Changes In The Outsiders

Traumatic events can change people’s lives. They can change how you see the world, or how you respond to different situations. In the realistic fiction novel The Outsiders by SE Hinton, Ponyboy changes a lot throughout the story. In the book, Pony gets jumped by the Socs, but still goes to a movie that night where he meets Cherry. After this he goes home where his brother hits him, then he runs away after his best friend kills someone. They run away to an abandoned church which burns down and Johnny is hurt when saving the kids inside. When Johnny is taken to the hospital, Pony reunites with his brothers, the greasers and the Socs have a huge rumble, he gets to know Randy, and Johnny and Dally die. Throughout the novel, Ponyboy’s views and

One of the ways Pony changed was how he thought about the Socs. In the beginning of the book, he hated the Socs and thought they were all the same: rich jerks who had a perfect life and liked to pick on them. He didn’t think about their problems, their own feelings and actions, or any similarities to greasers. He essentially saw them as another species. As the story progressed, he saw Socs each as their own person and judged them as such. He didn’t judge their group as a whole. This didn’t happen immediately however. It took several conversations with Socs to change it. The Socs that really changed his views were Randy and Cherry. They made him rethink what the Socs are like and eventually led him to the conclusion that they are not all the same, and some of them are actually nice. For example, shortly after Pony meets and stands up for Cherry at the movie theater, they go to the concession stand for popcorn. In line, they talk about how Socs are different from other Socs and greasers are different from other greasers soon after Pony describes when Johnny was jumped by Socs. The Socs that jumped him were the boyfriends of Cherry and Marcia, but

In the beginning of the story, he hated fighting. He didn’t want to fight or hurt people, and knew that he wasn’t a good fighter. Pony was scared of fights and getting hurt, and his first instinct was to run away. This was shown when the Socs attacked him at the beginning of the novel. The first thing he tried was to run away back to his house, but even when they had him cornered he still didn’t go on the attack. He just grabbed a pop bottle and made empty threats. Another place Pony tried to avoid fights was when he, Two-Bit, and Johnny were walking Cherry and Marcia home from the movies and their boyfriends, Bob and Randy, showed up. Two-Bit was willing to fight them, and he gave Pony a pop bottle to use as a weapon. After the girls agree to go with Bob and Randy in order to avoid a fight, Pony quickly pulls her aside and tells her that he could never use the pop bottle, and that he “couldn’t ever cut anyone.” (Hinton _____) This quote is very important, as it shows what Pony was like at that time. It displays that he hates fighting and hurting people. He could never attack someone at that time. Despite how he was then, after Bob is killed and they hide in the church before it burns down, when they get back Pony is different from going through all of this. He is tougher and more willing to fight. He isn’t scared of the Socs anymore. This is most likely because he has gone through much worse things. Pony is a