Violence In The Outsiders

In the novel, Ponyboy couldn’t even walk a short distance home without getting jumped by the Socials. This idea is heartbreaking to realize that a child can’t safely walk around his or hers neighborhood without being harmed in some areas. The novel shows a numerous amount of young adults being killed or harmed due to gang violence. For example, Johnny Cade killed Bob Sheldon in self-defense, which was devastating to his family, friends, and girlfriend. The author also represents a positive side to violence at the end of the novel. The rumble between the two groups without weapons, helped end the aggression and hatred between them. This uncovered the common interest that they shared and allowed them to relate to each other on an emotional and physical level.

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.

“The Outsiders”, by S.E. Hinton, is centered around Ponyboy’s path to maturity and the life lessons he learns along the way. The novel follows Ponyboy, a greaser, and his gang’s conflict with the Socials, a rival gang. In it, he learns to not judge people hastily and reject gang mentality. Ponyboy also loses his innocence. The following paragraphs will explore his growth throughout “The Outsiders”.

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.

The first reason as to why Johnny killed Bob was because he had a fear of great bodily harm. Four months before the incident, Bob and his colleagues beat Johnny half to death. He had cuts and bruises, but most especially, he was traumatized. Johnny says that he killed Bob because 1) they could have killed Ponyboy, 2) They had a switchblade (and who knows what intoxicated individuals are capable of doing), and 3) they could have beaten Johnny up, again. Ponyboy explained

Ponyboy and Johnny had spent the night with two Soc girls, Cherry and Marcia, until their boyfriends, Bob and Randy, came and picked them up in the blue Mustang. Ponyboy goes home and Darry, Pony’s older brother who is like a parent figure to him ever since their parents died, gets mad about Pony being out late at night and hits him. Pony runs back to the park and finds Johnny. Soon after, the blue Mustang showed up with Bob and his group inside. In the text, Ponyboy states “When a sudden blast from a car horn made us both jump.

The plot is great, it has a lot of action, and suspense. I also like the way Hinton describes the characters in detail, and makes you feel like you can actually see the character when she describes them. I would definitely recommend the teachers to keep teaching it because the novel has a good moral to it. It teaches you to not judge anyone immediately, how violence only makes things worse, and how to solve your problems. My favorite character is Johnny because he reminds me of myself. He sacrificed his life to save the children trapped in the church, and he stood up for Ponyboy and himself when he stabbed Bob. The symbols and allusions in the book are meaningful like when Johnny tells Ponyboy to stay gold right before he dies. It’s a reference to Robert Frost’s Nothing Gold Can

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

In anger and in fear he stopped Bob from hurting Pony(56), that left him with a feeling that distressed him greatly. He says to Pony, “Shut up about last night! I killed a kid last night…. How’d you like to live with that”(74)? This eats away at Johnny and makes him cry- “it took alot to make Johnny cry”(4). When Pony and Johnny go on the run because Johnny killed Bob, they leave everything behind and only stay in touch with Johnny’s hero, Dally. It hurt Johnny even more when Dallas had told him his parents had not asked about him after he ran away(88). He decided to turn himself in and stop running when he saw that it did more harm than good. Johnnycake knew that it wasn’t fair for Pony to be away from his family. On their way back to the church they see that it had caught on fire. Pony and Johnny knew that they had probably started the fire and ran in the church to try and save the children stuck inside. They rushed to get the kids out of the church window as embers fell on them. Though they go through these hard times they end up being heroes when they save the children and learn quite a few things.

Towards the middle of the story, a boy named Johnny had killed a Soc that was drowning Ponyboy. He and Ponyboy fled the city to another town, and hid in an abandon church there for a week. When they were going to leave, they realized the church was on fire and there was kids trapped inside. Johnny and Pony were good friends and they decided to go help the children. After they rescued the children, they had to escape the burning, ravaged building. A flaming, steaming hot beam from the ceiling fell on Johnny. After this happened, Pony passed out, “ I leaped out the window and heard timber crashing and the flames roaring right behind me. I staggered, almost

Pony and Johnny decide to go back home because they feel guilty and can’t deal with the chaos of being on the run. So, they learn that running away did nothing for them.

Most books teenagers read are not realistic about the amount of violence in the real world. The Outsiders, introduces a reality that prepares teens for the real world violence. While reading is a way to gain book smarts, reading The Outsiders, helps gain both book smarts and street smarts. This book is not only a great story, but also an incredible learning source. It teaches kids to be aware, to not be afraid to talk to someone, and that running away from problems does not fix them but only makes them worse.

This lively, colorful book is both well informed and wonderfully innocent. The Author, Ricardo Cortes, created this work as a tool to help parents establish an early dialogue with their children about marijuana. As he explains on his website, "It's Just a Plant is for all parents. The book is not about people who use marijuana or people who abstain (although it contains both); it is about marijuana, something that most children will encounter in their lives. Before they investigate on their own, shouldn't they be prepared with honest and thorough information?

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

What would the world be like if there was no resort to violence for a fixture of conflict or fun? The 1967 novel 'The Outsiders' by S.E Hinton follows the existence of a young boy and the way that he lives with such violence in his life. Throughout all and all the notion of violence being engrained in the characters being despite socio-economic divides is heavily purveyed. It is with examples of rough friendships and hostility between the Greasers and the Socs that this message is put forth. To begin with, there is an example of this prerequisite of wildness shown in the relationship between two young greasers who are in fact, friends.