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About

According to Ponyboy, there are two kinds of people in the world: greasers and socs. A soc (short for "social") has money, can get away with just about anything, and has an attitude longer than a limousine. A greaser, on the other hand, always lives on the outside and needs to watch his back. Ponyboy is a greaser, and he's always been proud of it, even willing to rumble against a gang of socs for the sake of his fellow greasers--until one terrible night when his friend Johnny kills a soc. The murder gets under Ponyboy's skin, causing his bifurcated world to crumble and teaching him that pain feels the same whether a soc or a greaser. This classic, written by S. E. Hinton when she was 16 years old, is as profound today as it was when it was first published in 1967. -- amazon.com

Plot Overview

Ponyboy Curtis belongs to a lower-class group of Oklahoma youths who call themselves greasers because of their greasy long hair. Walking home from a movie, Ponyboy is attacked by a group of Socs, the greasers' rivals, who are upper-class youths from the West Side of town. The Socs, short for Socials, gang up on Ponyboy and threaten to slit his throat. A group of greasers comes and chases the bullies away, saving Ponyboy. Ponyboy's rescuers include Sodapop, a charming, handsome high-school dropout, and Darry, Ponyboy's oldest brother (Darry assumed responsibility for his brothers when their parents were killed in a car crash). The rest of the greasers who come to Ponyboy's rescue are Johnny, a sensitive sixteen-year-old; Dally, a hardened street hood with a long criminal record; Steve, Sodapop's best friend; and Two-Bit, the oldest and funniest group member.

The next night, Ponyboy and Johnny go to a movie with Dally. They sit behind a pair of attractive Soc girls. Dally flirts with the girls obnoxiously. After Johnny tells Dally to stop harassing the Soc girls, Dally walks away. Johnny and Ponyboy sit with the girls, who are named Cherry and Marcia, and Ponyboy and Cherry discover that they have a lot in common. Two-Bit arrives, and the three greasers begin to walk the Soc girls to Two-Bit's house so that he can drive them home. On the way to Two-Bit's house, they run into Bob and Randy, the girls' drunken boyfriends. The girls must leave with their boyfriends in order to prevent a fight between the Socs and the greasers.

Ponyboy is late getting home, and his brother Darry is furious with him. Sick of Darry's constant scrutiny and criticism, Ponyboy yells at Darry. The brothers begin to fight, and Darry slaps Ponyboy across the face. Ponyboy flees, determined to run away. He finds Johnny, and the two boys heads for the park. There they encounter Bob and Randy with a group of Soc boys. The Socs attack the Johnny and Ponyboy, and one of them holds Ponyboy's head under the frigid water of a fountain until Ponyboy blacks out. Ponyboy regains consciousness to find himself lying on the ground. He is next to Johnny—and next to Bob's corpse. Johnny tells Ponyboy that he (Johnny) killed Bob because the Socs were going to drown Ponyboy and beat up Johnny.

Desperate and terrified, Ponyboy and Johnny hurry to find Dally Winston, the one person they think might be able to help them. Dally gives them a gun and some money and sends them to an abandoned church near the neighboring town of Windrixville. They hide out in the church for a week, cutting and dying their hair to disguise themselves, reading Gone with the Wind aloud, and discussing poetry. After several days, Dally comes to check on Ponyboy and Johnny. He tells the boys that, since Bob's death, tensions between the greasers and the Socs have escalated. A rumble is to take place the next night to settle matters. He says that Cherry, who feels partially responsible for Bob's death, has been acting as a spy for the greasers. Johnny shocks Dally by declaring his intention to go back and turn himself in.

Dally agrees to drive Ponyboy and Johnny back home. However, as the boys leave, they notice that the abandoned church where Ponyboy and Johnny have been staying has caught fire. They discover that a group of schoolchildren has wandered inside. Ponyboy and Johnny rush into the inferno to save the children. Just as they get the last child through the window, the roof caves in, and Ponyboy blacks out. He regains consciousness in an ambulance. At the hospital, he is diagnosed with minor burns and bruises. Dally is not badly hurt either, but Johnny's back was broken by the falling roof, and he is in critical condition. Darry and Sodapop come to get Ponyboy, and Darry and Ponyboy make up. The following morning, the newspapers proclaim Ponyboy and Johnny heroes. They also report that, because of Bob's death, Johnny will be charged with manslaughter. Finally, the papers also state that both Ponyboy and Johnny will have to go to juvenile court so that a judge can decide if they should be sent to a boys' home.

Ponyboy and Two-Bit go to get a Coke and run into Randy. Randy tells Ponyboy that he is sick of all the fighting and does not plan to go to the rumble that night. When Ponyboy and Two-Bit visit Johnny in the hospital, Johnny seems weak. He asks Ponyboy for a new copy of Gone with the Wind. During their visit with Dally, Ponyboy and Two-Bit notice that Dally is much stronger than Johnny. Dally asks to borrow Two-Bit's black-handled switchblade. On the way home, Two-Bit and Ponyboy see Cherry. She refuses to visit Johnny because he has killed Bob, and Ponyboy calls her a traitor. When she explains herself, he relents.

At the rumble, the greasers defeat the Socs. Dally shows up just in time for the fight; he has escaped from the hospital. After the fight, Ponyboy and Dally hurry back to see Johnny and find that he is dying. When Johnny dies, Dally loses control and runs from the room in a frenzy. Ponyboy stumbles home late that night, feeling dazed and disoriented. He tells the others of Johnny's death. Dally calls to say that he has robbed a grocery store and the cops are looking for him. The greasers hurry to find him, but they are too late. Dally raises a gun to the police and they gun him down. Overwhelmed, Ponyboy passes out.

Ponyboy wakes up in bed at home. He has suffered a concussion from a kick to the head at the rumble and has been delirious in bed for several days. When he is well, he attends his hearing, where the judge treats him kindly and acquits him of responsibility for Bob's death. The court rules that Ponyboy will be allowed to remain at home with Darry. For a time, Ponyboy feels listless and empty. His grades slip, he feels hostile to Darry, and he loses his appetite. At last, Sodapop tells Ponyboy that he (Sodapop) is angry and frustrated because of the tension at home. He tearfully asks that Ponyboy and Darry stop fighting. Finally understanding the value of his family, Ponyboy agrees not to fight with Darry anymore. He finds that for the first time he can remember Dally's and Johnny's deaths without pain or denial. He decides to tell their story and begins writing a term paper for his English class, which turns out to be the novel itself. -- sparknotes.com

Analysis

On the surface, the main conflict of The Outsiders is the one between the greasers and the Socs, the lower-class hoods (the "outsiders" of the title) and the upper-class bullies. The open class warfare between these two loosely-organized youth gangs defines every element of the novel, from the way the characters dress (the greasers wear ripped-up jeans, leather jackets, and hair grease, while the Socs wear madras shirts and khaki pants) and get around (the greasers walk in groups, while the Socs drive Mustangs and Corvettes) to the divided physical layout of the novel's setting (the greasers live on the impoverished East Side of Tulsa, while the Socs live on the wealthy West Side). The conflict between the greasers and the Socs escalates throughout the novel, and culminates in the climactic gang fight, or "rumble," that takes place in Chapter 9.

On a deeper level, however, the real conflict in The Outsiders is within the characters themselves, as the core group of greasers and Socs gradually realizes the futility of their conflict, the commonality of human experience, and the levels of identity that lie beneath the designations of social class. Through the murder of Bob and the deaths of Johnny and Dally, Ponyboy, Cherry, and Randy all come to realize than there are more meaningful ways to interact that to fight simply because of class difference. This theme of commonality, tolerance, and maturity is gradually insisted upon throughout the novel as Ponyboy gains more and more perspective; it is symbolized through Ponyboy and Cherry's conversation about sunsets, when he tells her to remember that the sunset is just as beautiful on the East Side as it is on the West Side.

Another important theme that persists throughout the book is that of the transition from childhood to adulthood, from innocence to experience. In the violent, unforgiving world of the greasers, innocence is a precious commodity, and most of the greasers are hard and tough before they reach their late teens. This is why Johnny is so important to Ponyboy's gang-he represents that quality of innocence which the others have lost. By protecting Johnny, the greasers are able to cling to and defend an innocence they themselves have forsaken; when Johnny dies, the group is forced to come to terms with the fact that their innocence is gone. The hardest and toughest of all the greasers, Dally is also the one who needs Johnny the most; when Johnny dies, Dally breaks down, and is gunned down by the police for robbing a grocery store not long after. The theme of innocence is symbolized in the Robert Frost poem, "Nothing Gold Can Stay," which Ponyboy reads to Johnny at the Windrixville church, beginning with the line "Nature's first green is gold" and ending with the line "Nothing gold can stay." As Johnny dies, he tells Ponyboy to "stay gold," urging Ponyboy to hold on to his innocence despite the harsh conditions of his world.

The theme of transition from childhood is also an important part of Ponyboy's experience in the novel, as he struggles to come to terms with the control of his brother Darry, who raises him after their parents die in a car crash. Darry is strict and demanding, and Ponyboy is unable to understand that Darry treats him this way only because he loves him and hopes to see him make something of himself. Finally, after the fire, Ponyboy is able to understand that Darry loves him, but only after Sodapop, the middle brother, pleads with them not to fight anymore does Ponyboy realize the true value of his family. This is the final lesson of unity Ponyboy learns in the book, and directly precipitates his reconciliation with Johnny and Dally's deaths, and his decision to tell their story in the term paper that, as we learn at the end of the novel, becomes the narrative of The Outsiders. -- sparknotes.com

Nothing Can Stay Gold

Nothing Can Stay Gold
by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Stay Gold

Stay Gold
by Stevie Wonder

Seize upon that moment long ago
One breath away and there you will be
So young and carefree
Again you will see
That place in time...so gold

Steal away into that way back when
You thought that all would last forever
But like the weather
Nothing can ever...and be in time
Stay gold

But can it be
When we can see
So vividly
A memory
And yes you say
So must the day
Too, fade away
And leave a ray of sun So gold

Life is but a twinkling of an eye
Yet filled with sorrow and compassion
though not imagined
All things that happen
Will age too old
Though gold