Character Analysis Of Ponyboy Curtis's Life In 'The Outsiders'

Ponyboy Curtis a Greaser Life

“Natures first green is gold/Her hardest hue to hold./Her only 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.” (poem by Robert Frost, Hinton, The Outsiders, pg. #77) Ponyboy Curtis wants everyone and everything to be equal. He is no more than a young greaser boy with no power over anything but himself. Nobody will listen to him, he has no say. Ponyboy is the youngest of three brothers, and their parents were killed in a car accident. He loves reading, and his brother Sodapop whos always on his sided for everything. His oldest brother is Darry. Darry runs the house since their parents died. Ponyboy thought that Darry saw

“Darry and me nearly went nuts when you ran out like that. Darry is awful sorry he hit you. You know he didn 't mean it...Darry hasn’t got the slightest notion where you’re at and it is nearly killing him.” (Hinton, pg.# 81)

This letter made Ponyboy realize, Darry does care. Pony left before Darry got a chance to apologize, and he feels horrible. Ponyboy has never thought of Darry as really absolutely caring for him, and he thought that Darry hitting him really sealed that he didn 't care. He is seeing that hes trying to be apologetic.

“Jerry, some of the kids are missing...They’ve been missing for at least a half an hour. I thought they were climbing the hill...Then we all froze. Faintly, just faintly you could hear someone yelling. And it sounded like it was coming from inside the church...All I could think was: We started it. We started it. We started it!” (Hinton, pg.# 91)

Ponyboy and Johnny showed selflessness in going into a burning building to save the kids. They had sacrificed their lives and also were taking responsibility for their actions in a big way. They had started the fire and now were saving kids that got

“Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony, thats gold. Keep it that way, its a good way to be...Don’t be bugged over being a greaser...There’s still lots of good in the world.” (pg.# 178, Hinton)

In Johnny 's letter to Ponyboy, he tells him that Pony is still young and everything is “new dawn” in other words, new to him. Stay gold means to stay innocent and precious. Ponyboy is innocent and a very good kid, Johnny wants him to stay that way. Being precious and innocent is good and its hard to do. He also says that Ponyboy shouldn 't be bothered or change just because he’s a greaser. A greaser is who he is. But it also states that “Theres still lots of good in the world.” That meaning Ponyboy can still change and he’s got a lot of time. Pony can still make something more of himself.

At the start of the book I felt sorry for Ponyboy that he wasn’t really listened to and didn 't have a say in most things. At the same time I was disappointed that Ponyboy didn 't realize how lucky he actually was. Darry keeps Ponyboys and Soda’s heads under a roof with food on a plate by working three jobs. He could have just left them on the side of the road after their parents died. He could have went to college. I felt happy and proud for Ponyboy that he’d realized how lucky he really is that Darry had given up so much to take care of him and Soda. He may not be a Soc with a fancy car or heaps of money, but he’s surrounded by people he loves and cares about. He doesn’t