Loss Of Innocence In The Outsiders

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.

People are often judged upon their traits. If willed, these traits can improve, leaving the person with a better overall personality. One of the more pronounced character examples is the character Johnny, in the novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. The book follows the story of a battle between rich, West-side social clubs and poor, East-side gangs. Johnny is a part of the gang from the wrong side of the tracks. He is abused and always has a defeated look in his eye, but even Johnny can change. Throughout the novel Johnny is scared, brave, and accepting. Johnny goes through tremendous change throughout the novel.

Part of you is being slowly chipped away, the more and more you live life the less and less you have of it and you don't even know it. “Nothing Gold Can Stay” is a poem by Robert Frost that uses nature to represent innocence in a person. The Outsiders is about a boy named Ponyboy and his gang the Greasers dealing with bullying, deaths, and life threatening situations that chips away at their personalities. In the Poem “Nothing gold can stay” by Robert Frost and The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton the theme innocence is portrayed in similar ways.

Johnny and Ponyboy are two characters in S.E Hinton’s novel ‘The Outsiders.' They both have contrary lives from each other with a few similarities, as well as being two greasers from a second society. Johnny has had a rough life so far since both his parents never cared for him. His mother would abuse him verbally, and his father would abuse him physically and verbally. As for Ponyboy, both of his parents died, leaving him with his two older brothers Sodapop and Darry. Johnny and Ponyboy both read ‘Nothing Gold Can Stay’ at the ran down church. They didn’t know precisely what the poem meant, but little do they know that the poem would have a significant similarity to them individually. Each line and stanza refer to the experiences that Johnny and Ponyboy have lived through throughout the story.

Johnny is represented in the novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hilton, published in 1967, as shy and anxious, however is later shown to be brave and courageous, giving himself up to save others. Johnny is seen as honourable and as a protagonist, only committing crimes, such as murder, to protect himself and his best friends. This helps the readers interact with the novel because it shows the stress of being a greaser, and how the greasers have a difficult life, being attacked on the streets and abused at home. This is made evident through his dialogue, action and reactions. It represents the key theme in the novel of brotherhood and the gang because Johnny shares a closer bond with his friends, the greasers, than he does with his parents.

Johnny Cade comes from a broken home, his dad hits him, his mom does not care about Johnny, the only thing he has are his friends, the greasers. Ponyboy, one of his closest friends, is talking about everyone in the gang and when he came to Johnny he said, “Johnny had it awful rough at home”(4). Johnny unlike everyone else in the gang, except Dally, does not have someone in his family that truly cares for him. This affects him because it makes him upset that his parents do not care for him. If Johnny did not have it so hard at home, he would be more content and joyful, and even less scared. Johnny is a little bothered that his parents did not ask about Johnny so Dally goes on and says, “‘my old man don’t give a hang whether i’m in jail or dead in a car wreck or drunk in the gutter’” (88). When Dally is 10, he gets arrested and is on the streets of New York, which shows how little Dally’s father cares about him. Maybe if his father did care, Dally would be more kind and caring, and like Johnny, more joyful. If Dally’s dad cared, he may still be living with his parents and would not be a greaser. Dally and Johnny are

Dally’s death was a key event in The Outsiders. He is the literal embodiment of the Nothing Gold Can Stay poem. When he was born, he didn’t know pain and instead was ‘gold’. As he grew up, he had to survive by himself, due to his father not giving ‘a hang whether [he is] in jail or drunk in the gutter’ (page 107). He was arrested at the age of ten and was ‘hardened in jail’ (page 110). His survival came at the cost of his ‘gold’. Consequently, this dangerous life led to his ‘violent and young’ (page 187) death. Dally personifies the poem, being the ‘nature’ in the poem. ‘Nature’s first green is gold’ shows

The outsiders is a novel of conflicts- greaser against soc, rich against poor, the desire for violence against the desire for peace. The characters of Dally and Johnny affect the novelś conflicts as greasers and as friends of Ponyboy, however they have opposite personalities and approaches. Johnny is quiet, caring, and loyal. however Dally is mean, caring, and tough.

Johnny shocks Dally by telling him he wants to go back home and confess to his crime. Dally tries to change Johnny’s mind, convincing him not to because if he does he will be going to prison and dally doesn’t want Johnny to see him in prison. Johnny is points out that his own parents would not care what ever happens to him, but Ponyboy’s brothers care about him and don’t want to see him like that. Swearing under his breath, Dally begins to drive Johnny and Ponyboy home. As they drive past the church where Ponyboy and Johnny had been staying, they see that it is on fire. Ponyboy thinks he and Johnny must have started the fire with a cigarette butt, so the boys jump out of the car to check out the fire. When Ponyboy wakes, he is in an ambulance,

“Nothing gold can stay”, When it says nothing gold can stay means nothing good can stay so when something good is happening it can’t stay forever. Gold means good, Johnny in the Outsiders is “Gold”. Johnny is one of youngest in the gang and he would end killing himself if he didn’t have the gang around him. Johnny is a greaser, he is 16 years old, at home is family beats him or yells at him, he know as the gang's pet. His gang kept him alive and the reason why he is so good is that his family beats him but yet he so nice to everyone and he also thinks that fighting is no good.

One line in the lyric peruses, "Nothing gold can stay," implying that every good thing must arrive at an end. Before the end of the novel, the young men apply this thought to energetic honesty, trusting that they can't remain everlastingly unsullied by the cruel substances of life. Here, Johnny desires Ponyboy to stay gold, or guiltless. Johnny now detects the futility of battling; he realizes that Ponyboy is superior to anything the normal hooligan,

The expression, "Stay Gold", Johnny's last words referred to the poem called "Nothing Gold Can Stay". The main idea of this poem is about genuine things that don't remain good forever. When Johnny died, his last words “Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold" intended to always stay pure and naive. For instance, Dally at one point was true to himself, but after the unfortunate death of his parents, he had become distant. Johnny wanted Ponyboy to keep watching sunsets and reading books endlessly and never let the world overthrow his innocence.

Johnny’s last words to Ponyboy were “Stay Gold Ponyboy, stay gold”. What Johnny means by this is he wants Ponyboy to stay beautiful personality wise; referring to the poem in chapter 5. In the poem “Nothing gold can stay” It explains how nothing beautiful can stay beautiful forever but Johnny wants Ponyboy to stay the way he is and to not become

Johnny leaves a note in his copy of Gone With the Wind. He also tells Ponyboy to “Stay gold”. Johnny is communicating advice to Ponyboy in his last words and his note. He is trying to tell Ponyboy to become the person he wants to be. He still has his “golden time”, and he has the potential to become the person he wants to be. Ponyboy’s “dawn” is still in its’ prime and has a long while to go before it starts to fade. Nothing gold can stay, but Johnny is saying that Ponyboy can still make use out of all the time he has and escape the social stigma that has been placed on him. This message inspires Ponyboy once more. Ponyboy starts working hard on his school work again. “And I finally began like this: When I stepped out from the darkness of

“Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.” This is a quote from the book The Outsiders, in which Johnny was telling Ponyboy not to mature, and to keep his “golden” qualities. There are many things that can make a person gold. The traits of my personality that make me gold are how considerate I am, my ambition, and how appreciative I am.