Soc who was drowning Ponyboy in the fountain. Another change that can be seen is Ponyboy’s understanding of his brother Darry. Ponyboy matures quite a bit after everything that occurs from his encounter with Sherri till the time they spent hiding in the church after Bob’s death. On his return, with his new-found maturity, Ponyboy begins to understand Darry better and realizes that he truly does love him. A major change that happened to Ponyboy was the death of his best friend, the pet of the gang - Johnny. The loss caused a lot of trauma for him, even forcing himself to pretend it never happened and that Johnny was still alive for some

The majority of the book continues in this fashion until the turning point for the two characters, the church fire. In this moment, I believe Johnny has finally realized he is actually a strong person. Without a second thought, Johnny and Ponyboy essentially run into

   Ponyboy is handling depression from Johnny dying and him feeling like it's his fault. When he went to court to testify how everything happened, the judge acquitted him from having to say his side because he was making up his own fiction. He started to fall into an endless spiral of depression where he became unfocused on school, like doing his