'The Outsiders'

By Paulina O. 

            Young PonyBoy Curtis in the book the outsiders, is only one of a large, classified group called the “Greasers” this story reflects on the lives of teens in a certain time where life itself was categorized into two very different rival groups, it depended on where you grew up, what your financial income was, and the type of people you hung around with and the type of person you decided to be. You could’ve either had a “bad to the bone” attitude or carry your head high and think your better than everyone else, and when you did that, you were every Greasers enemy, a Soc. Socs were rich, preppy, sporty, snooty goody goody’s in the eyes of every Greaser. Greasers on the other hand, were the complete opposite. They were reckless, wild, attitude giving juvenile delinquent, street punks, who did what they want when they want, and could care less what the consequences were. The type of kids, who wore leather jackets, used a lot of hair gel to grease their hair back, smelt like cigarettes because they have probably been smoking since the age of 12. You could imagine how two very different groups like this could bump heads. This is the outsiders.

            PonyBoy Curtis is a teenage Greaser, but one of the youngest in the gang at the age of 14. He is unlike all the others because he gets good grades. PonyBoy lives with his older brothers Darrel, who goes by Darry. He is 20 years old and takes care of PonyBoy because their parents died in a car crash. Pony’s other brother; Sodapop is a 16 year old, high school dropout who works at a gas station. Johnny Cade, who is also 16, and is Ponyboy’s best friend who lives down the street. Johnny is a nervous mess most of the time, and the most quiet of the group due to his abusive and alcoholic parents. All the other Greasers have their own distinctive personals: Dally Winston, the roughest toughest Greaser in the group, and two-bit Matthews is the jokester of the group who has to put his own two sense into everything and doesn’t know how to shut up.

            Pony decides to go to see the new Paul Newman movie one night all by himself. As PonyBoy is walking home, he sees his rival group, the Socs. They approach pony, recognizing that he’s a Greaser. They start talking bad about him and about his gang, pushing him around. Out of nowhere Pony’s crew jumps in time scare off the Socs. They also saved PonyBoy from a bad beating. When Pony gets home he gets an awful lecture from his big brother Darry about walking home alone. Darry is very protective to PonyBoy. He doesn’t let him do much, and is always looking after Pony acting like a parent, even when he’s only his older brother. Darry’s only looking after Pony and trying to do what’s best for him because Pony doesn’t realize what kind of things could happen to him when the Socs are involved. They will do just about anything to hurt a Greaser, and when they are all alone by themselves like Pony was, it’s even easier.

            The next night, Pony Johnny and Dally go to a drive in movie. They see some Soc girls, Cherry and Marcia and Dally decides to mess with them. They eventually got sick of Dally’s rude comments and questions and Cherry throws her drink at him. Dally is about to lose it but Johnny calms him down. After that Pony and Cherry start to talk. It’s kind of surprising because Socs and Greasers aren’t caught dead with each other. As the movie goes on, Two-Bit shows up and starts talking with Marcia while Pony is talking to Cherry. When the movie is over, they all decide to head home together. Cherry and Marcia’s boyfriends, Randy and Bob drive up who were also Socs. They were with them earlier that night and left because they got into an argument. They were then found hanging around with a bunch of Greasers and that didn’t please the Socs very much. Instead of causing conflict between the groups of guys, the girls go with their boyfriends. When they left they start home, and Two-Bit parts ways with the two. Johnny and pony decide to go to the park and hang out there for a bit. They lie down in the grass and look up at the stars on that clear night, and talked. They were so relaxed there, but they made a mistake by falling asleep. Hours later they wake up wondering where they are, but then start to realize they had fallen asleep. Pony gets home as fast as he can. When he does, he comes home to a Darry, furious. Darry had stayed up waiting for him to come home. Pony tries to explain why he was late but Darry wouldn’t calm down and slapped Pony in the face. Pony, in shock runs out crying and meets back up with Johnny. He decided to walk around with Johnny for a while to cool off before he goes back home.

            Johnny and Pony are walking through the park, and the same car that approached them that same night after the movies pulls up. The people inside get out, and they discover Cherry and Marcia’s boyfriends, Randy and Bob, but they are now drunk with a few other Socs. They get surrounded by Socs. There was nowhere for them to run. They start calling each other names, insult after insult. They grab Pony and Johnny, holding Johnny down and beating him, and shoving Pony’s head in to park fountain drowning him. As pony has his head in to water, he’s unable to do anything about the situation. Johnny gets a glance at what is happening to Pony and pulls out a switchblade. Johnny always carry’s a switchblade on him, because he was once jumped and severely injured by Socs pervious to the current situation. Johnny stabs Bob, and once the other Socs see that there’s a knife and their friend has been stabbed they run. Bobs injury was fatal. The boys get scared, and are in shock of what just happened. Johnny was only trying to save his friend’s and his life. They run to Dally because they figured that he would know what to do. Dally gives the boys a gun and money and tells them that the best thing to do is go away for a while until things get sorted out and calm down. He tells them about an old church on the country side where they can stay and hideout.

            Pony and Johnny hide away on a train as it goes into the country. They find the church and stay there. The boys think hiding just won’t be enough to cover their identities. They go into town and get supplies to get by. They cut each other’s hair, and dye Pony’s hair blonde. That for them was sad to do because a Greasers hair, is a big part of most of their image, but they insisted it had to be done. It was quite boring up at the old church for the boys, but they spent their time ready a copy of “Gone with the Wind” smoking packs of cigarettes and sleeping on the churches hardwood seats. Mornings they would wake up early and admire the sunrise and it for some reason reminded PonyBoy of the Robert Frost poem, “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, but he can’t understand or tell Johnny why.

            About a week after that awful life changing night, Dally shows up to check on the boys and to give them a letter from Darry and Sodapop that says, Darry is sorry about the fight and he wants him to come home. Dally takes the boys out to lunch and they talk about coming home. They are tired of the church and miss everyone they left behind. Johnny thinks, and comes to the conclusion that he wants to turn himself in once he gets home. Dally is angry about Johnny’s choice because he’s been to jail, and he doesn’t want Johnny to end up there too. In the car on the way back to the church, they discover it’s on fire and there is a school of children trapped inside of it. They then realize that one of their cigarettes weren’t put out and must have started it. Johnny and Pony felt responsible and ran into the burning church to try and save the children. After the get all the kids out, Johnny helps Pony out, but then Johnny gets stuck. Dally gets Johnny out eventually and finds him in critical condition. The boys were now known as heroes.

            Pony is reunited with Darry and Soda. Darry starts to cry, and that made Pony realize that he is important and loved by Darry after all. The fight is forgotten. Darry tell Pony that the fight in the park has been notified to family services, and pony might get taken away. Pony is also told that there is going to be a rumble held between the Greasers and the Socs. That night when Pony gets home he realizes how much his life has been affected all because of one fight with Darry. But he’s mainly just happy that he’s back home with his little family. The next day Pony and Two-Bit visit Johnny in the hospital. The sight of his best friend injured so badly makes pony sick, but he is convinced that he’s going to be okay. Johnny asks pony for the copy of “Gone with the Wind”. Johnny passes out because he’s upset at the fact that his mother wants to visit him. It is stressing him out because all she ever done was hurt him and make him feel like he was nothing. Pony now finally realizes how weak Johnny is, and he’s dying. While they were at the hospital they visited Dally. Dally was convinced he was okay and didn’t care that he was in the hospital; he didn’t think he needed it. Dally asks about Johnny, and how bad he is. The response angers Dally. Later that day, Pony runs into Randy, the Soc that beat him and Johnny. He apologizes that night, and talks about Bob being dead, and discovers that Johnny is in the hospital dying.

            The day of the rumble, all the Greasers go to the fight, exited and told themselves that they’re going to win for Johnny, and they did. After the rumble they rush to the hospital to inform Johnny of the good news. Johnny is now on his death bed, but he tells Pony he’s glad for saving the kids’ lives, even if it meant risking, and giving his. He said that the kids had so much to look forward to and to live for in their young innocent lives. That they had much more to live for. Right before Johnny died, he told PonyBoy to “stay gold” referring to the poem by Robert Frost. Dally storms out, furious about Johnny’s death, wonder how young Johnny Cade is dead. Once PonyBoy gets home, he tries to break  the devastating news to everyone, but gets interrupted by a phone call from Dally. He’s robbed a store and the police are after him, he needs help. He tells them to meet him in a vacant lot. As soon as the group gets there, they see Dally surrounded, and held at gun point. Dally reaches for and unloaded gun, an attempt to get shot and killed by a cop. Dallas Winston wanted to be dead, and he always got what he wanted. PonyBoy faints from all the thoughts racing through his mind at once, and is in the hospital with a fever for a week.

            They all went to court, to see if they could stay together, and they could. They weren’t going to be separated. Pony goes back to school, and starts to do terrible. He’s getting into fights, getting bad grades, and him and Darry are back to fighting again. They finally all had a talk and decided not to fight any more, and to get along.

            PonyBoy, had been failing his English class and has been trying to complete a writing assignment. He sees Gone with the Wind, he picks it up. Inside is a letter from Johnny, it says he’s happy he saved the kids, and that Pony had the potential to be anything he wants to be in life, even if he is, and always will be a Greaser. Pony sits back and understands that “staying gold” meant he had the ability to do anything he wanted and be anything he wanted, and he always managed to do the right thing. Pony now knows what he should write about, what really matters to him. What makes his life, his life.

In the book The Outsiders I honestly couldn't find anything I didn't like about it. Everything was worded perfectly, and even if the story itself just seemed like a regular story, the meaning behind it meant more to me. It was so mature, and deep, it's a good life lesson. I think a lot if kids could relate to the story. A lot of teens could have felt like they had no one, and their only options is to run away. They might possibly feel that they have done something wrong. They know that they have done something wrong but they will do anything they can do to avoid the situation. Teens not getting along with anyone so they become an outsider. I think this story did a great job explaining that.

I think people should really pick up this book and read it. In my opinion I think it's a great story, and it has an even better message behind it. I feel like a lot of teens and even older people could relate to this. It's a classic and I think everyone should give it a try.