Ponyboy is the youngest of his family and the youngest of the Greasers. Therefore, he is often not taken seriously by the members of his gang. “They were all as tough as nails and looked it. I had grown up with them, and they accepted me, even though I was younger, because I was Darry and Soda 's kid brother and I kept my mouth shut good.”
As we have already seen previously, Ponyboy feels like an outsider not only with the Greasers, but with his family as well. His hobbies are different from his brothers and friends, but it is not the only issue that he has to deal with. Ponyboy is also struggling with his masculinity since he is the only boy who reads poems, goes to the cinema, or watches sunsets.
Naturally, he often compares himself to
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I 'd just as soon tease a full-grown grizzly; but for some reason, Darry seems to like being teased by Soda.” However, they often disagree regarding Ponyboy’s safety and education. Sodapop is quite lenient towards Ponyboy whereas, Darry resents this behavior. Sodapop and Darry’s disagreements are often present in the novel but, it is truly perceptible on two occasions. The first time occurs right after Ponyboy is attacked by the Socs, he is criticized by Darry who doesn’t understand his brother’s behavior. Sodapop immediately defends his younger brother against his older one which leads Darry to remind Sodapop that he is the one in charge “When I want my kid brother to tell me what to do with my other kid brother’, I’ll ask you – kid …show more content…
Ponyboy is out with his friends and without his brothers, he is free to express himself. During a conversation, with his new friend Cherry Valence, Ponyboy expresses openly and clearly his feelings towards his two brothers and once again underlines how much he loves and admires Sodapop. He actually shows pride when Cherry compares Sodapop’s looks to his. She then asks Ponyboy to describe Darry after noticing that he does not mention his older brother; Ponyboy, seeing that this is an opportunity to express his anger, proceeds to express his resentment towards Darry. “He is not like Sodapop at all and he sure ain’t like me”. He chooses words like « cold» or « frozen » to describe his older brother. He even goes so far as to say “He‘s hard as a rock and about as human”. “He thinks I’m a pain in the neck”. He shares his most intimate thoughts and feelings « He can’t stand me. I bet he wishes he could stick me in a home somewhere» He freely complains about him and about the fact that they do not get