In the novel “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton, one of the characters Johnny winds up in the hospital and the other character Ponyboy, is frightened that he’s gonna die. Ponyboy and Johnny have a relationship with each other. One that lasted for an endless path. Ponyboy knew if Johnny would die, he would probably have to face the Socs himself, when they came by.
Coming of age is the transition from childhood to adulthood.A variety of factors can affects a character's coming of age.This affects a character's personality and identity.In The Outsiders,written by S.E. Hinton, Ponyboy Curtis probably changed more throughout the novel. Ponyboy changed from a young and impulsive teen to a mature and wiser person, and finally became a real Greaser.His coming of age changed his personality and identity drastically.
The Outsiders illustrates the theme through the relationship of Ponyboy and Darry throughout the course of the book. In the beginning of the book, Darry slaps Ponyboy because he came home very late. This causes Ponyboy to run away from home with Johnny. Ponyboy tells Johnny, “‘He didn’t use to be like that...we used to get along okay...before Mom and Dad died. Now he just can’t stand me,’” (Hinton 51). This quote shows that Ponyboy is isolated from his brother. It shows how Ponyboy and Darry are drifting further apart from each other due to the death of their parents. Later on in the book when Ponyboy, Johnny, and Dally are in the hospital, Sodapop and Darry come to see how they are all doing. When Darry and Sodapop see Ponyboy, they have a
Ponyboy was always the odd one out, he’s not like the other Greasers. In the novel, after losing several of his dearest friends, Ponyboy’s whole life turned upside down. In the story, many events of violence of loss happened, everything around Ponyboy is just so violent, even he started to be affected by it. “You're the guy that killed Bob Sheldon. […] And he was a friend of ours. We don't like nobody killing our friends, especially greasers."(Hinton 171) Ponyboy’s response to such violent behavior was to face it with more violence. Indignantly, busting off a bottle, Ponyboy threatened the Soc to beat him up, which was not like what he used to do, when he still retained his sanity. Now, Ponyboy is starting to accept violence and is slowly becoming conformity as the others, a cruel and delirious “Greaser”. The transformation is deadly and can ruin his whole life because of this chaotic behavior. Besides Ponyboy’s chaotic behavior, he is starting to fail at daily
The last very important thing Ponyboy learns is that staying innocent or staying gold is very important and like johnny says in his last breaths , it's essential in his life. The greasers are used to fighting and arguing to solve their problems. Ponyboy learns that fighting doesn't solve issues , it only makes it worse.
Although they are all different ages they all stay friends. They support each other through hard family times, for example; during the novel. Friendship is especially shown when Ponyboy runs away to hide with Johnny, so that Johnny don’t get into trouble with the police after killing a socs. Johnny shows that he cares about Ponyboy, but taking him back home to be with his two brothers. At the end of the novel, friendship is shown by Dally, committing suicide, as he can’t handle to live without Johnny.
Johnny’s last words to Ponyboy was, “Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.” What Johnny meant by this was for Ponyboy to stay the way he was, and not to get influenced by other people. When Johnny and Ponyboy were having a conversation about his family Johnny said to Ponyboy, “And you don’t act like either one (pg.78 Hinton).” This shows that Johnny thinks Ponyboy is unique and is not like either of his family members. I believe that Johnny didn’t want Ponyboy to become cold and mean like Dally, because he liked the way how Ponyboy is different from the other members of the gang. In conclusion Johnny wishes Ponyboy to stay the way he is.
The Greasers go to extreme lengths to help and protect their friends. When Johnny killed Bob to save Pony-Boys life it was an instinct that Johnny had. He said “They were drowning you pony, I had no choice.” Johnny saw that his friend was in trouble so on instinct his priority was to save Pony-Boy which meant killing Bob, but he did it anyway to save Pony’s life. This shows us that Johnny cares so much about Pony-Boy that he would do anything to save him even if it meant murdering someone and possibly going to jail. When Pony, Johnny and Dally went back to the church and saw that there was a fire Pony felt responsible so he went to rescue the kids then Johnny went after Pony-Boy when Pony-Boy was out and was waiting for Johnny to come out the church the roof collapsed on him and Dally went in to save Johnny even though it meant risking his life. Both of these examples show the theme of friendship. This theme was important because friends will do anything to help each other and be there for each other, and tell each other everything and anything. Friends will always be there to the end. S.E Hinton was
Imagine being dumb, stealing and carrying blades everywhere you go, and being unable to feel deeply, those words would make people think of Greasers. Most people when they think of gangs they think, that they fight, steal, and do not care about what is going on around them. Those statements that Greaser's and other assortments of gangs are dumb, criminals, and unfeeling may not be true, Ponyboy, the main character in S.E. Hinton’s book The Outsiders, opposes all of those statements.
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.
In my opinion, Ponyboy Curtis, Johnny Cade, and Dallas (Dally) Winston are the most important characters in the ‘The Outsiders’. Ponyboy is the protagonist and narrator of the movie. The movie is portrayed through Ponyboy’s perspective throughout the movie. Even if the movie had the same plot, a different point of view would change the movie drastically. Ponyboy’s decisions heavily influences the plot. For example, Ponyboy stayed in the lot with Johnny after the movie then got into trouble for staying out late. This led to Darry hitting Ponyboy in anger, then Ponyboy running away with Johnny to the park, where Johnny stabbed Bob. The plot continued to develop due to Ponyboy’s choices, such as going into the burning church to save the kids.
How can two characters that have such a similar lifestyle, be so extremely different? In the novel, The Outsiders by S.E Hinton, the author proves that such instances happen. Dallas Winston and Johnny Cade have very similar lives, but are completely different people. Johnny is more of a sensitive person and always likes to follow the rules. While Dallas on the other hand, loves to break the laws and do the wrong thing. These two characters are very similar on the inside, but are very different on the outside.
Based on Document D, as Ponyboy and Johnny watch the sunrise, Ponyboy recites a poem that represents that not everything lasts forever. As they talk, they indicate that they feel like an outsider occasionally among the group when they are not able to talk about poetry with them. Moreover, in Document E, Randy and Ponyboy had a conversation about an upcoming fight between the greasers and the Soc. Randy believes that this fight is not a good idea and found it unnecessary. “So it doesn’t do any good, the fighting and the killing.” After they had this discussion, Randy thanks, Ponyboy by saying “Thanks, grease.”, but corrected himself “I didn’t mean that. I meant, thanks, kid.” Also, Two-bit asked Ponyboy “What’d Mr. Super-Soc have to say?”, but Ponyboy was quick to defend him and told him “He ain’t a Soc… he’s just a guy.” This display that both Randy and Ponyboy see each other as themselves and not as a greaser or Soc. Additionally, in Document F, after saying that fighting is useless, Johnny substantiates the concept of Ponyboy for being different from the rest. He states, “Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold.” In other words, he is telling Ponyboy to stay true to himself and to avoid all the violence between the social
IV. Conflicts/Theme- Ponyboy, one of the greasers, realizes that appearance is the main reason the greasers get in trouble with society and the socs don't. Regardless of who wins the conflicts between the two groups, society will still see the greasers as bad because of the way they look. Also a conflict is when johnny killed the soc because of self defence then when dally dies at the very end of the movie and book.
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.