Examples Of Sodapop In The Outsiders

Sodapop, the character who supported Ponyboy the most

S.E. Hinton’s novel, The Outsiders is an exceedingly realistic story about social division, narrated by a 14-year-old, Ponyboy. Every day, he struggles with the relationship between himself and his brothers. Darry is constantly pushing him to study and have good grades, while his other brother, Sodapop, is always there for him. Sodapop is always attentive, gentle, and the complete opposite of his other brother, Darry. Moreover, he always makes sure that Ponyboy knows his worth.

Throughout the story, we see Sodapop and Ponyboy building a stronger relationship by listening and understanding each other. “Soda is different from anybody, he understands everything, almost.” (Hinton, p. 2).

For example, Sodapop tries to convince Darry to not push Ponyboy so much. Towards the end of the book, Sodapop tells Ponyboy to try and see the opportunity that Darrel is trying to provide him. His strict rules would allow Ponyboy to be successful. Giving Ponyboy no freedom restricted him, it made him feel as if he didn’t actually have the ability to be successful. Furthermore, Sodapop also tells Darrel to stop taking everything so seriously and pushing Ponyboy so much. “Like he’s never hollering at me all the time the way Darry is, or treating me as if I was six instead of fourteen.” (Hinton p. 2). In Ponyboy’s case, he felt like he has no control over his own life and like he did not know anything about the world. Darry almost treats Pony like he had never experienced anything bad in his life, the way that it should’ve been. Ponyboy was too young to have already experienced the death of both of his parents. For Ponyboy, he likes being treated as an older individual because it makes him seem “tuffer” (a word the Greasers often liked to use to describe someone who looked cool) and more responsible as an individual and towards the Socials. In spite of the fact that Sodapop struggled in school himself, he empathizes with Ponyboy and is not so harsh with

Darrel just wants a better future for Ponyboy and better opportunities in life than what he had to go through. He wasn’t able to attend college or achieve his dreams. “Listen, kiddo, when Darry hollers at you… he don’t mean nothin’. He’s just got more worries than somebody his age ought to. Don’t take him seriously… you dig, Pony? Don’t let him bug you. He’s really proud of you ‘cause you’re so brainy. It’s just because you’re the baby — I mean, he loves you a lot. Savvy?” (p. 17). Sodapop says this to Ponyboy as he does not want silly arguments to crash the relationship between his two brothers. Moreover, in this moment, Ponyboy finally realizes the real intent of his older brother, it was to protect him and provide him a good future. It wasn’t to make him feel pressured or hurt or battered but it was all for his own good. There were many times when they almost had to split up from each other, but they worked hard to make it work. “We’re all we’ve got left. We ought to be able to stick together against everything. If we don’t have each other, we don’t have anything. If you don’t have anything, you end up like Dallas… and I don’t mean dead, either. I mean like he was before. And that’s worse than [being] dead. Please don’t fight anymore.” (Pg 176). Here, Sodapop is taking care of Pony when he was sick. He stayed up for as long as he could,