The Outsiders Essay, Research Paper
One day after school Ponyboy and his friend Johnny took two Soc girls out to the movies, they were walking home when five Socs jumped them. The Socs were mad at them for taking their girls on dates. Bob (one of the Socs) was about to drown Ponyboy in a fountain when Johnny lost it and stabbed him. The Socs ran and so did Johnny and Ponyboy. After this incident they ran to a church outside of town. One day the church catches on fire. Johnny and Ponyboy save the kids that were playing in the abandoned church. Johnny pushed Ponyboy out of the church right as the roof caved in killing Johnny. Ponyboy and Johnny were heroes. They ruled that Ponyboy was just fighting back in self-defense. Ponyboy eventually writes a book about what has happened to him, the book that Ponyboy starts to write, starts the same way the novel starts. Ponyboy is a nice kid that’s parents were killed in a car crash when he was young. Ponyboy has light brown almost red hair, and greenish-gray eyes. He has long hair that is squared off in the back. Ponyboy is a skittish kid; he was always worried about getting jumped by the Socs. But when you are a greaser walking on the streets alone, you have the right to worry about being jumped by the Socs. Ponyboy does a lot of growing up in the book that makes him a dynamic character. He has to cope with a lot of frustration with his two older brothers and with the Socs. He handles it pretty well until one day when he was being jumped by the Socs he spit on one of them that started a brawl that escalated into a murder. Ponyboy has a good relationship with Johnny. Johnny saved Ponyboy’s life by killing a Soc when the Soc was drowning Ponyboy. Ponyboy and Johnny have to hide out in an old abandoned church together. They were best friends. Johnny’s last words to Ponyboy were “Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold_” This says that Johnny thought that Ponyboy was a great person, and that he wanted him to stay a wonderful and great person. The conflict in this story is man vs. man. Ponyboy was born a greaser, he did not choose to be a greaser. He had no control of this but the Socs did not care. They were still going to beat him up no matter what he will say or do. They do not care that he dreams of not being a greaser, but even being a Soc. They just see someone that is smaller and younger that they could easily beat up. Ponyboy and his friend Johnny were just trying to defend themselves and someone got killed. It was not their fault that the girls of two Socs decided to go out on a date with them. They did not want to die, so they did what they had to do to defeat the man that was always trying to bring them down. The conflict is resolved when Ponyboy and Johnny save kids from the burning church and face society again. When they finally realize that they are heroes they go home and Ponyboy finds out that he was not in trouble. They said he did nothing wrong, he was just trying to defend himself. When he hears this he goes back to school and writes a book about what happened. Coincidentally the book starts out the same way the novel starts out. In conclusion, Ponyboy was just a good kid that did not want to get in any trouble or start any fights. He just wanted to live his life. So he wanted to go out with pretty Soc girls, not tough greaser girls, big deal. He was even told by the girls that even though he was a greaser he was still a nice guy, and that there are not to many nice guys around.